COLUMBIA --- South Carolina legislators will either be heading to court or overriding an anticipated veto to force Gov. Mark Sanford to request $350 million in federal stimulus cash.
During the next couple of weeks, the House and Senate will develop a compromise version of the budget and send it to Mr. Sanford, who has a record of issuing hundreds of vetoes and of vetoing the entire budget.
South Carolina agencies and programs stand to see $2.8 billion during the next two years from the $787 billion federal stimulus law. Mr. Sanford controls about $700 million of that, or $350 million yearly. But Mr. Sanford, who has spent months railing against the stimulus law, has spent weeks on TV and writing to newspapers explaining his view that money should be used to reduce state bond debt. It's an idea the White House has twice rejected.
But the budget the Senate sent to the House on Thursday forces the issue. It requires Mr. Sanford to "take all action necessary and required by" the stimulus law to secure funds legislators included in their spending plan.
Sanford supporters howled. If that stands, "we could go around the governor on just about anything," said Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken. The move raised questions about too much power being concentrated in the Legislature's hands and creating tyranny, said Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort and a former Sanford chief of staff.
Issues about spending the cash -- turned away by the state Supreme Court last week as premature -- now are likely to be back before a court. That could come from the same Chapin High School student whose lawsuit was denied. It could go to court if Mr. Sanford doesn't follow a budget law requiring him to seek and spend the money. And Sanford supporters could challenge constitutional issues in federal court.
Legislators are willing to risk lawsuits, saying they're confronted with Mr. Sanford's unyielding position on using stimulus cash for bond debt and the need to blunt $1 billion in budget cuts that have torn through budgets for schools, colleges, law enforcement and health care in the past year. Without the money, more teachers would lose jobs, colleges would raise tuition and police agencies would face more severe reductions, they say.
"We're not even back where were a year ago," Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said Thursday.
And Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, is waiting for a response from the White House that clarifies how the Legislature can access the cash.
On April 3, Mr. Sanford sent a letter certifying the state would request stimulus funds. Mr. Martin and Mr. McConnell see that clearing the way for the Legislature to use the money.
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