On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a $5.1 billion budget, $500 million less than the current year's budget. The budget will go to the floor of the House for debate in March.
Rep. Brian White, a Republican from Anderson, said legislators had to make tough choices.
“When you've got to find $500 million, you've got a lot of cuts you don't want to cut, but you do what you have to do,” he said. “It's not easy. Everything's being cut. Special needs is being cut, mental health being cut, gap coverage for seniors, they're all getting cut.”
Cuts included reducing the education department budget by $100 million to $1.9 billion; capping the number of prescriptions paid for under Medicaid to three, down from 10; and reducing aid to subdivisions by more than 10 percent.
“Everybody kind of shared the pain equally … everybody's seeing their share of cuts,” said Rep. Mike Gambrell, a Republican from Honea Path. “We've got to balance that budget. We just have to buckle that belt and do what you have to do. Thank goodness that our constitution requires us to balance our budget … otherwise, we'd be just like California and the mess they're in.”
At least two measures will increase taxes or fees. A 30-cent-per-pack cigarette tax was approved with proceeds going into the Medicaid reserve fund. And the house approved adding a fee to prepaid cellular phones, now almost 20 percent of the cellular market, to pay for local 911 services.
While the Tax Realignment Commission is set to present a report to the legislature next year, White said the solution is not to increase taxes.
“I don't know what you can do that's immediate. Unemployment is high and sales tax isn't coming in. I don't think you can raise sales taxes. It just isn't there to collect from people,” he said.
Gambrell agreed.
“We just don't think people can pay more taxes right now,” he said.
The budget will have far-reaching consequences for local governments, said Anderson County interim administrator Rusty Burns.
“Early indications are that this could impact us by several million. We have been preparing for this,” he said. “We are looking every day for ways to trim any possible fat out of the budget. Like many other people in government, we are forced to learn how to live in this new environment. It will create a government that is leaner and is able to do more with the resources we have while continuing to provide the same level of services.”
Burns said he felt the state view on not raising taxes would trickle down to the county level.
“While I have no vote on raising taxes, the tenor that I feel from council is to not impose any additional burden on taxpayers, and, if anything, to look for ways to reduce that burden,” he said.
The budget will go to the House of Representatives on March 9. Representatives will have a week to study it before bringing it to the floor for a vote on March 15, White said.
