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Now even GOP legislators upset with Sanford on stimulus
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Mar 21, 2009 06:33pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By James Rosen | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday rejected Gov. Mark Sanford's request to use part of South Carolina's economic stimulus money to pay down state debt, saying Congress didn't authorize such payments in the law it passed last month.
After getting Obama's response, Sanford reiterated his rejection of stimulus funds and said he would ask the South Carolina General Assembly to offset stimulus-based spending with debt payments.
"If our General Assembly chooses to make use of this federal money, we'd ask them to use existing state resources to begin paying down our state's sizable liabilities," Sanford said.
That notion prompted reactions bordering on disbelief from Republican leaders of the General Assembly.
"In a time of record shortfalls and budget cuts, the governor wasn't able to find the money to pay off the debt in his budget," said Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, a Charleston Republican. "How in the world does he expect us to find it? There's a real disconnect here."
S.C. Senate Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman delivered a sharp rebuke.
"The governor's request that the legislature pay off state debt if we receive the stimulus money is a foolish request," said Leatherman, a Florence Republican. "Our budget has been cut by $1.1 billion in the last year. There is no money."
Aides to S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell noted that Sanford's proposed fiscal 2009-10 budget contains no debt payments. |
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