By Jack O’Toole, updated 4 p.m., June 21, 2024 | After a week’s delay and significant backroom maneuvering, the $14 billion state budget is back on track and headed toward final passage next week.
Members of the joint House and Senate conference committee tasked with brokering a deal to reconcile the budget bills passed by each chamber met at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Moments later, a budget spreadsheet with details of the final compromise was introduced and passed unanimously.
“We’ve had a very successful time dealing with the budget,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, told conferees. “I’m proud of it.”
Highlights of the compromise budget include:
- A state income tax rate cut from 6.4% to 6.2%, providing a billion dollars in annual tax relief.
- Starting teacher pay increased to $47,000 from $42,500.
- A $1,125 annual pay raise for state employees making less than $50,000 and a 2.5% raise for those making $50,000 or more. In addition, employee health insurance plan price increases were fully covered by the state.
- Full funding for the planned Clemson University veterinary school ($175 million) and the new University of South Carolina medical school campus ($100 million).
- $200 million toward bridge repairs, plus an additional $200 million for county transportation committees.
- $117 million for rural road improvements.
- $47 million for rural infrastructure.
Barring any last minute snags, both chambers are expected to pass the final 2024-25 budget in a special session on June 26.
In other recent news:
DHEC hands off restaurant inspections to new agency. The state Department of Health and Environmental Control formally will transfer its food safety staff to the S.C. Department of Agriculture’s Consumer Protection Division in less than two weeks. Inspectors will continue to oversee inspections of 22,000 retail food establishments across South Carolina.
Advocates push S.C. lawmakers to do more for suicide prevention. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the number of suicides in South Carolina are increasing, pushing advocates to launch efforts. to slow the number down.
Book on race removed from S.C. classrooms by budget proviso, but teacher taught it again. One year after a lesson on a Black author’s memoir was shut down in a Midlands classroom, drawing national attention to the situation, the teacher brought it back.
Budget proviso could make it hard to enforce beach protection laws. “Legislation that could require South Carolina to pay wealthy seaside property owners who win legal battles involving oceanfront development has been approved as part of the state budget.”
Upstate activists pushing for hate crimes law. South Carolina, one of only two states without a hate crimes law, is getting a renewed push to get one after racist threats in the Upstate.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!