spending caps: don’t be fooled by the name
Spending may be capped in the spending caps constitutional amendment. I offered two amendments to the spending caps bill today.
1-This amendment was a simple automatic tax refund to the overcharged taxpayer if the following criteria are met: “When the balance in the Budget Stabilization Fund is greater than 15% of the prior year’s actual general fund revenue collection and when the big spenders have grown government to match the 10 year projections (roughly 4.5%), then the taxpayer will get an automatic refund. I’m sure you guessed it, my amendment was tabled.
2- When the balance in the Budget Stabilization Fund is greater than 15% of the prior year’s actual general fund revenue collection and when the big spenders have grown government to match the 10 year projections (roughly 4.5%), then the overage may be used in the following ways: 1-rax refund (don’t hold your breath 2-debt retirement (blue face yet?) or 3-capital improvements or a combination of 2 or 3 of these options. Unless the SC Legislature has a Goldwater moment, you and I know the money will be spent in a slush orgy with the capital projects. But, we’ll have one more item to hold up as a justification for tax cuts. This amendment passed, and the bill got 2nd reading, but fell short of the necessary 2/3 vote to amendment the constitution.
The Budget Stabilization Fund may be OK. It keeps us from the current roller coaster ride of up and down years. One piece of the puzzle does give me pause. The big revenue years are the only time we can ever get any form of tax relief passed. If we get into this steady growth, we may have an even harder time to persuade the Legislature to cut taxes. Of course ya’ll know, selling tax cuts in Columbia is like selling Antabuse on skid row. No one’s interested.
Keep in mind that the cap is a ceiling, not a floor. Even with this amendment the Legislature could have a Goldwater moment and cut taxes and cut government down to essential constitutional functions.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I notice that both of these bills are senate bills, meaning, if I understand the rules correctly, that the House will need a 2/3 vote to even take it up. That’s after it goes to the Ways and Means Committee–next week–with two weeks to go in the session.
Having said that, the bill passed on a roll call vote (the tax rebate amendment didn’t get one, interestingly) that included such stalwarts of fiscal reform as Senators Campbell, Elliott, Knotts, Leatherman, O’Dell, Reese, and Scott. It still, however, failed to receive the 2/3 necessary to pass the threshold to approve a constitutional amendment.
So, a cynic might be left to wonder whether this was a staged performance along the lines of, say, “The Pirates of Penzance” (of which Sideshow Bob sang every musical number as Bart’s last request on an episode of The Simpsons that surely rests in the the Television Hall of Fame).
My question as a taxpayer is, “Do they really believe that anyone out here believes this stuff?”
May 21st, 2008 at 11:04 pm
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