DATELINE JUNE 2, 2003
BUDGET CONFEREES PLAY HIDE-AND-SEEK
The six lawmakers assigned to a conference committee to work out conflicts on House and Senate budget plans scheduled a noon meeting today but still haven't convened it. It is widely speculated that the conferees are meeting behind closed doors to work out a compromise rather than to air their debate positions in public. Regardless, their ongoing absence left more than 50 citizens, lobbyists and others waiting throughout the afternoon.
The conference committee met overnight last week to produce its first conference report, which the House quickly adopted but which the Senate debated on Thursday. Upon close inspection, Senators found a number of technical errors -- errors that can become important mistakes in a $5.1 billion budget deal -- but also debated whether or not to accept the House's proposal of a $25 surcharge on traffic tickets.
Sen. John Hawkins of Spartanburg County argued long against the surcharge, calling it a new tax and reminding colleagues that the Senate voted overwhelmingly against the surcharge when the measure was first before that body. But the surcharge generates $24.5 million, and Sen. Hugh Leatherman of Florence urged Hawkins and other opponents of the surcharge to identify their preferences for budget cuts if the surcharge is not maintained.
Regardless of today's scheduled meeting, it is not likely that the committee will return with a conference report that restores full funding of the Education Finance Act. Thanks to a last-minute injection of federal funds, the House amended its budget package to raise the base student cost from $1,643 to $1,701 per student, still five hundred dollars below the $2,201 per student recommended by the Board of Economic Advisors.
SMITH, LOURIE ASK CONFEREES TO FUND SCHOOLS FIRST
Rep. James Smith and Rep. Joel Lourie, both of Columbia, spoke at a press conference shortly before the scheduled beginning of the conference committee and asked conferees to take the necessary steps to fund education. The two were joined by Rep. Bessie Moody-Lawrence, Rep. Walt McLeod and Rep. Eldridge Emory.
Smith, who is the Democratic Minority Leader in the House, couched the education deficit as a failure in leadership by the legislative majority. "This ... majority’s vision for South Carolina carves a clear, direct path for us all to follow. It is a path they have vigorously defended and enthusiastically seek in a race to the bottom in education and health care," he said.
"In the past four years, South Carolina was making progress in education," Smith added. "The ... budget mess will not only bring that progress to a halt but send our state full speed in the wrong direction.
Lourie echoed those concerns, saying that lawmakers patted themselves on the back for adopting tough accountability standards but, "when it comes to putting our money where our mouth is, we show up empty handed."
"How can anyone in this legislature vote for a budget that will eliminate 6000 teachers? That, I will never understand. I hope the citizens of this great state will arise and waken their legislative leaders and say this is unacceptable. You must find a way to do better," he said.
"This cuts at the core of the most basic and fundamental responsibility of state government," Lourie declared. "All children, rich or poor, black or white, rural or urban, deserve a quality education. Failure to provide this is simply wrong, it’s just plain wrong."
DATELINE JUNE 3, 2003
HOUSE APPROPRIATES FUTURE FED FUNDS FOR SCHOOLS
Federal funds that won't be received by the state until NEXT year have apparently been appropriated for public education in THIS fiscal year, raising the base student cost -- on paper -- to $1,777 per student.
Action was taken by the House late this afternoon -- only after waiting for the Senate to adopt the budget bill produced by the finance conference committee -- that adds the federal funds to the Education Finance Act, the funding mechanism for public schools. Governor Mark Sanford's office immediately distributed press statements claiming credit for the move (as it was recommended by the governor in a letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell last week, the statement said) and praising the House for answering the governor's call to protect education funding.
Confused?
Here is what appears to have happened:
Almost two weeks ago, President George W. Bush signed a $350 billion tax cut plan that also included $20 billion that would be distributed to states as direct aid. South Carolina's share of that aid package amounted to about $265 million, but the aid would be disbursed over two fiscal years: roughly $220 million in 2003-04, and the remaining $45 million in 2004-05.
Last week, budget writers made quick work of the first year's $220 million in aid, using almost all of the one-time dollars to plug a gaping hole in Medicaid, with about $20 million devoted to the Education Finance Act. That contribution raised the state's proposed base student cost from $1,643 to $1,701.
This morning, there were quiet rumors in the State House that additional money might appear from unidentified sources to raise the base student cost higher. But it appears that House leaders kept their powder dry until the Senate approved the contentious conference report.
Once that vote was taken (and the conference report was adopted by that body, by a vote of 28 to 18), the House sprang a new funding proposal as an amendment to a separate spending bill.
The funding proposal includes $44.5 million directed solely to the Education Finance Act, and the funding is identified as federal dollars. But since the first-year (2003-04) disbursement of federal dollars was spent last week, the new infusion must represent the second-year (2004-05) disbursement, which won't actually be received by the state until next calendar year.
Predictably, the measure passed with overwhelming support by a vote of 102 to 13, and it is said to raise the base student cost further from $1,701 to $1,777 -- "two dollars above last year's base student cost", according to the governor's quick press release.
In fact, the press statement quotes the governor thusly: "We've said from day one that our public schools are the foundational setting for education in South Carolina. Our public schools are critical to our economic development efforts, critical to raising income levels and critical to creating jobs in South Carolina. I'd like to commend Speaker Wilkins, Chairman Harrell and the overwhelming majority of the South Carolina House for working with this administration to make sure South Carolina doesn't take a step back in funding our public schools. This is the number our administration asked for, this is the number our schools need and the House deserves a lot of credit today for working with us to get it done."
Assuming that the funding will actually be received in time for use in the 2003-04 school year, this new funding still falls well short of the base student cost of $2,201 recommended by the Board of Economic Advisors. Further, the funding represents one-time federal dollars; at the end of the 2003-04 fiscal year, education funding will again be without a sufficient stream of state revenues -- and facing a deeper deficit than it faced this year. Thus, today's move represents a shell game that ensures only more uncertainty about education funding.
Interestingly, the governor's press statement made no reference to the work of House and Senate minority members who have sought to fully -- not partially -- fund the Education Finance Act with amendments of their own throughout the long budget debate.
DATELINE JUNE 5, 2003
SESSION ENDS; EDUCATION SUFFERS A HISTORIC BLOWIt's $1,701. That's exactly $500 per child less than was recommended by the Board of Economic Advisors to fund the Education Finance Act and the state's defined minimum program for public schools. It is the first time in recent history -- at least the 26-year history of the Education Finance Act -- that the General Assembly has funded schools at a rate less than it funded in the previous year.
The House's late-hour infusion of federal, one-time dollars to the Education Finance Act got caught in the last-day rush of bills, amendments and conference reports -- and an embarrassing filibuster that killed precious hours on Wednesday and today -- leaving the base student cost for 2003-04 at $1,701 per student.
Lawmakers received copies of a letter from Board of Economic Advisors Director Burnette Maybanks this morning declaring that the state suffered a shortfall of more than $25 million below anticipated revenues from sales taxes, individual income taxes and corporate income taxes. In his letter, Maybanks adds, "June is traditionally a slow month so we do not expect it to make up for May."
The news was cold water to lawmakers already wary of budgeting with federal funds that haven't yet been received.
But Senators also locked themselves out of a one- or two-day clean-up session that might have been scheduled during the week of June 16. While the House adopted a "sine die" resolution that set the clean-up date(s) -- largely to address any vetoes that Governor Mark Sanford might render on this week's ratified bills -- the Senate failed to concur with the resolution in a vote last night. [The sine die resolution did not receive the required two-thirds vote.]
