The Other Brooks Brothers and Their Sister, Too. — “Suddenly-relevant”

The AP’s Statehouse reporter Jim Davenport penned a piece this morning stating “SC state agencies bracing for bad spending news.”

Good. It’s about time.

When state government continues growing faster than the taxpayers’ abilities to pay for increases, a little spending slowdown may be in order.

After all, we are talking about the same state government that blew $1.5 billion in surplus finds in about 3 years.

It makes sense to tighten the belt, to cut the purse strings, to take away the checkbook.

Do we spend at home when we don’t have the money? Of course we do. That’s how credit card companies are bleeding consumers dry and taking their homes through defaults on subprime mortgages.

It’s our fault as consumers that our own sense of personal fiscal responsibility has become so warped, but there are consequences to pay. Why can’t government learn from our mistakes?

It’s entirely possible that state government is just being duped.

Proponents of spending increases are spreading their message that the world will end unless governmental agencies each get blank checks.

Kids will die from a lack of health care, but they won’t know it because the cuts in education will have them too dumb to realize they’re sick. Trash will pile up along the sides of the road because we won’t be able to pay for sanitation collection. Criminals will control the streets because we can’t fund law enforcement. The Four Horsemen (These Guys, not These Guys) will take over the Budget and Control Board.

To listen to the state’s bureaucrats, they are Nell Fenwick being tied to the railroad tracks by Snidely Whiplash who stands by laughing maniacally and twirling his mustache as the train speeds down spelling an almost certain doom unless Dudley Do-Right gallops in on Horse, unties her and gives her the keys to the state’s bank account, thereby saving the day.

That’s a load of garbage. The state will continue to function with a smaller budget. There just may be fewer government employees feeding from the taxpayers’ trough.

Just in case you’re wondering, the business community agrees and has taken an active role in pushing spending limits. Groups like the SC Chamber and the NFIB have actively endorsed proposals for government to operate more like businesses. It’s only government groups like the Municipal Association who are spreading the message of doom.

“A local spending cap would limit local leaders’ ability to meet public safety and public service demands such as hiring more police officers and firefighters, purchasing fire trucks or bullet-proof vests and providing water and sewer services to a new industrial park - all needs that are based on the demand of local taxpayers.” – MASC Talking Points Paper Developed in the Fall of 2007

Enough is enough. It’s time that our government acted like businesses and spent (or saved) the way we should. There’s no shame in not spending.

So to Jim Davenport who told us today that “SC state agencies bracing for bad spending news,” thanks for the good news.

– Wilson Charles