Updated: SC Budget Worse Than We Thought
South Carolina’s budget shortfall is nearly twice what state leaders were expecting, according to revenue forecasts released today by the state’s Board of Economic Advisors.
Plummeting revenues mean that South Carolina will have to shave an additional 6% off of its current budget – or $420 million above and beyond the $188 million that’s already been shaved.
That’s well above the 4% threshold that lawmakers established in June as a precondition for their return to Columbia, meaning that the announcement of an emergency session of the General Assembly could come at any moment.
We hate to say “we told you so” (actually, we love saying that), but this is exactly what happens when you fail to invest in the economy and instead grow government by unprecedented levels.
The result? A spending roller coaster that despite its ups and downs has kept South Carolina’s unemployment high, income levels low and education rankings at the bottom of the national barrel.
But hey … the bureaucrats responsible for squandering the massive investment S.C. taxpayers were forced to make in government are always the first to complain when their automatic budget increases face scrutiny or the possibility of a smaller annual percentage increase.
And S.C. lawmakers – predisposed to growing government anyway – are always eager to treat such alarmist rhetoric as gospel.
Also, watch out for the time-honored big government tactic of forcing everybody to share the pain “equally” rather than making long-overdue cuts to pork barrel and special interest spending.
Stay tuned for more as we begin getting feedback from the leaders who will be charged with making these decisions …
In the meantime, here’s Nine Inch Nails’ “The Downward Spiral,” which we think is perhaps the most appropriate accompaniment to the spot we’re in here in SC and at the federal level …
Comments
By James on October 8th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
someone call Jethro so he can help Jake and his boys with some cipherin’
By DFHS-student on October 8th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
And this a “current epiphany�?? I think the BEA’s reduction of revenue projections by $414 million is being conservative. Obviously if the state is not collecting the expected revenues each month, it is going to go broke! It doesn’t take a CPA to figure that out.
By Harry on October 8th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
And what happens when this months info comes in???? The info that factors in the panic that is October.
Another round of cuts?
By Joe on October 9th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Guess who number 17 on this list is.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1003_budget_shortfall/index.htm?campaign_id=yahoo
By James on October 9th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Never fear though, there’s still hope for us to move “up” on the list – the study in Joe’s link was done in September and understates our hole by “just” couple hundred million.
Who wants to start the process to amend the South Carolina constitution to CUT IN HALF the number of math-challenged legislators we have?
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