www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200406280927.asp
June 28, 2004, 9:27 am With-It Sanford The free-market South Carolina governor. COLUMBIA, SC For someone who battles big government all day long, Mar k Sanford is incredibly relaxed. After locking horns with lawmakers, the Palmetto State's Republican governor spent a recent evening sipping a B ud Light and chatting in a Polo shirt and khakis. As befits this 44-year -old who runs and swims daily, the Dave Matthews Band plays quietly on h is sound system. "We've saved 50 percent on headcount at the Governor's Mansion and 45 per cent on operating expenses," Sanford says. Despite insisting that public frugality begin at home for him and South Carolina's First Family, Sanf ord and his staff know how to make their guests comfortable. "We're like ducks in a pond," says Andy Marchant, the ante bellum mansion 's executive chef, after serving southwestern Caesar salad and swordfish . Unlike so many Republican governors today, Sanford and his team take limi ted government seriously. While New York's George Pataki outspends Mario Cuomo, his liberal Democrat predecessor, and Nevada's Kenny Guinn initi ates a 5 to 10 percent live-entertainment tax, Sanford promotes the Reag anite, market-friendly principles that distinguished him as a self-limit ed, three-term US congressman. Sanford aggressively advocated Social S ecurity choice and earned Straight As and the "Taxpayers' Best Friend" h onor from the National Taxpayers Union.
"We made the Department of Motor Vehicles part of the Cabinet," Sanford says. It's now "directly accountable to the governor r ather than its own island of government. With closer oversight and by offering Internet transactions inste ad of office visits, average DMV waiting times have fallen from 90 minut es to 15. Letting auto dealers issue new license plates also has helped cut DMV's budget 17 percent.
Atop $53 million in assorted tax relief he secured thi s year, Sanford's $1 billion income-tax cut would slash rates from 7 to 475 percent (a 32-percent reduction). The Republican house passed it be fore Democrats filibustered it in the GOP Senate.
Facing a $155 million deficit this year, Sanford negot iated with legislators and won $139 million in debt repayment. Some alli es urged Sanford to declare victory with 90 percent of a loaf. He refuse d, seeing any deficit as both unconstitutional and a precedent for futur e deficits. Like being three days pregnant, a splash of red ink is no bi g deal today. Over time, though, both likely grow into far more urgent s ituations. Sanford issued 106 vetoes to close this $16 million gap. Sanford responded May 27 by walking into the stat ehouse rotunda with a squealing piglet under each arm. "Wait a minute," he asked in the Charleston Post and Courier. "There is plenty of money f or 'pork' projects for individual members' districts, but no way to carv e out any savings to pay off the deficit?" While many legislators and pundits frowned, talk radio hosts loved it. Despite or perhaps because of this, Sanford's approval numbers exceed 70 percent. "Mark Sanford truly gets it," says Ed McMullen, President of Columbia's f ree-market South Carolina Policy Council. "He understands that limited g overnment is an objective. "His plan to reduce marginal income tax rates by close to one third is on e of the most aggressive income tax cut plans in the nation," says Steph en Slivinski, budget-studies director at Washington's libertarian Cato I nstitute. "Based on that alone, he deserves recognition as one of the be st governors in the nation." With the legislature adjourned, Sanford will spend 2004 building grassroo ts support for his program and asking voters to elect sympathetic lawmak ers. Free-marketeers seeking someone to carry Ronald Reagan's banner in 2008 should keep their eyes on Columbia.
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