COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – The South Carolina House approved the state’s $ 9.8 billion budget on Tuesday, which offers small increases for most teachers and some police officers, but not for other state officials .
Republican leaders have pledged a bonus or a raise for most lower-paid employees if somewhat optimistic forecasts about the state’s economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis come to pass after taxes are collected this spring.
“To ensure that we thank public officials and acknowledge their hard work and sacrifice – we need to do this with an increase in their salaries,” said Rep. Murrell Smith, Republican chairman of the House’s Ways and Means Committee, who writes the budget.
Smith said that if for some reason the collection of taxes is not sufficient to guarantee the annual revenue of an increase, he will press for a bonus.
Smith was responding to Congresswoman Gilda Cobb-Hunter, who made her annual trip to the House to ask for the increases.
“State officials are sick of hearing them wait until next year,” said the Orangeburg Democrat.
Cobb-Hunter raised his fists when Smith made his promise, although he also made the motion that overturned, for the time being, his proposal to spend $ 41.5 million on a 2.5% increase for public servants earning less than $ 75,000 .
State officials appreciated the praise for working during the pandemic. But “there is no newspaper that goes along with that compliment,” said Cobb-Hunter.
She promised that she would ask for a 5% increase later this year.
The House voted 112-6 to approve the budget on Tuesday. The spending plan for the fiscal year beginning in July faces yet another routine vote on Wednesday, before moving on to the Senate.
But that is probably far from the final word on spending. The latest estimate of tax revenues made in February caused the state to collect less than $ 19 million in additional money each year, but economists said sales and income taxes were coming in at a much higher rate and the South Carolina could find itself with hundreds of millions of dollars of new annual revenue.
House leaders decided to be conservative and wait for taxes to enter the state’s accounts before spending them.
“Those of us who went through the Great Recession saw us devastating the state government. We are still recovering, ”said Smith of the 2008 economic disaster, where the state budget fell 25% from $ 7.4 billion to $ 5.5 billion in two years.
The share of the budget that lawmakers now control is just under $ 10 billion.
The Chamber plans to return in late May or June for more budget hearings.
“As you heard the president say, there will be a 2.0 budget,” said deputy Nathan Ballentine, R-Chapin.
The 2021-22 fiscal year spending plan includes money for small annual salary increases for teachers based on their years of service that typically increase their salary by several hundred dollars a year. It also adds about $ 16 million for similar small increases and other bonuses to retain police and prison officials.
The spending plan also includes:
– $ 150 million to repair and renovate buildings at various colleges and universities
– $ 27 million for two nursing homes for veterans.
– $ 31 million to cover scholarships awarded by the state in the event of a drop in lottery proceeds normally used to pay for them.
– $ 50 million to establish a state disaster relief fund.
– $ 30 million to improve broadband Internet, a need that was felt most severely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
– $ 5.5 million to place a nurse in each school.
– $ 21 million to try to boost the tourism industry after the pandemic almost closed it.
– $ 1 million to buy excavators and other forest fire-fighting equipment for the state Forestry Commission with closed taxis to protect drivers.
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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.