House budget committee tries to get back on track

Posted on www.charleston.net

By JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press

COLUMBIA - A House budget committee got back on track Tuesday as the panel's chairman said plans are now in the works to cap state spending despite rising tax collections as the economy surges.

But last week's disagreement with Gov. Mark Sanford over spending caps and repaying money raided from trust fund accounts has now put the House Ways and Means Committee at least a week behind. That will delay floor debate on the $6.4 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

"It will be at least March 20 before we could actually take it up," said Rep. Dan Cooper, the committee's chairman.

Last week, Sanford said the House had fallen far short of the $173 million he had told legislators they should earmark for repaying trust funds tapped through the lean 2000-2004 budget years. The House plan had called for spending $66 million repaying the funds.

Cooper, R-Piedmont, said Tuesday he'll ask the committee to put $98 million into trust fund repayment.

Sanford also complained the House wasn't following spending limits that it had approved just a few weeks ago. For his part, Sanford wanted a 5.5 percent spending cap that would limit state spending to $5.9 billion.

Cooper said he wants the committee to use a 4.8 percent spending growth cap outlined in a bill by Rep. Garry Smith, R-Simpsonville.

"The fact that the House is now talking about spending caps is certainly a step forward compared with what they were talking about last week," Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said. "But the real question for us is always where does the money above and beyond the cap go?"

Sanford wants the extra cash to go back to taxpayers as a rebate or some sort of dividend. For Cooper, that means giving $117 million back to homeowners in property tax breaks.

But Sanford and Cooper are far apart on what the cap is. Sanford's cap, while higher, includes Medicaid, education programs and state worker raises - among other things - that Cooper's doesn't.

At the same time, Cooper also would carve $130 million out of the state budget bill and put it with a $102 million from a rainy day fund in a surplus spending bill. The $130 million includes $51 million for state employee raises and $52 million for school buses and fuel.

Those would become annual state commitments, but Cooper sees neither as expanding state programs. "I don't consider all that government growing," he said.

It will be up to the committee and the House to decide whether to go along with that approach.

Last week, Cooper complained that Sanford's criticism of House budget writers came without the governor trying to talk with him directly about what he wants in the budget. And Cooper said he's not talking with the governor about the differences they may have in a state spending cap.

"I was elected by the people of my district to come down here and represent them, not to represent the governor and I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. I don't go counsel with the governor to see if it's OK," Cooper said. "If the voters in my district don't want me to do that, then they'll probably send me home this year."