COLOMBIA – The Senate of SC on Tuesday approved a state budget that gives teachers small increases, a stipend for research workers and a hazard bonus for public officials, but they shouldn’t have that money.
The Senate voted 40-3 on the spending plan of around $ 9 billion for the fiscal year that started two and a half months ago.
But it may not go any further. House leaders indicate that the economy is too uncertain to even consider the budget proposal. If they do nothing with the bill, the state government will continue to function at last year’s spending levels.
Tuesday marked the start of a special session that lawmakers created in the spring to draft a 2020-21 budget. But House leaders seem inclined to follow Governor Henry McMaster’s request to wait at least until January to allocate the projected $ 861 million surplus to the state.
Senators highlighted the $ 50 million in their plan to increase teachers in an attempt to pressure the House.
“If the House does not accept this budget, teachers will not receive this salary increase,” said Senate Education President Greg Hembree, R-Little River.
Senator Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, said she voted against the bill because it did not provide teachers with the $ 3,000 increases proposed by lawmakers before the pandemic sank the economy.
Instead, the bill provides teachers with their normal annual raise for an additional year in the classroom. Increases in steps paid by the state, suspended without a new budget, usually represent a 2% increase and end with 23 years of experience, meaning that the state’s most veteran teachers would not yet benefit.
“They are not going to get what we are negotiating,” said Senn.
The Senate plan allocates $ 309 million of the surplus, with $ 70 million going into a reserve account for unknown COVID-19 expenses. The rest of the $ 861 million is set aside to potentially make up for deficiencies in the event the economy worsens.
“The last thing you want is to give teachers a pay raise and then have to let them go,” said Senate majority leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield. “That extra amount of money should be enough to cover any crisis that comes.”
Spending on the proposal includes $ 20 million to give $ 1,000 bonuses to public officials who had to remain on the job during the strike and were unable to work from home. Any worker who earns more than $ 50,000 would be ineligible.
He also spends $ 4.2 million to give election workers an additional $ 175 stipend in November, provides $ 6 million to hire a nurse for K-12 schools without, and provides $ 500,000 to help early respondents who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
One provision allows freshmen who were unable to take the SAT or ACT entrance exams that were canceled in the spring to still qualify for lottery-supported scholarships if they take a test by December 31 that raises their score enough to qualify.
If the House refuses to consider the bill, “they will leave many important things on the table,” said Nikki Setzler, Senate minority leader, D-West Columbia.
The Senate also passed a separate 40-2 bill on Tuesday, allocating the remaining $ 668 million in federal aid for the coronavirus. The Chamber will deal with that later this week. Congress specified that the money must be spent by December 31, or the money will go to federal coffers.
Most of the Senate proposal, $ 420 million, goes to replenishing the state’s unemployment trust fund, which has been exhausted by a historic number of sacked southern carolins. This adds to the $ 500 million previously sent to the fund by federal aid. The senators said that this prevents an increase in taxes on companies that could not avoid firing employees and are still struggling.
“There will be no increase in fees for companies in the coming year. This for me is huge for all levels of business, all sizes of companies in South Carolina,” said Sen. Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla.
The project also designates $ 20 million specifically for minority-owned companies, providing grants of up to $ 50,000 each.
Senator Richard Cash, R-Powdersville, tried unsuccessfully to make these grants more widely available to any small business owner with a personal income of less than $ 50,000, regardless of race.
His proposal failed on December 28, after Senator Darrell Jackson made it clear that the debate could get ugly in the House, which prides itself on its education.
He argued that Cash’s amendment would allow business owners smart enough to secure another federal aid to earn more, leaving small black-owned businesses with nothing.
“African Americans were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 in South Carolina, more than anyone else,” said the Democrat from Columbia. “They came to us literally crying and begging. We are talking about crumbs going to this community. … These are small salons, barber shops and auto repair shops whose customers are not leaving.”
Follow Seanna Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.