AND IT’S BALANCED… FOR NOW

As tempted as I am to be cynical about the likelihood of the State House’s budget making it through the Senate and beyond the governor’s pen in tact, I must admit that I am shocked to hear they have already passed something — unanimously, at that. And what they passed is astounding for 21st Century South Carolina legislators: a balanced budget that cuts government growth by 4.5 percent yet still fully funds education and health care.

Which is exactly why it won’t make it past the Senate.

“In the midst of a nation-wide economic slow down, the House rejected efforts to raise taxes and instead funded key areas of government while cutting others,” House Speaker Bobby Harrell said. “I am pleased to see the House pass a budget that addresses our state’s educational priorities, our health care concerns and focuses on key economic development tools needed to grow our state’s economy.”

In order to fully fund health care and prevent cuts to crucial services, the House utilized $100 million from a Department of Health and Human Services reserve account that totaled over $270 million, leaving the agency with over $170 million in reserve. The funds used from the DHHS’s quarter-billion dollar reserve account were only used to fund health care related items, not other areas of government.

“After reviewing the Governor’s agency budget request to use $30 million from a DHHS reserve account, the House discovered the agency was holding over a quarter of a billion dollars in reserve accounts,” Health, Human Services and Medicaid Subcommittee Chairman Tracy Edge said. “We expanded on the Governor’s initial use of this reserve account and fully fund health care while still leaving the agency with over $170 million in reserves.”

The problem is, even if the Senate doesn’t load this up with pork, Gov. Mark Sanford is still bound to line-item veto at least 17 million programs, give or take a million. Whether that’s right or wrong, it still means we probably won’t have a budget until late June or early July.