By Representative Jackie Hayes
March 23, 2017
After two days and nights of spirited debate that lasted well into early dawn on March 15, the House approved and sent the Senate a $26.9 billion state budget for the next fiscal year that begins July 1.
I am disappointed it does not include a blanket raise for state employees, but I am pleased it addresses the needs of the Pee Dee Region, including greater funding for public education, rural health care and disaster recovery assistance.
Passing a state budget is one of the most important actions the Legislature takes every year. It directs how much money goes to every state program and agency, public schools and teachers, colleges and universities, as well as state employee salaries and benefits.
As we reviewed every section of the 500-plus-page budget, I was impressed that the debate was so civil. Members spoke vehemently but were able to disagree without being disagreeable. It helped that the House Ways and Means Committee, on which I serve, put months of work into writing the first version of the budget before it ever got to the House floor.
The budget (H 3720, H 3721) has $7.9 billion in its general operating fund, which mainly comes from your income and sales taxes. It also includes $8.6 billion in federal funds; and $10.2 billion in “other funds,” derived from fines, fees, lottery ticket sales and tuition. For the coming fiscal year, we had at least $500,000 more dollars to allocate than last year.
I voted for several amendments to increase the salaries of state employees, but none of them passed. The raise is needed, I believe, because state employees will be paying more into the S.C. Retirement System. The good news for state workers, however, is that the state will cover 100 percent of state employee health and dental insurance increases.
$1.2 million is included in the budget to hire 20 additional probation and parole officers, to supervise individuals convicted of criminal domestic violence. In addition, $500,000 would go to the S.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault for shelters that protect and counsel victims of domestic violence.
At least $100 million would be given to the state Department of Education to renovate public school buildings in Dillon County, and other school districts where at least 80 percent of students live in poverty, or were involved in the Abbeville education lawsuit. That lawsuit reached the state Supreme Court, which ruled in 2014 that the state needs to do more to provide educational opportunities in poor rural, districts.
Public schools also would receive more funds for classroom needs, since the budget increases the “base student cost” by $50 more per student to a total of $2,400 per student. The base student cost is a set amount per student that, in addition to other factors, helps determine funding levels for public schools.
I co-sponsored a budget amendment adopted on the House floor that would give $700,000 to the Pee Dee town of Nichols, in Marion County, to help it recover from Hurricane Matthew. Meanwhile, state Department of Commerce disaster recovery officials are currently looking at Pee Dee communities to see how community development block grants can helps us deal with the flooding from the hurricanes in 2015 and 2016.
Other budget highlights include:
• $212 million for the Local Government Fund, distributed to local governments to help them meet state mandates.
• $1 million increase for state aid to county libraries, for a total of $8.7 million.
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• $10 million to the Department of Education to lease or purchase new school buses.
• $42.5 million to the S.C. Rural Infrastructure Authority, which offers local grants for water and sewer projects in rural and economically-distressed counties.
• An amendment adopted on the House floor would allow the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to enter into agreements with local governments to transfer some state roads back to local control, along with funds needed to maintain them.
• $200,000 for family caregiver services at the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging to help seniors stay at home with caregivers instead of being sent to institutions.
• $2 million in increased funding for the Rural Health Initiative and $11 million for telemedicine programs, in which a physician at one site “sees” a patient at another location via video.
• Full funding for LIFE, HOPE and Palmetto Fellows higher education scholarship programs; and $10 million for Workforce Scholarships to cover tuition, fees and other expenses needed by students in career education program at technical schools.
• $9.6 million for the ReadySC job training program at the state’s technical colleges and $10 million for the Career Pathways Initiative, a partnership between technical colleges and school districts to ease students’ transition from public schools to employment.
• $1.5 million for the state Department of Agriculture’s agribusiness development grants to help support the production of fresh fruits and vegetables and increase healthy food available in rural or low-income urban communities.
• $1.9 million for the Department of Corrections to meet legal requirements to improve services for inmates with mental health issues.
• $13 million for the state Department of Commerce’s Locate SC, which looks for potential business relocation prospects and $22 million for the Deal Closing Fund to recruit new jobs and industries to the state.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at 803-734-3099, at 333C Blatt Building, P.O. Box 11867, Columbia, S.C. 29211 or call me at home at 843-774-6125, at 240 Bermuda Road, Dillon, S.C. 29536. My email address is JackieHayes@schouse.gov.
