COLUMBIA --- Senators resumed drafting a budget Tuesday with $350 million in federal stimulus cash that Gov. Mark Sanford is refusing to request, even though they warn spending cuts for education, health care and other programs will leave "blood all over the floor."
Senate Corrections Chairman Mike Fair, R-Greenville, is filing a bill this week that would release prisoners early as one cost savings. That bill would leave the decision to close three prisons and free up to 3,100 prisoners early in Mr. Sanford's hands as a way of grappling with more budget cuts.
The closures are intended to help the Corrections Department come up with $21 million in savings to address an extra 7.4 percent in budget cuts -- and those are on top of a deficit rising to $50 million in the current budget year, Mr. Fair said.
"That's survival," Mr. Fair said. "Good luck to all of us."
Separately, a handful of Sanford allies were wrapping up work on a compromise budget with help from Sanford staff, but weren't ready to provide details.
It's another twist in developing spending plans for the fiscal year that begins in July. Those plans turn on a few key points: persuading or forcing Mr. Sanford to request stimulus money he insists should be used to reduce debt; dealing with not having that $350 million; and how to spread $578 million in Medicaid-related cash to agencies that don't directly care for the sick, elderly or poor.
South Carolina agencies and programs stand to see $2.8 billion in federal stimulus cash flowing through budgets during the next two fiscal years. Mr. Sanford controls decisions on requesting $350 million each year, or a total of $700 million.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman delayed work on detailed, line-item spending in the plan until he could see the proposal being developed by Sen. Tom Davis, a Beaufort Republican and former Sanford chief of staff.
Mr. Davis said he hopes to come up "with a budget that is more amenable to the governor."
But when Mr. Davis and Sen. Greg Ryberg didn't deliver the plan by the end of the day, Mr. Leatherman said he'd write a bare-bones budget today that will leave "blood all over the floor." Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said Mr. Leatherman "needs to stop with the chaos budgets."
Senate budget writers were considering raising fees and raiding money that agencies might have carried over in their accounts for years. Mr. Leatherman had no estimate of what the latter would generate, but said it was less than $100 million.
HIRING TAX CREDIT
COLUMBIA --- A bill a top Republican lawmaker introduced Tuesday would give businesses up to $2,400 in tax credits if they hire unemployed workers.
Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, said his bill would pay employers $100 for each month the worker is on the payroll, for up to two years. The bill would require employers to hire people who have drawn at least four weeks of unemployment benefits.
The break would apply only to people who are in the country legally and have no promise of future work at the jobs they lost.
South Carolina's February unemployment rate of 11 percent was the nation's second highest.
-- Associated Press
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