BRIEF: Vetoes, flag on agenda for week ahead

Staff reports | State lawmakers return to Columbia Monday for a special session to deal with Gov. Nikki Haley’s 87 line-item budget vetoes and to consider whether to take the Confederate flag off the Statehouse grounds.

At 1 p.m.  Monday, the House will start with discussions on vetoes. The Senate, which has to wait to deal with vetoes until the House is finished, is expected to begin its session at 10 a.m. Monday with consideration of removal of the Confederate flag.

State. Sen. Lee Bright, a GOP flag supporter from Spartanburg, is expected to try to get his colleagues to back a measure that would put the flag question to voters. His efforts may delay the inevitable as media outlets report there are more than enough senators on the record who say they want the flag removed.

Haley pointed to an increase in “pork-barrel projects” and earmarks as reasons for many vetoes. Among vetoes of interest in the state’s $7 billion spending plan of state revenues:

• $5 million for water quality grants by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control
• $2.1 million for new positions at Clemson and its research and extension programs;
• $2 million to the state Election Commission to run the 2016 presidential primaries;
• $2 million for the “Certified SC” agricultural promotion program;
• $1.5 million to the state Department of Archives and History for building restoration, and $250,000 for architectural heritage preservation;
• $1 million for arts education;
• $1 million for the Medal of Honor Museum at Patriots Point;
• $1 million for the S.C. Aquarium;
• $875,000 for sports marketing;
• $850,000 for economic development efforts in Marion, Richland, Williamsburg and York counties;
• $712,000 for new positions at the state Department of Education;
• $500,000 for downtown Hartsville renovations and $500,000 for the Hartsville Center Theater
• $300,000 for a study of state employee salaries;
• $250,000 for the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition;
• $250,000 to renovate the Horry County Museum;
• $250,000 for improvements at University Center in Greenville;
• $125,000 for marketing for the Columbia boyhood home of President Woodrow Wilson