Written by: Ashley Landess
A liberal think-tank in Iowa made headlines when it chastised that states leaders for cutting spending and not raising taxes at the levels other states did. The author of the report is quoted as saying Iowa was clearly out of the mainstream of how states responded to the fiscal crisis.
It is a good thing South Carolina was also out of the tax-and-spend mainstream. In fact, news articles on the Iowa report pointed out that South Carolina was one of two states that had greater percentage spending cuts than Iowa. In addition, South Carolinas change in per capita general fund spending from 1990-2001 was relatively small only a 2.6 percent increase, compared with the national average of 18.1 percent.