South Carolina Statehouse Blog

This week, South Carolina’s General Assembly is meeting to discuss the budget shortfall and in particular, cuts that can be made to the budget. Representative Michael Pitts agreed to give me an interview about his thoughts on the budget cut bill, H. 5300.

To start off, I asked Representative Pitts what are some of the most significant budget cuts that had been proposed. Pitts answered by saying that some of South Carolina’s service agencies are looking at proposed cuts as high as 14-15% which have caused him great “concern.” The two agencies that he focused on were the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department and the Department of Transportation.

Pitts explained that Vocational Rehab is an agency that helps to put people back to work who have suffered disabilities and put people to work who have been born with disabilities. Compared to some other South Carolina agencies, this agency he described as a “hand up agency and not a hand out agency.”

“We have some agencies that I deem ‘rerun agencies’ because they are a revolving door for the same clientele that come in, go out, come in, go out and I call them ‘hand out’ agencies” Pitts explained.

Compared to these ‘rerun agencies’ that constantly are giving out money, Vocational Rehabilitation has been able to help create productive citizens that are able to financially contribute to this state’s economy.

“I don’t think we should hit an agency that is doing as good a job as Voc Rehab with the same level [of cuts] as we hit others,” Representative Pitts continued.

The Department of Transportation was the other agency that Representative Pitts believes shouldn’t be seeing as large of a cut as it is. He pointed out that many of South Carolina’s roads are in poor condition and that 60% of South Carolina’s bridges have been deemed unsatisfactory by the federal government.

“This state is absolutely dependent on our road infrastructure because we are a tourist-based economy. We have to have good roads.”

While these two agencies are seeing large cuts, K-12 education isn’t seeing that large of a cut and Representative Pitts doesn’t think this should be the case.

Pitts points out that the K-12 system in South Carolina is one of the most top-heavy administrative areas in the entire state government and it supports many programs which are little more than “subsidized daycare.”

“I’m not saying education is not important [and] I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be funded,” Pitts explained, “But you create a second series of problems when you create a ‘sacred cow’ like K-12.”

This second series of problems are the larger cuts service agencies like Vocational Rehab and the Department of Transportation will potentially experience because legislators leave alone the ’sacred cow.’ This, according to Pitts, could lead to morale problems and divisions between state employees, particularly between education and the service agencies, because education will be considered the “golden child and the others the redheaded step children.”

In order to make the cuts more even between the service agencies referred to above and K-12, Representative Pitts would recommend the following three things. First, he proposes administrative cuts in order to make K-12 administration “leaner, cleaner, and meaner.” Second, he proposes less administrative offices and third, he would look to cut school programs, like K4, that are very expensive but only benefit small groups.

In conclusion, when asked how he would vote on the bill’s final passage, Pitts said the following:

“When looking at the mid-year agency based reductions that we will be voting on tomorrow, unless something changes from the form I have in my hand, I will be voting against it. [In order for me to vote for it] there would have to be less of a cut to our service agencies and more of a cut to some of the ‘sacred cow.’”