WHAT’S GOING ON: Senate Panel Votes to Prohibit State Agency Deficit Spending

A state Senate Judiciary Committee panel favorably polled a new set of initiatives yesterday designed to curtail “fiscal irresponsibility in state agencies,” according to Senate Republican Caucus spokesman Wesley Donehue.

The panel’s slate of bills targets waste and is aimed at making agencies more accountable for spending practices.

Measures include spending caps, deficit limits, and budget provisions “that will benefit South Carolina taxpayers and reflects our commitment to a smaller, leaner bureaucracy. They will introduced for consideration by both houses in the upcoming legislative session,” Donehue said.

According to a caucus statement, “For years it seems that state agencies have dodged fiscally sound management, and as a result not only the agency has suffered, but the taxpayer has as well. Rather than implementing cost-effective, results based solutions to serve the public; state agencies have gone with budget increases as a quick fix. An increased budget in turn has only created more waste and financial mismanagement. These measures will serve to tackle the root of the problem- how agencies function and disperse funding to programs in the first place.”

“Instead of throwing more money away in hopes of a solution, agencies can eliminate unneeded programs and divert funding towards a realistic, ‘fiscally fit’ agenda,” Donehue said.