As you probably know, the state took in 1.5 billion extra bucks this year. We missed the perfect opportunity to be responsible with the extra cash, yet the beast of unquenchable thirst for gratuitous spending won the fight and government was fattened again. Since Sen. Glenn McConnell recognizes the need for constitutional restraint, I’ve been appointed to a subcommittee that will tackle his bill. We’ll meet on October 24 at 1pm in Gressette 105. I understand we’ll take these meetings around the state to listen to the frustrated taxpayers.
McConnell writes in an op-ed:
…There will always be more needs than revenue no matter what the economic times and the amount of available new funds. Government must, therefore, temper its conduct to spend so that, over the highs and lows in revenue forecasts, the necessary revenue will be there to fund essential needs without pressure for new taxes. When government is flush with money, the spending goes up to fund many new initiatives — some good, some questionable, and some not good. In other words, projects get funded not so much out of merit but merely because the money was available. Some one-time expenditures also occur the same way.
In the face of a bountiful taxpayer buffet, government cannot control its appetite so its stomach must be stapled. At stake is the need to at least control the rate of growth in the recurring base. Thusly, I have introduced a constitutional amendment to cap the rate of spending of state government. Government would be limited to growth at an amount that would not exceed the rate of population growth plus the growth in personal income. Basically, government should not grow any bigger than it needs to be or any faster than people’s ability to pay for it…to read the full article
BTW, the above picture is not my belly, not yet.
I saw ya’ll at Panera, you look thin. Have you been running?
walking neighborhoods, exercise I need!
The solution to fiscal responsibility is really quite straight forward. Figure out how to provide or even expand government services without spending more money. There are an abundance of resources available if our elected State Senators and Representatives would simply utilize them.
The newly created Billboard Emergency Alert System (BEAS) recently created in Anderson County is a good example. It utilizes local volunteer businesses, churches, & schools to donate the use of their electronic business signs to display public safety alerts. The signs represents millions of dollars of investment that are being made freely available for public safety, when they are needed. There is no additional cost to businesses other than the time required to program their signs. There is no new tax to pass onto their customers. Anderson County government has vastly expanded a public service without additional head count. There are even using a free website for the program.
The reason that the BEAS program has been conducted so well is that it was the operations personnel in Emergency Services, and not the politicians (especially Statehouse politicians) that initiated the program.
The program was proposed in June. As of October 10, when the first public test of the BEAS system was conducted, Anderson County Emergency Services has spent only one-hundred-two dollars($102) in additional tax money implementing a system that will likely prevent the loss of life or injury to many.
Additionally, the Amber Alert coordinator for SLED was in Anderson when the test was conducted. SLED is favorably impressed with the idea and it looks like they are going to take it statewide. (I anticipate that the program might become a national model for broadcasting public safety alerts.)
A lot of our political resources are spent arguing over how, or if, or why not to spend money. If our elected public official would first focus on results and how best to address South Carolina’s dismal social statistic, and how to get result with the abundance of existing resource, they would have plenty of photo ops and happy news releases bestowed upon them. The real problem with taxes is not whether we spend too much or too little. The real problem is that people simply do not believe that they are getting their money’s worth, regardless of what level of tax money is spent.
Here are the links to the WYFF4 new broadcast of the BEAS inaugural public test, and to the BEAS website.
http://www.wyff4.com/video/14314885/index.html
http://www.freewebs.com/andersoncountybeas/insidethehive.htm
Are you talking state wide government or federal? In both cases I believe your fellow republicans have controlled the budget the past few years…
I’ve said it before Senator, you’re a one trick pony, spending, spending, spending, that’s you only song