SC DPS Director: Budget Cut Would Mean More Highway Deaths

Columbia, SC—The Director of the South Carolina Department of Public Safety says if a 27 percent budget cut happens, as Senate budget writers are now considering, the state would lose nearly 300 troopers. The state has 870 troopers currently.

Mark Keel, Director of Public Safety, says that would mean slower response times to accidents and more fatalities. “We have some correlations that we can draw between the number of troopers and the number of fatalities, and I think that you’re going to see our fatality rate dramatically increase when that threat of being stopped for speeding or whatever type violation is not out there,“ he says.

Based on the state’s population, number of miles of roads and number of cars, Keel says the state should have 1,150 to 1,200 troopers. If this cut goes through, we would have about 600, the lowest number since the 1970s.

Senate budget writers are talking about the additional cuts because they need to trim another $202 million from the state budget.

The Senate Finance Committee can’t cut more from schools, health care and debt payments because of federal requirements on the stimulus money that the state has agreed to accept. It also can’t cut from the prison system or the Department of Juvenile Justice because both of those agencies are already running deficits.

That leaves as the only option deep cuts in law enforcement, economic development and social services. Department of Social Services director Kathleen Hayes says cuts to DSS could threaten food stamp, welfare and child protection programs. The agency is facing a cut of $30 million.

The cut to the Department of Public Safety would be about $20 million, on top of the $20 million already cut from the agency. That would mean Public Safety would see its budget almost cut in half in one year.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, says some of the cuts would likely stick even if the state were to accept all of the stimulus money. But the cuts are definite yet. The budget still must pass the entire Senate, then House and Senate budget writers have to work out a final version.