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Article published Nov 20, 2003
Lawmakers need to better prioritize state spending next
year
Gov. Mark Sanford has found enough money to keep the
volunteer guardian ad litem program going. But the fact that he had to find this
money shows the need for better budgeting in Columbia.The program is run by the
Governor's Office. It trains and manages volunteers who serve as advocates for
children in abuse and neglect cases. The program was going to run out of money
by the end of January.The governor identified almost $600,000 in federal block
grant money that he will allocate to this program and keep it running for the
rest of the current fiscal year.Why did he do this?Because this is an important
program.In the previous year, the volunteer guardian ad litem program served
8,657 children. The governor thought it was important enough for an emergency
fund shift.Which raises the question of why the funding shift was necessary. If
lawmakers and state leaders knew that this program is vital and needed funding
through the rest of the year, why didn't they take money from a less-important
program and allocate it to this one?It's because of the poor nature of the
state's budgeting process and the way the state reacts to budget
shortfalls.South Carolina has been relying on across-the-board budget cuts.
Whenever state revenues run short, the Budget and Control Board is forced to cut
state spending to match revenues. And, by law, the board is limited to cutting
every state agency and program by the same percentage of its budget.This sounds
fair, but it's only really fair if everything the state does is equally
important.The problem is repeated by the General Assembly, which also has relied
too heavily on an across-the-board method rather than examining all state
spending and reassigning money based on priorities.The result is that crucial
programs run out of money.When lawmakers go back to Columbia in January, they
need to address this problem by dealing differently with another difficult
budget year. They need to determine which core programs the state must provide
and allocate spending based on those priorities.Some spending is mandatory.
State prisons must have guards. Other things, like parks, recreation and
tourism, may be valuable and important, but they have to wait until the top
priorities are funded in a way that they can accomplish their mission through
the fiscal year.These decisions will be painful, but the failure to make them
may be even more painful to the state.