Deal reached on South Carolina budget

SC budget heading to Governor's desk@Live5 News

Lawmakers in S.C have agreed to a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the state’s more than $10 billion budget.

Members of a conference committee voted Thursday to approve the $10.7 billion spending plan for the upcoming year, according to Live5 News.

The spending plan includes money the state didn’t use this budget year because lawmakers feared a more serious economic downturn in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The budget compromise will give state employees at 2.5% pay raise. Teachers will also receive an additional $1,000 in pay, and law enforcement officers will see a salary bump as well.

The budget is nearly $2 billion more than last year’s budget, which lawmakers simply cut-and-pasted from the spending plan the year before due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

There's something for almost everyone in the budgetLive5 News

The budget compromise will give state employees at 2.5% pay raise. Teachers will also receive an additional $1,000 in pay, and law enforcement officers will see a salary bump as well.

The budget is nearly $2 billion more than last year’s budget, which lawmakers simply cut-and-pasted from the spending plan the year before due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Next week lawmakers will return so the full House and Senate can approve the deal and send it off to Gov. Henry McMaster, who will consider whether he’ll veto any part of the plan before the fiscal year starts July 1.

Other items in the budget deal include:

— $100 million for school construction in poor, rural areas that don’t have enough money in local property taxes to pay for it

— $34 million to expand full-day pre-kindergarten for low-income 4-year-olds across the state

— $40 million for college and universities to encourage them not to raise tuition

— $200 million for improvements at the Port of Charleston

— A nurse and police officer in every South Carolina public school

The budget will also set aside hundreds of millions into a rainy-day fund in case of future economic hardships. However, the budget does not include the $2.5 billion South Carolina received from the American Rescue Plan.

While the budget received overwhelming support in both the state’s House and Senate, Gov. Henry McMaster can still go through line by line and veto certain parts. He has five days to issue his vetoes.

Gov. McMaster celebrated the fact that some of his priorities were included in the budget.

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