COLUMBIA--As Gov. Mark Sanford prepares for
budget hearings scheduled to start in the next few weeks, the Republican
with strong libertarian views is taking a cue from a Clintonian Democrat.
Sanford has been working on his second executive budget almost from the
moment he handed the first one to legislators in January. At the time, he
was lauded for what many called the most comprehensive, detailed budget
ever crafted by a South Carolina governor.
Where previous executive budgets typically had taken aim at new
spending and possible cuts, Sanford's 301-page tome started from the
ground up, questioning the efficiency of each agency's structure.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the governor's second
installment continues this pattern. What may come as a surprise is that
the undisputed leader of the state Republican Party has been cribbing
notes from Washington state's Democratic Gov. Gary Locke.
Over the past few months, members of Sanford's administration have been
in touch with Locke's team, even traveling to Washington to meet with
them. They want to capture a bit of the magic Locke used to bring
Washington out of a major financial crisis.
When Locke began preparing for Washington's 2003-2005 biannual budget,
the state faced a shortfall of about $2.4 billion out of a $22 billion
budget.
Locke ruled out raising taxes and turned to calculated spending cuts.
Rather than focusing on new spending, he looked at all of state
government.
He got the idea from consultant Peter Hutchinson, who along with David
Osborne wrote "The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an
Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis."In the book, Hutchinson and Osborne argue
for what some refer to as zero-based or priorities-oriented budgeting, the
basis for much of the reforms in the Clinton administration. Osborne, in
fact, served as a senior adviser to former Vice President Al Gore.
In a nutshell, their idea was to focus spending on certain goals,
regardless of which agency got what.
For example, when members of Locke's administration turned to public
safety, they began by asking what they wanted to accomplish. Goals in
place, they moved their attention to agencies such as the Department of
Public Safety and the Department of Corrections. Having goals in place
helped them reduce duplication of services and streamline state
government.
"It was a common sense approach that helped us focus on the state's
greatest needs," said Hal Spencer, spokesman for Washington's state budget
office. "You know, food and shelter before social services, that sort of
thing. When you start out agency by agency, without clear goals in place,
you can get lost in the details."
Using this approach, Locke made up the $2.4 billion shortfall and
placed the state on sound financial footing.
"We pulled it off, but there has been plenty of suffering," Spencer
said. "We cut about 2,900 jobs out of 60,000, had to raise tuition,
eliminate funding for class-size reduction and cost-of-living increases
for teachers. We had to do a lot of ugly stuff, but the state is no longer
in crisis mode."
When Sanford wrote his first budget, he faced a similar crisis. South
Carolina was roughly $350 million in debt, and for the fifth consecutive
year, the state anticipated almost no revenue growth.
But the zero forecast was wrong. With more revenue than expected coming
in, legislators, with Sanford's input, crafted a budget that attacked the
deficit. Earlier this month, the state's comptroller general announced
that the deficit had been erased.
Sanford spokesman Will Folks said the governor is approaching his
upcoming budget with the same degree of detail he did last time. "We will
be looking at the 'keeps' as well as the 'cuts,' " he said. "There is
still a lot to accomplish."
Folks would give few details on the projected size of the budget or any
new directions it could take. The 2004 budget was $16.7 billion, $5.5
billion of which was state-controlled money
Sanford has outlined seven broad goals for this budget year, including
improving conditions for economic growth and strengthening the executive
branch's ability to achieve results efficiently.
The list bears more than a passing resemblance to the Locke
administration's priorities. They are identical, give or take a word or
two.
Folks said Sanford has no problem following the lead of a Democrat on
budget issues.
"The governor is not interested in a Republican or Democratic
approach," Folks said. "He doesn't look at the budget as a partisan issue.
He is interested in results."
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