Sanford announces plans on spending the stimulus money

Governor Mark Sanford says he will ask the White House for a waiver so that $700 million in stimulus money can be used to pay down South Carolina’s debt and contingent liabilities.

South Carolina is slated to receive $2.8 billion from the stimulus money.  Out of that money, only $700 million comes under the governor’s discretion.  The rest of the money, about $2.1 billion, will come to the state regardless of whether Sanford agrees or not.

Governor Sanford has opposed the federal stimulus package because he doesn’t believe we should spend money we don’t have.  Sanford says we shouldn’t pass on a substantial bill for today’s government services on to future generations and because the massive run-up in government spending could devalue the American dollar.

“Families and small businesses across South Carolina are making incredibly difficult choices without the benefit of checks from Washington D.C., and in the long run we believe these stimulus funds will be better used in shoring up our state debts, which over time will have a stronger impact on the state economy,” Gov. Sanford said. “Just as this stimulus bill piles debt upon future generations, we have substantial unpaid for political promises at the state level that will prove to be equally burdensome on future generations of South Carolinians. For that reason, we believe it fitting for us to be granted flexibility with these stimulus dollars to indeed begin the process of addressing those substantial debts so that future generations aren’t stuck with the double pain of paying back unsustainable federal and state spending.”

South Carolina currently has roughly $20 billion in unfunded political promises in its retirement system, and stands at number one in the entire Southeast in per capita debt.  The state is 57 percent above the Southeastern average and three times higher than neighboring Georgia in its per capita debt load.  The proposed stimulus dollars would annualize – spend one time money on recurring needs – over $1.2 billion in the next two years, which amounts to approximately 10 percent of the state’s budget. This level of new annualized spending would be the largest recorded level of annualizations in state history.

View the Governor’s letter to the General Assembly by clicking on this link:

http://static.mgnetwork.com/cbd/media_path/documents/310StimulusLettertoGeneralAssembly.pdf