From SC teacher pay raise to college tuition freeze, what’s in the $14B House budget
South Carolina House lawmakers on Monday are set to begin debating a $13.9 billion state spending plan, which may lead to arguments over how schools districts receive and spend money from the state while raising the starting teacher pay.
Lawmakers also will debate whether to give state employees a 3% pay raise and a $1,500 bonus and whether to freeze public college tuition for the fourth year in a row.
House budget writers were tasked with distributing $4.6 billion in new state income in the spending plan for the fiscal year which begins July 1.
Some of that new revenue will be trimmed, as House members already are planning for an income tax cut this year.
“We’ve had prudent budgeting and fiscal policy,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter. “Two years ago, despite seeing that there was revenue still coming in during the pandemic, we made the prudent decision not to pass a budget to pass a continuing resolution to make sure that we could ride through this pandemic without having to cut budgets. (That) has resulted in these large surpluses and large growth in income.”
But during the process, House members will try to make changes to the spending plan and attach one-year provisions. Potentially about 100 amendments could be proposed, ranging from vaccine passports to suspending the gas tax.
Ultimately, a vote on the proposed spending plan could come on Tuesday, with a final vote on Wednesday before it’s sent to the Senate for its consideration.
So what do budget writers want to pay for?
Teacher raises
The proposed House budget would spend an additional $227 million on public school and give enough money to raise the state starting pay for teachers from $36,000 to $40,000. Fifty of the state’s 77 school districts would have to increase how much they pay teachers. Those districts already paying above the new minimum salary schedule would not have to increase pay if they don’t want to.
The budget proposal would also change the way the state disburses money to schools. The state is increasing how much it gives to schools and would give them greater flexibility in how to spend it, while requiring more transparency on where the money goes, such as teacher salaries or administration.
Teachers would also get a boost in the supply stipend from $275 to $300, and the House budget writers want to provide $100 million for new instructional materials.
Bus driver pay also is proposed to go up 5% in an effort to recruit and keep school bus drivers on the job.
Spending the Savannah River Site money
House budget writers also plan to distribute the $525 million in settlement money the state received because the federal government did not build a mixed oxide fuel plant and stored plutonium at the Savannah River Site. Most of the 25 proposed projects are within the three counties that include parts of the Savannah River Site or in counties that border the SRS area.
Projects include:
▪ $110 million to build a consolidated high school in Barnwell County
▪ $15 million for the Savannah Lock and Dam improvement
▪ $18 million for an Edgefield Law Enforcement Center
▪ $20 million to develop the Savannah River National Lab
▪ $20 million for downtown Aiken development.
House budget writers also want use $223.1 million of the SRS money toward creating barge operations and expanding railroad operations at the Port of Charleston. An additional $126.9 million in state dollars would go toward that project.
DSS and the Michelle H. lawsuit
Budget writers intend to give an additional $39 million in annual money to the state’s child welfare agency, which is enough money for the Department of Social Services to fully address the requirements of the Michelle H. lawsuit settlement.
Six years ago, the DSS entered into a lawsuit settlement in the Michelle H. case, which was filed over how the state cared for children in the foster care system. The state had overly relied on group home or congregate care settings rather than family-like settings, and the state did not meet medical and food needs of children in foster care.
DSS has asked lawmakers for more money to hire additional case managers and supervisors for children in foster care, provide health and dental care for children in the state’s custody, money to help 18- to 21-year-olds who were in foster care transition into adulthood, and increase the number of paralegals to move child welfare cases through the courts faster.
DSS earlier this year said it needed the additional money to effectively care for children.
“This helps us address some of the other foundational things that we need to do more more staff, services for families, kinship care,” said DSS Director Michael Leach. “This has been something the department’s been needing to have this money to build the foundation since the recession and not having that money after the recession led to poor outcomes, which led to the lawsuit.”
Other key expenditures proposed
▪ $55.3 million to freeze tuition for in-state undergraduate students at four-year colleges and universities and two-year University of South Carolina campuses. This would be the fourth year in a row tuition has been frozen.
▪ $465 million to pay for maintenance, renovation and capital needs at the state’s colleges, universities and technical colleges.
▪ $20 million to build a facility for severely mentally ill children in the care of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
▪ $38 million for law enforcement and correctional officer pay increases.
▪ $120 million for the South Carolina Department of Transportation to obtain matching money through the federal infrastructure bill.
▪ $250 million for county transportation committees to pay for local projects.
▪ $72 million for a 3% pay raise for state employees.
▪ $45 million for a $1,500 one-time bonus for all state employees.
▪ $101 million to cover increases in state employee health and dental insurance and wellness visits
▪ $104 million to build a new lab for the Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“The DHEC employees have worked around the clock serving the state during these past two years deserve an adequate laboratory building to continue their efforts,” state Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Beaufort, who sits on the Ways and Means Committee.
