South Carolina government faced several opportunities before the onset of the bad times to spend wisely and prevent disaster. It refused, instead, to beef up real priorities like law enforcement and education and send money back to the taxpayers.
The 2006-2007 budget spent nearly $6.5 billion from the general fund, including about 16 percent more in recurring dollars than the previous year.
The General Assembly spent that money on museums and festivals and other local earmarks instead of saving some and putting the leftover back into the pockets of small businesses (they pay taxes, too) and consumers.
The 2007-2008 budget spent over $7 billion from the general fund.
I offered an amendment to use the surplus to grow the reserve funds, build roads and schools across the state, buy buses and provide $100 million in tax credits.
I then offered an amendment to shift the $950,000 in that budget from the proposed National Bean Museum to pediatric medical programs.
The Senate rejected all of those and instead earmarked the surplus for more museums and local water projects and a couple of local courthouses.
The economic downturn of 2008 forced us to convene in special session in October 2008 to cut the budget.
Senator Greg Ryberg that day offered — and I supported — an amendment to move nearly $37 million set aside for a new government computer program into the Education Finance Act, i.e. direct classroom funding.
That money would have paid the salaries of more than 625 teachers for one year. The Senate rejected that opportunity.
Last year Ryberg and Sen. Tom Davis placed before the Senate a budget that offered more money directly to classrooms (over $2.5 billion) than any previous budget, ensuring that no teacher had to lose a job.
It did not pass.
Just a couple of weeks ago I offered a budget amendment to move over $160 million (enough to pay for more than 2,800 teachers for one year) into classrooms. I identified $108 million sitting dormant in the account for endowed chairs in higher education and I determined that we need people teaching eighth-grade math more than we need another researcher –– who may or may not ever see a classroom –– earning a six-figure salary.
I also determined that the University of South Carolina owes us $58 million for the general fund, dollars that it has spent on the boondoggle known as Innovista. That travesty is a story all its own, but at a minimum, USC ought to give us that money back to put to use in a real educational pursuit, like teaching first-graders how to read.
The Senate buried that proposal under a technicality.
The fact remains that whether in good times or bad, your South Carolina government refuses to prioritize its spending and make the tough decisions.
South Carolina will languish in last place in far too many categories until its politicians decide that we must fund the core services — education, health care and law enforcement — first.
Perhaps in this downturn we will learn our lesson.
Republican Sen. Kevin Bryant represents Anderson County in the South Carolina Senate. He can be reached at Kevin@kevinbryant.com
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