Haley’s budget would add police, vaccines -- but no pay raises

Gov. Nikki Haley is proposing a 4.5 percent increase in state spending next year, including more money for police officers, vaccines for poor children and three new family court judges to help with that court’s massive case backlog

But Haley’s proposal for the state’s general fund, her first as governor, does not include a pay increase for state workers. If that no-raise proposal passes the Legislature, it would mark the fourth year in a row that state employees have gone without a raise.

However, Haley’s budget also includes an extra $100 million in taxpayer contributions to the state pension system and a proposed $84-a-year tax cut for every S.C. worker – including state employees – who makes more than $5,600 a year.

“I want to give state employees raises. I think they deserve it,” Haley said. “But it is more important we get these agencies in order in which (state employees) work in, and we give them stronger agencies to go into work everyday.”

State lawmakers will likely require state employees to pay more into the retirement system – basically a pay cut – in order to help eliminate the $13 billion deficit in the state retirement system.

Key legislators – including House Speaker Bobby Harrell and state Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, both Charleston Republicans – already have said they support giving state workers a raise.

Haley declined to say if she would veto a state employee pay raise because “the communication with the Legislature is really good right now.”

“I want to get out of the habit of this fighting back and forth over every dollar that is spent,” she said.

Total state spending under Haley’s plan would increase 4.2 percent to about $22.8 billion. That includes state and federal money, as well as “other funds,” which come from a variety of sources, including fees and grants.

Also under Haley’s plan the state’s general fund spending – set by the Legislature in the 2012-’13 budget that takes effect July 1 – would increase 4.5 percent to about $5.7 billion, money that comes mostly from sales, and corporate and individual income taxes.

A big item on the first-term Republican governor’s agenda for this year is a state spending cap.

A cap was proposed last year but did not pass. If it had passed, it would have allowed 5.23 percent growth in the state budget, based on increases in the state’s population and inflation. Haley’s office said her proposed budget increase – of 4.5 percent – is within that cap.

Included in the new spending is:

• $4.2 million for 56 new officers at the Department of Public Safety, including 40 more state troopers

• $1.7 million for 30 more State Law Enforcement Division agents

• An additional $17 million for the Department of Mental Health, to help offset an agency that has been cut more than any other state-run mental health department in the country, according to the National Alliance of Mental Health

• An additional $1.4 million to the Department of Health and Environmental Control for immunizations

In November, the state Board of Economic Advisors, which estimates how much revenue the state will receive, added $900 million in income to the 2012-13 budget, including $382.1 million in one-time money. Haley wants to put most of that one-time money into the state’s reserve funds, effectively its savings accounts.

She also is proposing a “highway turn-back initiative,” where the state would pay local governments to take over maintenance of some state-owned roads. Haley’s proposal includes $75 million for that program, which would be voluntary.

Haley has said she wants to use any extra money to either pay down debt or return it to the taxpayers. But because South Carolina has the fourth largest state highway system in the country, Haley views that as a debt to pay down.

“We want to get these roads out of the way. We own way too many roads,” she said. “I think it only makes sense to let the community take care of community roads.”

But State Rep. Harry Ott, D-Calhoun, said he doubted local governments would be interested in the program because they have been hit hard by state budget cuts.

“We want them to take care of more roads with less money,” he said.

The governor’s budget is just the beginning of the budget process. State lawmakers, starting with the House of Representatives, will spend the next five months crafting a state spending plan that Haley ultimately will be asked to sign – a plan that most likely will look very different from the plan she presented Friday.

But State Rep. Brian White, R-Anderson and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee – which crafts the budget – called the governor’s budget a good start.

“The communication (with Gov. Haley) from what I’ve seen has been a little bit better than the past,” White said. “Some of the things she’s wanting to do are some of the things I would like to see done.”