South Carolina lawmakers had to make hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts following the Great Recession – and it appears to have had an interesting effect on the state’s spending.
In 2007, a year before the Great Recession hit, South Carolina’s reserves equaled 2.56 percent of its spending – good enough for 35th in the country, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group.
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But in 2013, South Carolina’s reserves equaled 6.04 percent of its spending, giving it the 10th best percentage in the country.
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“Although these rates are a far cry from 18% and fall below even the lower end of the spectrum of expected revenue shortfalls during an economic downturn (13%), they are nevertheless a significant improvement from 6 years ago,” Richard Borean, a spokesman for the Tax Foundation, said in a news release.
Reach Beam at (803) 386-7038.