South Carolina’s jobless rate reached a new high of 12.3% in November, 2009. Another 5,896 people became jobless, bringing the total number of unemployed state residents to 266,330 last month. According to The Sun News, since January 2007, demand for food stamps in South Carolina has grown from around 550,000 people to about 730,000. South Carolina’s state budget is $98 million short, prompting another wave of budget cuts for schools, social services, health care and prisons. Clearly we are a state in crisis.

The South Carolina state legislature will reconvene in January. In other states this might be a hopeful sign, prompting hope that perhaps lawmakers would respond to the fiscal crisis with well crafted, targeted legislation that could turn things around. After reviewing some of the bills pre-filed by our Republican dominated legislature, I’m not very optimistic.  The State Newspaper reports that the state Senate is putting smaller government and more austere budgeting at the top of its 2010 legislative agenda. The old blood from a turnip analogy applies to this type of thinking, with tax collections at a low ebb thanks to record unemployment-how exactly does tightening the old belt work in this case?

Rather than focus on job creation and supporting the jobless in their efforts to find new employment, our lawmakers are taking a more punitive and expensive approach. State Senator David Thomas of Greenville is proposing legislation that would require drug screens for those who receive unemployment checks. As a jobless person, I take this a bit personally, the implication that our unemployed state is somehow our fault and the state is therefore going to treat you like a criminal and try to deny you financial support. If you find yourself in favor of this idea, consider the costs. In October 2009, 5,896 people lost their jobs. Drug screens for these people at a cost of $25.00 each, would add up to $150,000 per month to our state budget. I fail to see the logic to demanding 3% cuts for all state agencies but adding another $1.8 million to the budget and another layer of bureaucracy.

When all else fails our esteemed lawmakers are always willing to set up another commission to study the problem. Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler teamed up with Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell to set up a commission to study ways to streamline the government. Their report would be due January 2011.

There were other measures including one to make Veterans Day a holiday for all South Carolina schools  but nothing addressing job creation, tax reform or anything resembling  long term solutions or even band-aid fixes to our myriad of problems.

It really bothers me that the Republican response to a crisis for both our state as a whole and to hundreds of thousands of hard working families appears to be punitive and directed at our most vulnerable citizens- children, the poor and prisoners. Our schools lost $217 million in funding in 2009 and $513 million the previous year. With record numbers of people out of work the need for social services has never been greater and yet the Department of Social Services has already laid off 45 employees, lost funding for 350 jobs and forced all staff to take unpaid time off through furloughs. Image how that feels to have your case loads doubled by staff cuts and increasing need and be told to take unpaid time off, pushing you farther behind.

I guess I’m just dumbfounded at the lack of leadership, empathy and understanding of how bad things are and how much people are hurting. If anyone wants to understand this economic crisis, make a trip down to the unemployment office any day of the week and just spend an hour chatting with the folks in line. Or head down to the local food pantry and engage those people waiting for food to feed their families. Times are tough in South Carolina and our elected officials don’t seem to care.