Following yesterday’s budget battles in South Carolina, Gov. Mark Sanford is taking the General Assembly to court after lawmakers required him to accept $350 million in disputed federal money by overriding his budget vetoes.
STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
MARK SANFORD, GOVERNOR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joel Sawyer – 803-734-2100 – jsawyer@gov.sc.gov
Governor Sanford Issues Statement on Veto Overrides, Files Lawsuit
Columbia, S.C. – May 20, 2009 – Gov. Sanford today issued the following statement on veto overrides in the House and Senate:
“We’ve long said that spending the stimulus money in this fashion is incredibly irresponsible for the way it ignores the impact on future generations, and for the way it puts our state on shaky financial footing with a nearly $1 billion budget hole two years from now,” Gov. Sanford said. “To that end, we’re incredibly disappointed that the House and Senate would choose to run roughshod over today’s and tomorrow’s taxpayers by overriding our budget vetoes tied to the stimulus. While we’re pleased that a handful of other vetoes have been sustained, what they represent pales in comparison to this larger issue of the stimulus.”
“We know that a suit will be filed against us on this issue, and as such we’ve filed a suit tonight in response. We believe the legislature’s end-around move on the stimulus won’t pass constitutional muster, and if it were allowed to stand it would have far reaching implications for future governors of this state and for governors of other states as well.”
Gov. Sanford will hold a media availability tomorrow morning to address this federal lawsuit. The media availability will be held in the Governor’s Office of the S.C. Statehouse (1st Floor, West Wing) at 11:00 a.m. Copies of the suit will be made available after the event.
Read this article from South Carolina’s newspaper, the State, here.