SC House budget writers propose 3% raise for state employees, higher than Senate plan
South Carolina state employees would get an even bigger raise under a proposed state budget presented Wednesday by House budget writers.
The House Ways and Means Committee adopted a $10.7 billion state spending plan for the 2021-22 budget year, which begins on July 1. It includes a proposed 3% across-the-board pay raise for state workers.
This is the second version of the budget the House is considering. In March, the House had a lower amount of projected revenues to allocate. However, with the state now projected to collect more revenue in the coming year, the House repeated its budget process.
Lawmakers now have an additional $1.7 billion available to spend beyond what was available during the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Under the House proposal, state employees would get a 3% pay increase, which would cost about $71 million. The Senate has proposed a 2% raise for state employees in its $10.6 billion spending plan.
State employees last received a raise of 2% in the 2019-20 budget.
“We are flush with cash, some cash, and I know there are many needs,” said state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, who pushed for an even bigger 5% pay raise for state employees. “They’ve been waiting for a number of years for raises.”
Even more money could come to state employees in the fall when the budget writers decide how to spend federal COVID-19 relief money.
“They have done a good job during the pandemic. We have put some concentration on their compensation,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter.
The House budget plan also includes a $1,000 pay raise for teachers, as well as their annual pay bump given to teachers for years of experience and education level.
The final say on raises will come when the state budget is finalized by the end of the month. Now that the House has updated its budget proposal, the full chamber is expected to consider it next week before it’s sent to the Senate for consideration.
In addition to state worker raises, House budget writers agreed to include $200 million to help the Port of Charleston expand rail service and increase barge operations at the port. The Senate approved borrowing $550 million for the project, but other sources of cash may help the state avoid taking on that debt.
House budget writers also want act in response to the death of Jamal Sutherland, a Goose Creek man with a history of mental illness, who died in custody at the Charleston County jail in January.
The House budget proposes investing in increased psychiatric services at the S.C. Department of Mental Health, including spending $843,000 for detention center telepsychiatry team, $1 million for a detention center medication fund, and $1.2 million for a crisis stabilization unit.
Budget writers met with state mental health leaders “to figure out how we can work to prevent any more psychiatric patients from mistreatment in detention centers,” said state Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Beaufort.
House budget writers agreed with the Senate by including $10 million for broadband internet expansion, as well as $3 million for a broadband office to help with broadband projects that could be funded with federal COVID-19 relief money.
The Ways and Means Committee also agreed to set aside $250 million into a reserve fund to help avoid mid-year funding cuts if the economy takes another hit.
For the 2020-21 fiscal year, lawmakers kept spending levels the same as the previous fiscal year as a way to avoid mid-year spending cuts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a two-year budget,” Smith said. “We have to make up for last year with this year, fortunately we saw a rise in our revenue.”
The proposed budget, however, does not include plans on how to spend $2.5 billion in federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Joe Biden in March, as well as $525 million from the Savannah River Site settlement. Decisions on how that money will be spent are expected to come in the fall.
