STATE ONLY FACES CATEGORY FOUR FISCAL DISASTER, NOT FIVE

BROKEN BANK, S.C. (TPS) - It doesn’t take an economic genius to understand that when the majority of a state’s legislature models its spending practices after the “King of Pork” Sen. Robert Byrd and when the board responsible for managing that state’s budget can do pretty much anything it wants without restraint — including handing out politically-motivated no-bid contracts and offering up double-digit pay raises to the leaders of the bloated bureaucracy — the resulting financial forecast is likely to resemble a monetary Hurricane Andrew. Thankfully though, like the mainstream media, we’re not economic geniuses, so we rely on “economic advisers” to spoon-feed us undisputed, possibly correct information. And according to “them,” we’re basically off the hook.

That’s because — as “they” told Associated Press Friday — despite South Carolina’s complete disregard for fiscal discipline, the impending storm isn’t going to be a category five hurricane but only a category four or really strong category three.

South Carolina’s economic advisers said Thursday that projections for this year’s $7.1 billion state budget are “right on target,” but they warn a economic slowdown is coming.

Tough budget decisions still lie ahead, said Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford.

An infusion of cash in October erased a three-month deficit and put the state $13 million ahead for 2007-08, said South Carolina’s chief economist, Bill Gillespie.

“You’re right on target,” Gillespie told the Board of Economic Advisors. “We’ve never been this close at this time of the year.”

The news eased fears of midyear budget cuts. But board Chairman John Rainey warned the economy is fickle. He still thinks the state is heading toward a slowdown but said it should be short. [AP]

Phew! Looks like we really dodged that one.

Our budget is just like a credit card… we can spend as much as we want and never have to worry about paying for it. It’s basically free money. In fact, why even have a budget?

What we really need to do is find a rich uncle (we nominate Connecticut). Then, anytime we see something we like, we can just get crazy ol’ uncle Connecticut to give us more money. We can have gold-paved roads and buildings made of antique ivory and we’ll never have to worry about a thing.

Now excuse us while we go hit up a few state legislators for a nice crisp $100 bill to light our celebratory cigars.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Executive, Legislature, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.