The $5 Billion Lie (And $21 Billion Reality)

By FITSNews || By now, you’ve read plenty of newspaper articles, heard plenty of radio broadcasts and listened to plenty of local TV newscasts telling you that South Carolina’s current state budget is roughly $5 billion – oh, and that state lawmakers are friggin’ heroes for the way they’ve managed our state’s finances during this ongoing recession.

Those MSM reports sound a little something like this …

“State lawmakers are debating a $5 billion budget that seeks to fill gaping holes and avoid painful cuts to core services for the neediest South Carolinians.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

There’s just one problem: It’s complete and total bullsh*t.  Every word of it …

To prove that point, let’s try an experiment, shall we?

Start by clicking here (a.k.a. the proposed FY 2010-11 state budget). Once you’ve scrolled all the way to the bottom of that page, you’ll see this “Grand Total” section …

(Click to enlarge)

Do you see that “Grand Total” number in blue? No?

Try it now …

(Click to enlarge)

Yeah … that’s $21.1 billion, and that’s the total state budget for the coming fiscal year including federal funds and “other funds” (a.k.a. the fees and fines collected by state agencies).

Hold up … what about the $5 billion figure that’s constantly being reported by the mainstream media?  Is that number wrong?

In a word, “yes.”  That’s just the state’s “general fund,” which is one slice of a much, much larger pie.  State lawmakers are actually appropriating (a.k.a. spending) a total of $21.1 billion – including money that’s not even there yet.

So … how big is $21.1 billion?  Well for starters it’s obviously more than four times as big as the $5 billion most people think the state is spending.  And yes, we were able to calculate that figure in spite of (not because of) our S.C. public school education.

Believe it or not, if this budget were to pass the legislature it would be … wait for it … the biggest budget in state history.

Wait … what?  How is that possible?

Aren’t we in “year three” of the worst recession in eight decades?

Of course we are, but that hasn’t stopped our “GOP” legislature from blowing through tax dollars at a record clip.

Two years ago state lawmakers appropriated $20.9 billion, but budget cuts reduced the final total of the state budget to $20.3 billion (not counting an unconstitutional $100 million deficit, obviously). Last year, lawmakers appropriated $20.7 billion, but budget cuts dropped that figure to around $20.1 billion.

Obviously, this isn’t the final version of the state spending plan, but it’s the document lawmakers are currently debating in the S.C. House of Representatives.

Also, we’d like to point out that while the excessive government spending (during a recession) is obviously the fault of S.C. lawmakers, it’s not like they’ve tried to hide these damning budget numbers from public view.

The real culpability for the public’s ignorance regarding the true size of the state budget lies with the following folks:

The Associated Press (S.C. Bureau)
The State Newspaper (a.k.a. La Socialista)
The Greenville News (a.k.a. La Liberbad)
The Charleston Post and Courier (a.k.a. The Newsless Courier)
The Rock Hill Herald
The Myrtle Beach Sun News
The Anderson Independent-Mail (a.k.a. Tin Foil Hat Times)
The Beaufort Gazette/ Hilton Head Island Packet
WIS TV 10 (NBC – Columbia, S.C.)
WLTX TV 19 (CBS – Columbia, S.C.)
WOLO TV 25 (ABC – Columbia, S.C.)
WYFF TV 4 (NBC – Greenville, S.C.)
WSPA TV 7 (CBS – Spartanburg, S.C.)
WCBD TV 2 (NBC – Charleston, S.C.)
WCSC TV 5 (CBS – Charleston, S.C.)
WCIV TV 4 (ABC – Charleston, S.C.)

And the list goes on …

Until our state’s mainstream media establishment starts leveling with the public about how much money state lawmakers are actually spending, we shouldn’t expect there to be any sense of urgency regarding the protection of our tax dollars.

WEB EXTRA
Recapitulation of FY 2010-11 House Ways & Means Budget ($21.1 billion)
Recapitulation of final FY 2009-10 Budget ($20.9 billion)