COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will deliver vetoes Tuesday on a $5.7 billion budget that also requires him to request $700 million in federal bailout money intended to head off public school cuts, double-digit tuition increases and law enforcement job loss.
The GOP-controlled Legislature made it easy for a Republican governor as they wrap up their session a couple of weeks early to save money in their own budgets.
They lumped $348 million in federal stabilization cash intended to ease the recession's toll in a separate part of the budget that makes the stakes clear to the public. The lack of stimulus cash will yank $185 million from public schools, $100 million from colleges and $50 million from prisons, police and courts.
"The budget is written in a way to make a political point," Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said. "That's a very irresponsible way to write a budget."
House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, isn't apologizing for that. "It is a very clear picture of what doesn't get funded if the stimulus is not included in the budget," Harrell said.
State agencies and programs stand to see $2.8 billion in federal cash during the next two years.
It's up to Sanford to request about $700 million of that. He says he will only do that if the money is used to offset debt, a proposal that White House twice rejected. Nonetheless, Sanford has spent weeks on the road and on television as a leading critic of the $787 billion federal stimulus law, raising his national political profile and speculation about a 2012 presidential bid.
But the budget bill also requires Sanford to request money in five days. Legislators see that requirement as nothing different from telling an agency head to do something. But it's also likely to force the issue into court,
For now, no litigation has been filed, although both sides have been spending weeks getting legal advice.
"I think it's inevitable that's going to happen," said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston.
That only adds uncertainty, McConnell noted. "I think the governor's made his point" and has no chance of having a stimulus veto sustained, McConnell said. "It's time to move on."
Sanford was showing no signs of that being on the horizon Monday as he spoke to an Aiken Rotary Club gathering and warned that using the federal cash would lead to a $744 million budget shortfall in couple of years. "I think we need to go back to the drawing board," Sanford said, according to a report in the Augusta Chronicle.
But McConnell and Harrell said that's not going to happen in the three days remaining in the session.
Sawyer said Sanford will detail his "veto decision" Tuesday afternoon, but wouldn't hint at how many there may be. In 2005, Sanford issued a single veto, but in 2007 he issued 243 in a 54-page letter filled with charts and graphs.
They have three days to wrap up work on bills they'll otherwise have to leave behind until January.
Harrell said he'd like to finish a bill that limits Sanford's authority to remove State Ports Authority board members and one that sets up a commission to propose tax law changes.
McConnell expects, at best, the Senate may wrap up work on a bill imposing more regulations on the state's payday lending industry and on legislation changing when counties can raise taxes on homes.
IN DETAIL
Gov. Mark Sanford is deciding what he'll veto in a $5.7 billion spending plan that includes a requirement that he request nearly $350 million in federal bailout cash. Legislators say they have kept those two portions of the budget separate to make it clear what happens if a veto of the federal money stands.
The $5.7 billion budget and where the bulk of the money goes:
Agency, starting budget, spending increase or decrease without stimulus
Education Department, $2.2 billion, -$73.7 million
Department of Health and Human Services, $812.1 million, $12.3 million
Four-year colleges, $461.9 million, -$8.4 million
Department of Corrections, $303.7 million, $26.3 million
Department of Mental Health, $182.1 million, -$6 million
Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, $158.4 million, $6.2 million
Technical college system, $136.9 million, -$2.7 million
Department of Health and Environmental Control, $115.2 million, -$7.8 million
Department of Social Services, $111.9 million, $704,290
Higher Education Commission, $108.2 million, -$278,937
Department of Juvenile Justice, $85.1 million, $6.4 million
Department of Public Safety, $72 million, -$12.7 million
South Carolina can get up to $348 million this year in federal budget stabilization money. The governor say he'll only request the money if it can be offset with debt reduction. But the Legislature has told Sanford to request it and said it will mostly go to public schools to reduce the need to lay off teachers; colleges to head off double-digit tuition increases and criminal justice programs dealing with deficits and budget cuts.
Department of Education, $184.9 million
University of South Carolina, Columbia, $23.9 million
Department of Corrections, $22 million
Technical college system, $21.8 million
Department of Public Safety, $15 million
Clemson University, $14.7 million
Medical University of South Carolina, $12.7 million
Department of Juvenile Justice, $5 million
University of Charleston, $4.7 million
Judicial Department, $4 million
South Carolina State University, $3.3 million
Regional Economic Development Organizations, $3.5 million
Winthrop University, $3.1 million
Francis Marion University, $2.6 million
Clemson University public service activities, $2.5 million
Coastal Carolina University, $2.3 million
The Citadel, $2.2 million
Consortium of Community Teaching Hospitals, $2 million
Department of Probation and Parole, $2 million
State Law Enforcement Division, $2 million
USC Upstate, $2 million
County libraries, $1.7 million
USC Aiken, $1.5 million
Lander University, $1.4 million
USC Sumter, $575,463
SC Educational Television satellite lease, $540,000
Department of Archives and History, $500,000
Governor's School for the Arts and the Humanities, $500,000
Governor's School for Science and Mathematics, $500,000
Wil Lou Gray Opportunity School, $500,000
School for the Deaf and the Blind, $500,000
Arts and cultural grants, $500,000
South Carolina State University public service activities, $500,000
Forestry Commission, $500,000
USC Beaufort, $481,777
University Center of Greenville, $364,440
USC Lancaster, $356,295
USC Salkehatchie, $310,271
Department of Agriculture, $250,000
Department of Natural Resources, $250,000
USC Union, $138,095
Criminal Justice Academy, $120,000
South Carolina also gets $431 million from increased Medicaid program reimbursements that can be spent:
Department of Health and Human Services, $353.4 million
Department of Health and Environmental Control, $30.6 million
Department of Mental Health, $19 million
Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, $17.2 million
Department of Social Services, $13.8 million
Office on Aging, $3.1 million
Vocational Rehabilitation, $2 million
Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, $1.2 million
Source: South Carolina Legislature and Office of State Budget
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