Projects for South Carolina communities stalls state budget. Here’s the list
.png "State Rep. Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, and state Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, are negotiating a budget. Bannister chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, and Peeler chairs the Senate Finance Committee.")
After a year when state budget writers did not include any South Carolina lawmaker-directed projects, the community investment projects, commonly called earmarks, might be back.
But the number of projects included in budget proposals, about $445 million worth, is in part holding up negotiations. A panel of six lawmakers, three from the House and three from the Senate, are negotiating the state’s spending plan but have been unable to reach an agreement before the budget was supposed to go into effect.
Lawmakers are also debating whether to expand a property tax cut for some South Carolina seniors who have lived in the state for an extended period of time. The Senate passed a bill and one-year budget item to increase the state’s homestead exemption, neither of which the House addressed.
Without a budget, South Carolina is operating under a continuing resolution, which allows the government to stay open. The fiscal year began July 1, when a new budget was supposed to go into effect. It has left state employees without expected raises, and school districts may not receive money to give their teachers a pay bump in time if negotiations continue to stall.
Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, outlined three paths forward Tuesday: continue without a budget, cut some House earmarks or their amounts and allow a partial property tax cut or nix all lawmaker projects and the homestead exemption.
Senate negotiators think spending on projects for House lawmakers has to be cut back in order to strike a deal. Senators requested about $130 million in earmarks, and House members asked for $315 million.
Davis said the House and Senate should spend similar dollar amounts on projects. The two chambers represent the same number of constituents in total, he said.
“There has to be an understanding among the House and the Senate that there needs to be some parity there,” Davis told reporters.
“But the parity concern is secondary to the sheer amount of the earmarks, in my opinion,” he continued. “They’re just too high.”
State Rep. Bruce Bannister, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said budget negotiators should look through all the earmarks and pick which projects benefit constituents.
“I think we need to look at those projects individually on their merit,” Bannister said. “ They’re no good? We’ll get rid of them.”
Budget writers met Tuesday for the first time in two weeks but didn’t make progress. Lawmakers are expected to meet again publicly Wednesday.
What did lawmakers request?
The state Senate proposed about $130 million worth of projects. Proposals were included in the version of the budget the Senate passed in April.
Some of the projects included are $500,000 for fire stations in Richland County requested by state Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine, $1 million for a real-time crime center in Greenville requested by state Sens. Jason Elliott and Ross Turner, $1 million for stormwater and drainage infrastructure in the Isle of Palms requested by state Sen. Chip Campsen, and $1.2 million to restore the Century Theatre in Conway requested by state Sen. Luke Rankin.
House budget writers included $315 million worth of lawmaker requests in the second version of their spending plan proposal passed in May.
The proposal includes $2 million for a fire state in Horry County requested by state Rep. Val Guest, $1 million for a downtown master plan in Fort Mill requested by state Rep. David Martin, $1 million for the Calks Ferry Interchange in Lexington County requested by state Rep. Paula Rawl Calhoon and $350,000 for a renovation of the Colcock-Teel House in Bluffton requested by state Reps. Bill Herbkersman and Weston Newton.
State Rep. Case Brittain, R-Horry, had asked for $25 million to help with a downtown redevelopment in Myrtle Beach as part of a private-public partnership. But in the House budget, the plan seeks $8 million.
The plan is to use “that money to make sure that the infrastructure is sound and that our plan is sound going forward,” Brittain said in an interview in May.
The development would include building workforce housing in the area and redeveloping a parking garage.
Whether Brittain asks for more state dollars next year will depend on whether other sources are able to bring money to the table.
“You never can tell. Things change, and depending on time and how the money accrues and if we’re able to put the projects together, and what I like to do is as many birds as we can grab in one hand, make sure you do the best at that,” Brittain said.
