South Carolina GOP uses national goals to make monetary decisions
The budget battle rages on. South Carolina's fiscal woes have captured my attention for column after column. Well, USC, fear no longer. This will be my last budget column. The deals, games and misunderstandings at the Statehouse have left me — and will leave many of us, when we feel their effects — too tired to care. As far as the budget goes, the opening bout is over, the towel thrown. The House will likely approve a budget proposal and send it to the Senate, where more rounds of debate and intrigue will likely commence. But it is not what is to come that is most important. The proposal holds more political than fiscal power, which is evident in how it was made.
We all remember Gov. Nikki Haley's enthusiastic platform charges to cut spending, balance the budget and create a responsible, efficient state government. What we got were suggestions that bred only contention: cuts to welfare payments, the Arts Commission and ETV and education. Many of us felt uncomfortable under this direction. But Haley's enthusiasm has hit a brick wall: the state House.
The House's proposed budget is a list of trade-offs. The Arts Commission will receive its full funding, and state employees will not be required to pay higher out-of-pocket costs on their insurance. But — and I would like to stress this "but" — funding will be kept for the 2012 Republican primary, with Medicaid and education to follow. This last issue would be something that Haley wanted to cut, and I completely agree with her. But she has realized something that we must all remember: Our legislatures are teeming bodies of prejudice, responsibility and influence. Every man and woman there comes with an agenda. This is not a negative statement but a factual one. As we all lamented some of Haley's less wholesome cuts, what we should have really paid attention to is the way these cuts would fit with whatever was formulating in the collective mind of our representatives.
And what was on that collective mind? I can make only one guess: the federal government. The Arts Commission, like many agencies, receives federal dollars, as will the South Carolina school system if it applies for an extension of stimulus funds. And representatives are thinking of the immense national attention that 2012 will bring and are protecting money to beef up the Republican primary as much as possible.
But I suspect House members were seeing much more than dollar signs when reading that budget proposal. They were peering through the curtain and onto the national stage.
So this is my final question: With Haley struggling between ideology and the her new role as governor, and the House pandering to federal attention, where does that leave South Carolina? My only answer is this: right exactly where we are. Get mad, or get comfortable.