21

Actually, it’s $21.16.

And not the $21.16 you’d spend on some good Asian cuisine for you and a friend at Miyo’s restaurant (before the tip, obviously), we’re talking about a slightly more substantial dollar amount.

In fact, it’s a number big enough to give you “decimal fatigue” if you tried adding all those zeros by hand.

And gosh aren’t we just so clever with these little phrases …

We’re talking about $21.16 billion, to be precise – which is the cost of the GOP-controlled House Ways & Means Committee’s FY 2009-10 budget for the state of South Carolina.

That’s the Palmetto State’s largest budget ever.

Whoa! We smell a talking point there. Did somebody just say largest budget ever?

As in the largest budget ever?

Yup, it is.

For all their talk of “fiscal restraint” in these tough times, GOP lawmakers drafted a spending plan that increases government by 4.2% over last year’s $20.3 billion budget.

And while this budget does (out of necessity, not choice) reduce General Fund revenues by $400 million, an estimated $1.15 billion more is being spent by lawmakers this year in federal funds, along with a 1% increase in the revenue generated from “other funds.”

Also, despite the bogeyman of furloughs and mass layoffs, the Ways & Means budget ended up cutting only 60 full-time positions from state government – out of a total of 64,000.

And no, South Carolina’s State Department of Education (a.k.a. Ministry of Failure and Non-Competition) did not lose any positions and will actually receive a $100 million increase in its budget.

Needless to say, taxpayer advocates were less than thrilled with GOP politicians’ lack of spending restraint in the most difficult economic environment since World War II.

“The bottom line for South Carolina taxpayers is the proposed 2009-2010 budget continues to expand the size and cost of government to record levels,” a report from the S.C. Policy Council stated. “Total state spending is set to increase by 4.15 percent and will eclipse the $21 billion mark for the first time in state history. At the same time, the nation’s private sector economic output dropped by 6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.”

The Policy Council also paints a grim picture of South Carolina’s growing annualization problem, or the use of one-time money to fund (and in this case expand) recurring expenses.

“(The Ways & Means budget) would also do nothing to reform the 8 percent annual growth rate of Medicaid and other entitlement programs,” the report states. “The budget simply spends more money on existing programs while ignoring that federal stimulus dollars are temporary and will be exhausted within two years.”

Even an increase in the cigarette tax that’s been proposed by House Speaker Bobby Harrell will be completely eaten up by the entitlement onrush unless Medicaid is reformed.

“By 2011, when these dollars evaporate but the programs remain, the state will be forced to choose between deep cuts to programs, a significant tax increase, or hope for continued federal aid,” the report concludes. “The vast majority of federal economic stimulus money for South Carolina is slated for education and social welfare programs at the expense of other spending.”

WEB EXTRA:

S.C. Policy Council Report

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