SC agencies suggest hundreds of state job cuts
By Page Ivey
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBIA -- Hundreds of South Carolina state jobs would be cut and some subsidized health care would be slashed under recommendations that state agencies sent Friday to Gov. Mark Sanford as lawmakers search for ways to trim spending.
The proposals were submitted because state revenues have been slumping along with the national economy, and the $7 billion spending plan approved by lawmakers is in danger of heading into the red. The cuts aren't set in stone, however. Sanford wanted agency chiefs to suggest how they would cut up to 10 percent of their budgets -- more than the overall state budget needs to be cut.
Nevertheless, the proposals had state officials wringing their hands.
"Those services are incredibly important, but unfortunately those services are going to have to be reduced," said Lois Park Mole, spokeswoman for the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs.
Her agency listed $19 million in potential cuts, including reducing financial and caregiver assistance for families of people with mental and physical disabilities and cutting 19 people from the payroll.
State budget overseers had already cut 3 percent from agency budgets in August. The new cuts come after the state's economic advisers projected an additional $415 million shortfall in tax collections and other revenues this year.
South Carolina has 72 state agencies and employs more than 65,000 people. The agencies that met the governor's deadline Friday recommended cutting more than 900 jobs. Some of the larger ones -- such as Education, Public Safety, the State Law Enforcement Division and Corrections -- told the governor's office their reports were either in transit or still being worked on.
But officials with some of those departments expect cuts in services. Advocates say high school sports are in danger along with conservation efforts, and the director of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has said some criminal investigations could be curtailed.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the federal Medicaid and Medicare programs that provide health care for the poor and the elderly, proposed reducing payments for medical services, delaying planned increases in payments and eliminating some programs to find $95 million to cut from its nearly $1 billion budget.
Legislators have yet to set a date for when they'll return to Columbia to start cutting. They say it's likely to happen before the November election ends their terms.
If lawmakers can't agree on a revised spending plan, state law requires the Budget and Control Board to make across-the-board cuts for all agencies within three weeks of a revenue adjustment.
The Legislature could let the earlier 3 percent cut stand or undo it and find ways to save a total of 6 percent with targeted cuts, a move Sanford has urged.
Some agency officials who responded to the governor's request said their departments had no more room to cut.
"It's really a mixed bag," said Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer. "Some agencies were very thoughtful and very deliberate in putting together potential cuts."
Among other cuts:
* The state Natural Resources Department says a 10 percent budget cut would require it to eliminate half its monitoring stations that help evaluate the status of the state's water supply.
* The Technical College System itemized $22 million in cuts that included slashing more than 300 jobs.
* The Department of Health and Environmental Control said it could cut $14 million and 124 positions, with the majority of that coming from reductions in family health programs.
* The Secretary of State's office, the Medical University of South Carolina and Coastal Carolina University said they could not make any more cuts in their budgets.
: 10/18/2008
John Q: We seem to have a different point of view about the role of government. You suggest that it should be to the military and post office. Those are federal responsibilities. Eisenhower warned that we should beware of the postal-industrial complex. I know I'm afraid of postal workers. The cuts discussed here have to do with the state government's responsibilities. Those involve protecting the public health and safety. For that, we need police, courts and prisons to protect us from the more predatory among us. We need a group that keeps track of (and tries to prevent) the spread of communicable diseases. We need clean water. We need working toilets. We need a safe place to dump our trash, whether picked up by local government or delivered by the user. The alternative is to use "airmail" the way people used to do in the Dark and Middle Ages and, more recently, in the South Bronx. Throw it out the window. *** It gets complicated. *** The point is that all that stuff costs money. Somebody has to pay. The original idea was that those who benefit from living in society should have to pay the costs. That notion has somehow gotten lost in a lot of political rhetoric and simplistic ideological mantras about "getting government off our backs." It has never been on mine--at least not in a way where I thought that the load wasn't be shared in some (not always fair) way with everybody else. I'll stop there with my list of necessities. You might want to add stuff, that's up to you. I personally don't like to see anybody go hungry. That's how my parents raised me--to care how my neighbors are doing and help them if and when they need the help. Some disagree. An old man from Pleasant Hill once complained to me that there were a lot more dead animals on the road since they started the Food Stamp program. He was serious in his resentment of the hurt he suffered because of this system of "handouts." (We didn't discuss the likes of Haliburton, but that's something else altogether.) Fortunately, a contemporaneous boom in the turkey buzzard population addressed his concern, so no crusade was mounted against the federal government's way of disposing of the leftovers of food producers. (Food Stamps account for more than 10% of the income of companies like Archer-Daniels-Midlands and A&P. That's why they lobby like the dickens for increases all the time. I don't think that's a bad thing, but that is just a matter of opinion and this ain't nothin but a posting discussing an editorial.) Be well.
: 10/14/2008
Sackowoe, Are you really depending on government to help you? Government is inefficient and corrupt. The most frightening words in the English language are "Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you." Other than the roads and the post office and a defensive military force, I have no use for government.
: 10/14/2008
Cutting Corrections budget will mean that inmates will have to be released early. Hopefully, that will confined to those who did not commit acts of violence, but who knows? Cutting the education budget at whatever level is like eating the State's seed corn. It is never a good idea. Cutting the law enforcement budget will result in an increase in crime, just when jail space becomes scarcer because of other budget cuts. Cutting the DHEC budget will effect everything from the incidence of AIDS and other STDs to water quality control. Maybe the State should tax the mess out of beachfront second homes and investment properties and earmark those revenues for Georgetown County.
: 10/13/2008
Way to go MUSC and CCU! These agencies are so extremely well managed that there is not a single place they could cut their budgets. We are truely fortunate to have such well run and citizen oriented agencies. I'm quite sure that ETV has suggested cutting "Big Bird".