ICAR would get $1 million less in funds under governor's budget plan

By Tim Smith
CAPITAL BUREAU

COLUMBIA -- Gov. Mark Sanford proposed a $5.8 billion state budget Friday for the fiscal year beginning in July, recommending further cuts to colleges and universities, restoring some cuts to health care and including a phased elimination of the corporate income tax.

Among his proposed cost savings are more than $12 million in reduced funding for Clemson Public Service Activities; $301,000 less for the University Center of Greenville; almost $400,000 less for Clemson's Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technology; and $1 million less for Clemson's International Center for Automotive Research.

Sanford said some university research programs should now rely on private and federal funding.

The current budget of $6.1 billion has been cut by almost $1 billion since last summer because of lagging state revenues and the souring economy.

Sanford said his spending plan, which proposed $267 million in cuts and savings, was filled with "tough choices," but he said they are the same kinds of choices being faced by South Carolina families and businesses.

"I think people are going to look at a lot of our proposals that they may have dismissed in years past and give them a very hard look given, frankly, the very tough budgetary times that we are in," he told reporters.

However, Sanford's charge that state spending had increased 40 percent over four years drew the wrath of House Speaker Bobby Harrell, who said the annual growth rate is 2.8 percent.

"If he wants people to believe he is sincere, I challenge him to present a budget to the General Assembly that cuts spending by 40 percent," Harrell said in a statement. "Either do that or explain to the public why he won't."

Sanford's spokesman, Joel Sawyer, pointed in a statement to the total amounts of budgets for the fiscal years 2004 and 2008.

"That is a 42 percent increase," he said in the statement, "but with the creative math employed by some to suggest otherwise, it's no wonder our state budget is in the shape it's in."

Rep. Dan Cooper, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he hadn't yet looked at the governor's budget plan but it would be studied. "We'll do what we can with what he sent us," he said.

Sanford said the state could save $17 million by agencies not hiring back retired workers and $10 million by making all employees take two days of furlough on one of the 13 state holidays. He proposed saving about $668,000 by backing Sen. Darrell Jackson's proposal to cut the Legislature's annual session in half.

The governor also wants to save $22 million by consolidating administrative functions at the state's technical colleges. Upstate schools would be supported from Greenville, he said.

"This should serve as a wake-up call to the many who have spent money as if it's been growing on trees and will highlight the need for serious spending cap legislation so that we don't go through this up-and-down cycle every few years," he said.

Cooper said some of the governor's recommendations would require separate legislation and would run into opposition from those who support the programs Sanford targeted for elimination, such as the University of South Carolina campuses in Union, Lancaster and Allendale.

The spending plan recommends that lawmakers raise the cigarette tax by 30 cents per pack to help pay for an optional income flat tax of 3.65 percent. The state's corporate income tax rate would gradually decrease from 5 percent to zero over 10 years under the plan.

The governor agreed with Education Superintendent Jim Rex that more flexibility should be given local schools and that teacher salaries should be frozen. But he stopped short of restoring all of the money cut in the last year from the Education Finance Act. As it stands now, the base student cost, an index of per-pupil state spending, is at $2,255. Sanford proposed raising it to $2,339, still short of $2,578, where it was in July.

Sanford recommended a number of cuts to the Department of Education, including 94 jobs that he said would save the state about $6.8 million. He also proposed discontinuing National Board Certification salary bonuses for teachers, for a savings of $3.2 million.

He included $137 million to restore cuts to Medicaid.

The governor said legislators shouldn't bank their plans on a "Santa Claus" stimulus package possibly coming out of Washington.

"I wouldn't count on the chickens before they hatch," he said.

The director of the Office of State Budget on Thursday projected a budget shortfall of $569 million for next year.