A Big Glass Of …
S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell likes to throw out an annual growth rate of 2.8% for state spending, but you’ve got to count two major economic downturns to arrive at that figure, and under his leadership spending has grown by leaps and bounds.
Anyway, the battle between Harrell’s statistics and those used by Gov. Mark Sanford were the subject of an interesting Greenville News story over the weekend, one that included some testy shots from the big government Pyramid Schemer and an increasingly-adept gubernatorial spokesman.
From the story:
“To say that we’re growing government 40 percent, or whatever the number he (Sanford) throws out there, just is not accurate,” House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said in an interview with The News earlier this month. “And I don’t know where he gets those numbers, because they’re not accurate.”
The answer lies in the time frame being examined.
Sanford was elected to his first term in 2002, and his first full budget cycle was 2003-2004, when appropriations totaled just more than $5 billion, according to state figures.
The figures show appropriations rose to $7.3 billion in 2007-2008, a 46 percent increase.
And here’s the quote of the month (so far) from Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer …
“The first step to curing a spending addiction is admitting you have a problem,” (Sawyer) said. “There’s been a big problem in state government over the past four years, and for whatever reason, there’s some folks in the General Assembly that can’t admit to that.”
Nice …
Of course, the debate over just how much money state government is spending is only one facet of this discussion – there’s also the debate over what lawmakers are purchasing with all of those tax dollars.
Well, in addition to the worst K-12 system in the entire country, they’re buying a splintered executive branch, a fractured health care delivery system, a bloated and duplicative college and university system, an incompetent unemployment agency, a toothless ethics commission and plenty of taxpayer-funded lobbyists.
So yeah, whatever the total price tag is, let’s be mindful of the utter lack of “bang” we’re getting for our increasingly hard-to-come-by “buck.”
Which reminds us, Speaker Harrell … it’s been two weeks … you gonna debate Sic Willie or what?
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Comments
By Insider on January 26th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Mr. Harrell, who is consulting you on your decision making? You will get annihilated on this issue too.
By the right side on January 26th, 2009 at 10:22 am
A radical overhaul of the Medicaid system was begun in 2005 and was on the verge of getting through all problems and issues. When suddenly Sanford pulled the rug out from the reforms leaving those who cleared the path for him in the dust. Sanford is now the one preserving a flawed medicaid system.
By Too early for this on January 26th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Please deduct one vote from: Option: House Speaker Bobby Harrell
Even some of your more literate readers can misinterpret that question. I read it as ‘who faithfully wants to spend more government money?’