by Katrina Shealy
In my spare time on this beautiful Labor Day weekend, I thought I would spend a little of it browsing around the web looking through the 656 pages of the South Carolina Detailed Base Budget for the Fiscal Year 2012-2013. Yeah, I know! Well, I do want to be fully informed of where they are spending the taxpayer’s money in SC, our money for that matter.
The budget is broken down into several different categories. There is a column for Estimated Total Funds (these are all funds collected – your personal and corporate income taxes, sales taxes, all fees, and any federal funds received), then there is a column for Appropriated General Funds (these are personal and corporate income tax and sales taxes), then the Estimated Federal Funds (I guess that this one is in case the Federal Government gives us money this year, but then takes it away next year). Then there is the infamous Estimated “OTHER” Fund category - I love the Other Fund (this is where we get to put the Monopoly money - all the extra money that they can spend however they please, and then the legislators don’t really have to account for after they pay what they have actually spent the appropriated funds for. This Other Fund money actually comes from license fees, fines, etc). There is actually more money in the Other Fund than in the General Fund (about 2 billion more in 2011). If all this sounds confusing, it is supposed to. That is the way our Legislature wants it to be so they can continue to fund their own pet projects from the surplus in the Other Fund.
(*Read about my support of the Fair Tax here.)
Legislators would lead you to believe that we are broke and there is barely enough money to meet the budget – in fact this is not the case. Each year there are millions of dollars remaining after the budget has been met that could and should be refunded to the taxpayer if it is not going to be used to pay down South Carolina’s debt. In both 2011 and 2012, Senator Tom Davis introduced an amendment to the SC Budget, which would return this excess to the taxpayers of SC. In 2011, my opponent, Jake Knotts, conveniently abstained from voting on the amendment and in 2012 voted to table it. In these tough economic times, this money needs to be put back in the pockets of hardworking South Carolinians, not spent putting the names of our friendly past legislators on some road or bridge sign, or on the building of a new vegetable museum!
The difference may mean only a few hundred dollars per taxpayer, but that could make a significant difference in today’s struggling economy. Today, when gas is over $3.50 a gallon, and the unemployment rate in SC is at an all time high, even a small refund goes a long way. And let’s not forget the importance of transparency in how our money is really spent. In reviewing the budget, I didn’t locate any of these pet projects, but I understand that lawmakers have a “special appropriations plan” already underway to make sure they spend every last penny of the excess. Every dollar of the SC Taxpayer money should be spent transparently and responsibly or it should be returned to the taxpayers. We need to make certain that this amendment is included in the 2013-2014 SC Budget and I will work to do just that when I am elected your Senator in Lexington County.