School district reacts

General Manager

COLUMBIA - State legislators returned to Columbia last week to find ways to cut the state budget, and in the end, they both houses approved a $488 million reduction plan.

However, Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., said he they missed their chance to improve the budget.

"While we're pleased that the Senate stuck with the overall approach we called for in making targeted cuts, we're disappointed that they didn't take this opportunity to address some real flaws in the spending plan," Sanford said.

"As we have said before, parts of this plan tie the hands of Medicaid, Commerce, and Parks, Recreation and Tourism in terms of not giving them the flexibility they need to perform their missions," he said.

Sanford also said the plan would not do anything to get the state out of the estimated $270 million annualization hole it's in.

According to Senate officials, all agencies will be impacted by the budget reductions, but lawmakers worked to minimized reductions for K-12 education and the Department of Corrections.

The version of the supplemental budget bill sent to the governor includes an 8.1 percent cut in state funding for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Overall, agencies affected had cuts ranging from 0.1 percent to 14.3 percent, said Greg Foster, a spokesperson for the House of Representatives.

"It's never a pleasant experience to have to cut budgets for good programs," Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, told The Sentinel. "However, declining economic conditions have forced practically every state that doesn't have oil revenue to make some tough budget adjustments."

Martin said there was an extraordinary amount of cooperation between the House and Senate last week while working on the revised budget.

"That was the only bright spot in an otherwise difficult week," he said. "It is my sincere hope that economic conditions will stabilize soon and that further budget revisions will not be required after the first of the year."

Sanford said he will take a closer look at the plan and determine if anything can be corrected via a veto. His is supposed to make a decision on the bill by Thursday.

"In the meantime, it bears repeating that at the end of the day, this budget is the result of four years of reckless overspending by the legislature," he said. "Government has grown far faster than the pocketbooks and wallets of average South Carolinians, and the result of that overspending are likely going to be felt well into the future."

School district reacts to budget crunch

In reaction to deepening state budget cuts, school district officials announced Monday they have "sequestered" supply and travel funds.

They sequestered more than $800,000, according to Missy Campbell, who heads up the finance department for the district.

Campbell said school district officials learned Monday there will be an 8.5 percent reduction in Education Improvement Act (EIA) funding.

"We will find out in the next few days how that will affect us," she said.

Superintendent Lee D'Andrea and Campbell plan to present a fiscal year 2009 budget to the school board that will reflect the current economic conditions on Nov. 24.

"We need to make different spending decisions," Campbell said.

She said possible solutions for dealing with funding cuts include using the approximate $500,000 general fund balance and the $704,000 in state Barnwell funds for instructional salaries and benefits.

Campbell also said she is reviewing suggestions made by staff, always keeping in mind how possible cuts may impact the classroom.

She said to date, the school district has about $2 million in aggregated losses.

Alex Saitta, the financial expert on the school board, said the district is spending about $150 million a year and that about $60 million goes to non-classroom expenses.

"There is a lot of wasteful spending on things like new logos, Celebrations of Learning parties at Littlejohn Coliseum, replacing soap dispensers two and three times, buying vehicles for employees and paying too many district administrators more than $100,000 a year," he said.

"It is reprehensible that the first thing they cut is classroom supplies by 50 percent," he said. "Their priorities are all wrong. The board needs to take leadership of the budget process and order superintendent D'Andrea to confine her cuts to non-classroom expenses."

Dr. Jim Brice, who represented Easley, thanked Campbell for building the fund balance.

"That will save us some grief because we have some money in the bank," he said.