News
Accept Our State's Share Of Stimulus
March 22, 2009
South Carolina legislators should make sure our state isn't stuck with the check for a meal eaten by people elsewhere in the country. Lawmakers should agree to take the $700 million in federal stimulus money over the next two years to fill gaps in a badly damaged state budget.
State Rep. Dan Cooper, a Piedmont Republican, did everyone a favor when moved the debate over accepting a share of the stimulus funds from a classroom discussion to some real-world details. If South Carolina rejected these funds, it could trigger the layoffs of 4,000 teachers and 700 prison guards, and force the emergency closures of three to five prisons.
Do South Carolina residents really want that? Do they want to add to the unemployment rolls of a state that has the second highest unemployment in the nation? Are such consequences worth the ideological pleasure some would get from telling President Barack Obama to take a hike?
In a word, no.
And "no" also is the word Gov. Mark Sanford heard twice last week in response to his bizarre request for a waiver so South Carolina could use that $700 million over the next two years to pay down debt rather than shore up the state budget in critical areas.
Of the $8 billion in stimulus revenue coming to South Carolina, almost $3 billion is for state aid, infrastructure, health care and the like. And of that, $700 million is to be split over two years for what's called the "State Fiscal Stabilization Fund." The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 specifically states that 81.8 percent of those budget stabilization funds must go for education and 18.2 percent for public safety and other government services.
In a state where this year's budget has been cut by more than $1 billion, those federal dollars can find a good use, even with the federal strings that were, regrettably, attached to the money.
The $787 billion federal stimulus package certainly has its problems, and this newspaper, along with Sanford and most Republican lawmakers, opposed it in the form that passed Congress. The stimulus package is too large and it appears much of it is directed more at expanding the federal government than at stimulating the economy. That battle was fought, and it was lost.
South Carolina residents -- and their children and probably grandchildren -- will be left paying the check for this stimulus package. Money not spent in South Carolina will be spent in other states, but our state's residents will shoulder the bill for this federal spending.
It would have been better had Gov. Sanford asked for the federal budget stabilization funds, especially after the first reject letter. But he won't. State lawmakers should make sure this $700 million isn't left on the table in Washington.
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