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Governor Sanford Issues Budget Vetoes

web posted June 29, 2007
COLUMBIA – Governor Mark Sanford vetoed 243 items from the legislature's spending plan, for a total of $167 million that the governor said would be better spent paying down the state's liabilities, or providing for additional tax relief. The governor today also signed off on $220 million in tax relief that he has pushed for throughout the year, but did line item veto two lines contained in the tax-relief appropriations bill.

"While I would give real credit to the General Assembly - and in particular the House - for returning a significant tax cut to the people of South Carolina this year, the fact remains that this budget grows government at a rate that will not ultimately be sustainable," Gov. Sanford said. "While we'd obviously prefer to veto enough items in the budget to get back to a sustainable growth rate of population plus inflation, these vetoes are aimed at finding a middle ground on spending that is closer to what the House had originally proposed. It's our hope that members of the House and Senate will carefully consider each of these vetoes over the next couple of days, as they represent our last chance to impact spending this year."

Some highlights of the governor's line-item budget vetoes include:
- A veto of the entire $9 million "Competitive Grants" program, which has doled out millions for local projects in legislators' home districts.
- $2.3 millions more for defending DUI and domestic violence cases, without a similar increase for prosecution of those crimes.
- The Sunday Sales provision, which cuts out a key protection for employees who choose to worship rather than work on Sunday. In addition, the measure wasn't passed via normal legislative procedures.

This year's $7.4 billion spending plan spends roughly $1.5 billion more than what was spent last year - a growth in new revenue higher than the entire budget of five other states. Without the governor's vetoes, South Carolina's budget is poised to grow anywhere from 11 percent to 16 percent this year - depending on how growth is calculated - which is significantly faster than the average increase in citizens' personal income of about 6 percent growth. This year's budget will mark the third straight year of double-digit government growth, nearing a 40 percent growth clip over that time period.

The governor's own budget called for $439 million toward the state's $9 billion unfunded healthcare liability, compared to just over $60 million in the legislature's budget. The legislative budget also increases the level of annualizations - the practice of paying for year-after-year promises with one-time money - to more than $270 million. That effectively means that the state's tax revenues will have to grow by four percent next year just for the state to break even, and will have to grow by substantially more than that just to pay for ongoing core needs.
 

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