NEWS BRIEFS: State budget proposes more for teachers, nurses, guards

Staff reports  |  The S.C. House Ways and Means committee on Thursday approved a $9.8 billion state budget proposal that would spend more money on teachers, nurses, guards and prisons. The proposal will be debated by the full House in two weeks. 

The budget includes “a limited amount of new recurring projected revenue, just $180 million to spend — down from the $800 million they expected to have before the pandemic — and they also have $956 million of nonrecurring dollars available,” according to The State.

In other recent news:

Bill allowing open carry in S.C. heads to House floor.  After the House Judiciary Committee voted 16-8 Tuesday to approve a measure allowing the open carry of handguns, the bill headed to the House floor.  Expect it to be debated next week on the House floor. More: AP/WSPA.

S.C. Senate committee passes bill making it easier to access birth control.  After the legislature passed a measure to essentially end all abortions, a GOP-sponsored bill that would allow pharmacists to prescribe a woman a contraceptive without a patient-specific prescription has passed a state Senate committee. More: WCSC TV.  Also see The Post and Courier.

Straddling the fence.  A new profile in The New Yorker of the South Carolina fissure between Trump acolytes and old-time Republicans has Charleston County GOP Chairman Maurice Washington in a pickle, Peter Slevin reports: “It’s hard to please everyone, Washington said, especially when some of his fellow-Republicans can barely stand one another. But he believes that the best way forward for the Party, if it hopes to remain viable in contested districts, is to welcome everyone. Even QAnon believers? “Absolutely,” he said. “Look, you can’t be dismissive of people who have strong viewpoints. People have got to be open-minded to hear things they don’t want to hear, but still stay at the meeting. The choice was to condemn, correct, and create a further divide. To do it in the midst of peers, you put people where? On the defensive.”

S.C. superintendent pleads to stop trans sports bill, GOP advances it anyway. State Superintendent Molly Spearman asked a House subcommittee Wednesday to stop a bill effectively banning transgender students from school sports, saying it would make it harder to make sure all students feel protected on campus. The committee gave the OK for the bill to move ahead minutes later. More: Charleston City Paper/

S.C. Senate bill could do away with sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities.  A South Carolina law that allows people with disabilities to be paid less than minimum wage could be phased out under a bill filed by Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, earlier this month. More: Charleston City Paper

S.C. Senate approves reinstatement of small annual raises for teachers. A proposal that would pay South Carolina teachers the small annual raises that were postponed at the start of the school year because of economic uncertainty with the pandemic passed the Senate Tuesday. More: AP News

Office of Resilience doesn’t get funding request. Gov. Henry McMaster did not put in a request to fund the Office of Resilience to pay for flood management projects around the state. McMaster’s office said the office needs to be operational before the governor can recommend additional funding. More: The Post and Courier

S.C. adds firing squad to list of execution methods.  South Carolina senators Tuesday added a firing squad to the electric chair as alternatives if the state can’t execute condemned inmates by way of lethal injection.  More: AP News