House OKs $488 million in cuts

COLUMBIA --- Republicans turned back efforts Tuesday to raise taxes as the House approved $488 million in budget cuts that reach deeply into health care, colleges, police and human services.

House members voted 109-3 after almost three hours of floor debate as lawmakers scrambled to fix a state budget that ran short of cash from the moment it took effect July 1 as the economy slid. With a routine third reading today, the bill will head to the Senate.

University and technical colleges alone take $123 million in cuts that average close to 15 percent at each school, with much of that from payrolls and research. A program to stimulate research at Clemson, the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina loses $10 million, and all three institutions would lose cash for new high-speed data networks.

The cuts likely will pinch the pocketbooks of some parents. The state's adoption service program would lose a third of its payroll; a program supporting parents with autistic children loses 70 percent of operating expenses; nearly a third is cut from a program to help parents whose children suffer spinal-cord injuries; and a program advocating for people with disabilities loses all of its state money.

Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, tried to salvage Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities, a private program that gets $290,489 through the governor's office.

Though it's a private nonprofit, "they protect the most vulnerable people in this state," he said.

For Mr. Sanford, it was a matter of principle because it was money funneled through the governor's office to a nongovernment program.

"The governor has a long-standing history of being against such passthrough funding," Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said. An effort to put money into the program by tapping surpluses at the state Budget and Control Board failed. Mr. Sawyer said Mr. Sanford could have backed that.

Every effort to spare programs failed as House leaders talked about the need to keep the bill within bounds of a bargain already reached with the Senate to quickly pass the budget fixes.

Rep. Ken Kennedy, D-Greeleyville, pushed an amendment that would have eliminated a property tax break and generated $588 million. Without cash, he said, local governments across the state are going to have to lay off people.

"It just doesn't make sense what we're doing here," Mr. Kennedy said, noting that police, garbage service and everything else stands to be cut because of legislators' appetites for tax breaks. "How can you give people services by cutting taxes?"