RSS Feeds|
• Front page • Metro • Sports |
Maintenance at S.C. State University will have to wait, and school buses will run out of fuel by spring, under a tighter House budget passed Thursday.
Lower-than-expected state revenues forced some tough budget decisions and a revised $7 billion state spending plan. The House budget includes:
• 1 percent raises for state employees
• High-speed data line for three research universities
• $10 million for tourism advertising
But those projects came at the expense of $10 million to expand a 4-year-old kindergarten program, $1 million to repair buildings at S.C. State and many other smaller budget items in the House’s original budget.
House and Senate lawmakers now must meet to resolve differences in their two bills.
“There is not a lot to discuss,” said Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Anderson, noting the House had agreed with many of the cuts the Senate adopted.
The pressure to fuel school buses is an example of how the government will be squeezed by sagging revenues and higher prices.
Diesel fuel is at $4 a gallon, and some analysts say it could hit $5. Lawmakers will have to make emergency appropriations next year to cover any shortage.
“We’ll be lucky if we come out just $9 million short,” said Don Tudor, who oversees transportation for the State Education Department.
The new spending priorities angered House Democrats who believed the state was ignoring needs of rural areas. Senate leaders also dismissed the House budget’s spending on local projects and the addition of legislation to the bill.
“We were promised as a body ... that we would create this trust fund,” said House Minority Leader Harry Ott, D-Clarendon, of a proposed $1 million to fund a rural infrastructure bank to help communities build water and sewer lines and cover other needs. House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, noted rural communities have money set aside in a House proposal to add more money to the Department of Transportation.
Senate Finance committee chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said the House proposal to cut money from early childhood education was “appalling.” The $10 million would help the 4K program expand. The kindergarten program is the Legislature’s answer to a lawsuit by the state’s poor school districts, in which a judge said the state had not done enough to prepare poor children for success in school.
Leatherman said the Senate, as it did with its own budget, would trim any fat from the House’s plan.
“There will be no special projects coming out of the conference committee. Period,” Leatherman said.
Cooper expected the Senate to take issue with some of the budget. But the House focused its money on economic development that could improve the economy, he said, including tourism advertising the Senate could not squeeze into its plan.
“Any business will tell you,” Cooper said, “you have to advertise when times are bad. We’ve seen results from that.”
Another major difference between the two plans is the House’s use of roughly $16 million that typically funds the State Conservation Bank. Senate leaders said they would work to restore the money for land preservation.
Likewise, the House tacked on four bills it already has passed — giving a tax cut for married couples, adding more money to DOT, lifting the $200 million cap on the endowed chairs program and imposing a cap on state spending.
The Senate objected to using the budget to pass state law, a practice that once resulted in the advent of video poker. Harrell said the bills were included to give the House leverage in getting those proposals through the Senate.
“They’re trying to turn this into a legislative grocery bag and gift bag,” said Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, the Senate president pro tem.
Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.
