Federal, “Other Funds” Soar In SC Budget

By FITSNews || When are so-called “cataclysmic” budget cuts really not so bad? That’s easy … when you can make up the money someplace else.

Just ask the GOP-controlled S.C. House of Representatives, which passed a “$5.1 billion” budget last week – a spending plan that (ostensibly) represents an 11.3 percent decrease from the $5.7 billion figure lawmakers appropriated a year ago.  And rest assured, when these hand-wringing blowhards aren’t busy doling out bailouts for private golf tournaments, they’re bitching and moaning to constituents about the “painful, unavoidable cuts” that are coming to front-line state agencies that provide “vital services” to the people of the state.

“Woe is us,” right?

That’s the idea, anyway.  Of course what lawmakers haven’t told the public – and what the state’s mainstream media (except for us) once again refuse to cover – is the fact that the state’s total budget has actually grown by around $400 million from a year ago.

Wait … state government is growing? During the longest, deepest economic recession in eight decades?

Yup.  In fact, the $21.1 billion budget that was approved last week by the S.C. House of Representatives is actually closer to $1 billion larger than last year’s spending plan, which ended up shrinking considerably due to a series of budget cuts necessitated by declining state revenue streams … revenue streams that we’d like to point out are still declining.

Yet just as they did a year ago, lawmakers are making up these “cuts” (and soaring past them, actually) by appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars in new federal funds and “other funds,” which are monies generated from hundreds of different fees and fines assessed on the people of South Carolina.

In fact, this year lawmakers are spending an additional $463 million in federal funds – which is a 5.9 percent increase over last year’s record amount for a grand total of $8.3 billion.  But that increase is nothing compared to the growth of the “other funds” portion of the budget (again, all state money) which has ballooned to $7.6 billion – an 8.2 percent increase from last year’s record appropriation.

That’s $1.05 billion in new money for lawmakers to play with, in case your calculators are broken – or roughly $400 million more than a year ago when you subtract the reductions to the general fund.

So … why won’t the press report these figures?

We have no clue … although it’s been our experience that the mainstream media in South Carolina would rather suck up to the government than tell you the truth about how it’s spending your money.  Or even how much of your money it’s spending.

Of course we’ll continue stealing away visitors from people who want to know the truth about the state budget … as opposed to one-fourth of the truth.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Stay tuned for additional reports from FITS on the true size of the state budget – and how it compares to the growth of South Carolina’s population, gross domestic product and income levels, among other measurements.