Just after midnight, SC House OKs more money for school, prison safety

The S.C. House early Thursday passed an amended version of the state's $8.2 billion spending plan that includes more money for corrections officers and school safety.

The proposed state budget, which cleared the House just past midnight Thursday, now goes to the state Senate. It then is expected to go to a conference committee of House and Senate budget negotiators.

South Carolina's budget takes effect July 1.

State representatives restarted the process of amending the state's $8.2 billion general fund budget Wednesday.

There, House budget chairman Brian White dropped a package of amendments that added $54 million for a new forensic lab for the State Law Enforcement Division and another $13 million for security upgrades at the state's prisons. House Democrats had objected last week to the cost of the SLED lab.

Instead, the Anderson Republican offered lawmakers a "slimmed down" version of his original budget amendment that included $15 million in S.C. lottery dollars to pay for school safety measures.

House members — all up for re-election this year — also introduced their own spending proposals for the state's budget, setting off an hours-long debate over defunding abortion clinics in South Carolina.

The House approved a one-year law that lawmakers hope will keep teachers in the classroom past their retirement, temporarily stopping a potential mass exodus of teachers when the school year ends.

Lawmakers also hope the move lets retired police officers come back to work, filling the need in about 590 public schools that lack an armed office.

The budget amendment would allow state workers who retired under the S.C. Retirement System or the Police Officers Retirement System on or before Dec. 31, 2017, to come back to work and be exempt from the state's $10,000 earnings cap.

That amendment passed by a 100-0 vote.

The House's debate started Wednesday afternoon, stretching roughly nine hours and ending about 12:20 a.m. Thursday.

This story was originally published May 3, 2018 at 1:11 AM with the headline "Just after midnight, SC House OKs more money for school, prison safety."