THINK YOU KNOW THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATE BUDGET?
1) Including state, federal, and “other” funds, the budget totals approximately
a. $6.6 Billion
b. $8.6 Billion
c. $17.3 Billion
d. $23.6 Billion
2) Approximately what % of appropriations in the budget are federally funded?
a. 12.9%
b. 23.1%
c. 36.4%
d. 75.3%
3) Compared to last year’s budget, the FY 2012-13 Budget
a. decreased approximately $1.2 billion
b. essentially stayed the same
c. increased approximately $500 million
d. increased approximately $1.3 billion
4) How much is appropriated in film subsidies (a.k.a. tax breaks for Hollywood producers)?
a. $10 million
b. $5 million
c. $1 million
d. Of course none, that would be absurd.
5) About $440,000 was spent on 4 new
a. Statues of Strom Thurmond
b. Security officers for the lieutenant governor
c. Copies of the SC Constitution
d. Staplers
6) How much money did the House tack on for itself at the very end of the budget process?
a. None
b. They actually cut $500,000 from their original budget
c. $2.5 million
d. All of the money
7) Of the approximately $30 million South Carolina received from the National Mortgage Settlement Fund, how much was actually spent directly to support those affected by the housing crisis?
a. All $30 million
b. $15 million
c. $2 million
d. None
8) Approximately what % of the budget did Governor Nikki Haley veto?
a. 0%
b. .25%
c. 1%
d. 15%
9) (T/F) State lawmakers can and do serve on regional “economic development” boards that are appropriated $5 million in this year’s budget.
a. True
b. False
10) (T/F) As the South Carolina state code mandates, the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees held public hearings after the governor proposed her budget.
a. True
b. False
Answers: 1) d. 2) c. 3) d. 4) a. 5) b. 6) c. 7) d. 8) b. 9) t. 10) f.
These indicators are the reason South Carolinians are so fed up with the way things are done Under the Capital dome. Change will come when we elect officals that will hold themselves to higher standards, and are willing to paddle upstream.
I only scored a 90% on the quiz. I thought I’d heard something somewhere that film subsidies had been eliminated. Imagine my surprise when, properly deducing that since the question was part of the quiz that must not be true, I learned that the legislature had gone “all-in” on subsidies!
Again, I underestimate the lengths to which our legislature will go in their fiscal irresponsibility!
What was I thinking?
Stuff like this can go on in a state like SC, because the federal government is so messed up. We are so busy tring to stop DC that we do not have time to stop this kind of stuff at the state level.
No one covers this stuff because it is so comon place that its not news.