Dear Legislator,

I just wanted to let you know that SC Club for Growth will score ALL of today’s budget veto votes in the SC House of Representatives and any subsequent votes in the SC Senate. Those votes will be included in SC Club for Growth’s 2010 Legislative Scorecards.

Today’s votes are critical. Mainly, sustaining the vetoes will set our state back on the course to financial order. South Carolina will lose around $1 Billion in federal stimulus funds next year, but the budget passed this year actually grows government by around 4 percent. Tough decisions must be made on spending, and better now than passing responsibility down the road.

Increased scorecard weight will be given to some budget veto votes including the following:

Vetoes 48 and 49 – House and Senate Budget Increase
At a time when teachers and law enforcement officers are losing their jobs, it is unfathomable that legislators would increase their own budgets. Yet this year’s state budget passed with a combined budget increase of over $4 million for the House and Senate. Legislators should sustain the governor’s veto.

Veto 50 – Lt. Governor’s Security Detail
Excluding the governor, none of the other constitutional officers require a security detail and they have full-time positions.  This boondoggle of a perk was ended by Bob Peeler nearly 20 years ago, but Andre Bauer successfully lobbied for its return. After seeing their dollars wasted over the last few years, South Carolina taxpayers are the ones most in need of security these days, and the details aren’t pretty.

Veto 52 – Budget and Control Board
South Carolina’s “only one in the nation” Budget and Control Board continues to carry forward approximately $60 million in unrestricted funds. The Budget and Control Board should rely on these funds to get through a tough budget year.

Veto 107 – Part IV Federal Medical Assistance Packages (“FMAP”)
Including FMAP funding in the state budget without a federal appropriation amounts to passing an unbalanced budget. Given the unlikelihood of Congress passing an extra two quarters of funding, SC Club for Growth believes it is in the best interests of taxpayers to deal with the problem “now.”

Sincerely,
SC Club for Growth