Legislators to force Sanford on stimulus

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina legislators agreed with a 95-18 vote Tuesday to require South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to apply for federal stimulus cash they say is needed to protect schools, colleges, law enforcement and prisons from deeper budget cuts.

That House vote came as the budget bill headed back to the Senate with expectations the $5.6 billion spending plan would land on Sanford's desk as early as Wednesday. The $350 million in stimulus cash would be added to state spending. Once Sanford signs the law or the Legislature overrides his vetoes, the governor will have five days to request the money.

The Senate took no immediate action on the bill Tuesday, but Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, expects the bill will pass Wednesday and be on the governor's desk by the end of the day.

"I suspect we'll adopt that," Leatherman said. "I can't imagine that the Senate's not going to adopt what the House sent over here" after the two budget committee staffs worked out compromises.

South Carolina agencies and programs stand to see as much as $2.8 billion in federal stimulus cash flowing through budgets during the next two fiscal years. Sanford said he controls decisions on requesting $350 million each year, or $700 million. He's called for the money to be used to offset state debt.

The White House has twice rejected Sanford's debt repayment proposals, saying the money needs to mostly be used in education and to help prevent teachers from losing jobs.

Sanford said legislators acted too quickly.

"One, being asked to vote on the budget in such a short amount of time isn't fair to the people expected to vote responsibly on it, and it's a disservice to the people they represent," Sanford said in a prepared statement.

He said the stimulus money will only create a hole in the budget of up to $700 million in a couple of years and it does nothing to help the "state weather an economic storm that is far from being over."

Legislators said their amendment blunts budget cuts made during the past 10 months as more than $1 billion was slashed from a $7 billion budget.

It would add $17 million for school bus fleet spending and $14 million to the corrections department to head off a deficit and the need to close prisons and release inmates early. It also would provide nearly $7 million for the Department of Social Services to offset budget cuts in a variety of programs, including teen pregnancy prevention, and more than $4 million to indigent legal defense programs.

The bill restores and sweetens a couple of tax breaks. Last week, the state Supreme Court threw out a law that, among other things, created a tax-free Thanksgiving weekend for gun sales. The budget bill restores that. It also raises the income tax credit for installing solar energy systems to 30 percent of the costs, up from 25 percent.

Sanford hasn't changed his stimulus position. On Monday he called on legislators and taxpayers to stand up in opposition to plans to use the stimulus cash. On Tuesday, he sent out a "Waste of the Day" news release questioning the Legislature's opposition to cost cutting at the state Aeronautics Commission.

He had little support in the House for changing the budget. An alternative spending plan his supporters favored that didn't use stimulus cash was tabled with a 90-23 vote.

Sanford supporter Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Irmo, said he was tired of the bickering between the governor and legislators and between his own party's members, comparing it to his young children squabbling. But a court will have to referee the issue of spending federal stimulus cash.

"I see another lengthy court battle for our state," Ballentine said.

Meanwhile, the budget bill now calls for adding a total of $5 million more to the House's budget.

"It's so that we don't run a deficit," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont.

The lower chamber is running out of money and has burned through reserves in spite of legislators and staffers taking unpaid days off, Cooper said.

"The choice is not to pay members or not pay staff," Cooper said.