Long-term fiscal fix

January 28, 2009 by senatormcconnell

The current fiscal crisis has forced the state of South Carolina to sharply cut budgets, reduce services and furlough employees, and the bad economic news might not be over yet. At least state legislators have apparently learned something by the bitter experience.

A proposal to impose a spending cap on the state budgetary process, to limit the consequences of economic ups and downs, already has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 22-0 vote that should herald early Senate approval. The Senate’s Republican majority has put the spending cap at the top of its reform agenda for the legislative session.

Sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, the proposal would limit spending based on the average of revenue coming to the state over a 10-year period. Any excess would be placed into a reserve fund from which the state could draw during bad economic times.

Sen. McConnell says the current method of budgeting is based on “a financial roller coaster,” creating unpredictable results.

“We hire when times are good and we fire when times are bad,” the senator said in a statement following the committee’s action on Tuesday. A spending cap will provide “a constitutional bridle that will even out state government spending and provide needed funds during trying economic times like we are now facing,” he said.

Ultimately, voters will decide the constitutional issue in a referendum in 2010, assuming the bill’s approval by the full Legislature. Considering the difficulties experienced during the continuing downturn, neither legislative nor public approval should be in doubt.

Charleston.net

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