{"id":4539,"date":"2026-08-12T07:07:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=4539"},"modified":"2026-08-12T07:07:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:07:01","slug":"sc-legislature-passes-budget-but-what-will-happen-with-lawmaker-earmarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=4539","title":{"rendered":"SC legislature passes budget, but what will happen with lawmaker earmarks?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

A more than $15 billion spending plan is on its way to the governor\u2019s desk 89 days after the General Assembly was supposed to be done with its work for the year.<\/p>\n

Read more Big Sur wildfire jumps to nearly 3,000 acres as evacuations widen<\/a><\/p>\n

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But a plan to separately provide money for member-initiated community investment projects, commonly referred to as earmarks, fell apart<\/p>\n

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Lawmakers on Tuesday gave their final approval to a $15.7 billion general fund budget that includes a property tax cut for seniors, raising state employee salaries by 2% and increasing the minimum starting teacher pay to $50,500. Each cell on the state\u2019s minimum teacher salary schedule goes up by $2,000.<\/p>\n

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South Carolina state government has been operating under a continuing resolution since July 1 because the legislature was unable to finalize a spending plan before the start of the new fiscal year.<\/p>\n

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The governor has until Monday to sign or issue any vetoes on the budget.<\/p>\n

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Budget writers set aside $377.7 million for lawmaker projects in a separate piece of legislation. They gave themselves a Sept. 30 deadline to allocate the money, but lawmakers would have had to come back in the fall to approve a supplemental spending bill, which risks the possibility of negative headlines on certain projects less than two months before the November election.<\/p>\n

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Budget negotiators had agreed to have a joint committee decide how much money each earmark received. That went out the window as budget writers tried to resolve earmark funding before Tuesday\u2019s session.<\/p>\n

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House members, who are up for reelection this year, did not want to be back in Columbia when they could be in their districts campaigning, House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister said. State senators are not up for reelection this year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s really not enough time to get through all the projects and have some new debate where we put a bill in and have basically an appropriations debate between now and the election,\u201d Bannister said. \u201cSo we\u2019re better just to punt it to next year if we couldn\u2019t reach some kind of resolution on the projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, who was one of three senators negotiating a final spending bill, the House offered Tuesday to bring their earmarks down to $225 million, down from the $315 million the House initially proposed. The Senate proposed $130 million in earmarks.<\/p>\n

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The Senate wanted the House to bring the earmarks to less than $200 million after the House would not agree to having $130 million for each chamber. Eventually Senate budget negotiators offered to agree to $175 million worth of House member initiated projects.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur goal, we told them our original goal was parity,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, who also worked on the conference committee on the budget.<\/p>\n

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But both chambers during Tuesday\u2019s session took shots at one another in how lawmaker sponsored projects receive funding.<\/p>\n

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The Senate wanted the House to drop its earmarks to $175 million, without the upper chamber reducing its earmarks.<\/p>\n

Read more SC couple, 92 and 84, were \u2018driven out\u2019 of home by Scout site work, lawsuit says<\/a><\/p>\n

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“The Senate made up a number that they said we had to comply with, with no rationale behind it other than they just didn\u2019t like our number, and that\u2019s not negotiating good faith,\u201d Bannister said. \u201cThat\u2019s just picking new rules to enforce in the middle of the process, after it\u2019s too late for us to take that into account.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But senators said they kept offering a higher amount to try to get the House to eventually come down from their $315 million.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe kept saying more. They but they never said less. I mean, I don\u2019t know, that, to me looked like good faith the other side, but I don\u2019t want to ascribe bad faith to anybody. I think we\u2019re working together to try and reach a compromise,\u201d Hutto said.<\/p>\n

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Despite the disagreement over earmarks, the budget compromise was approved by both chambers.<\/p>\n

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Money for teacher pay is particularly noteworthy as school is starting this month.<\/p>\n

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Seniors in the state will see property tax relief as the senior homestead exemption goes up to $75,000 from $50,000. That will cost the state $81 million a year.<\/p>\n

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The plan adds $102.6 million more annually for Medicaid, $53 million more for Medicare premiums for elderly and disabled recipients, and $34 million for administration of the state\u2019s SNAP program.<\/p>\n

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Lawmakers also set aside $35 million to provide additional assistance to farmers.<\/p>\n

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Budget writers also included $32 million to settle the Captain Sam\u2019s Spit litigation.<\/p>\n

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Lawmakers also included a reward for members of the General Assembly starting in December. The monthly allowance for lawmakers\u2019 in-district expenses is increasing to $2,500 a month from $1,000 a month. It equates to an $18,000 a year increase for lawmakers. Lawmakers tried to place the raise in the budget last year, but it was struck down by the state Supreme Court because the raise kicked in before an election in the middle of a term.<\/p>\n

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The budget includes $35.8 million for the state\u2019s traditional four-year colleges and MUSC for them to keep tuition rates the same for in-state residents<\/p>\n

Read more Winfield mass shooting: Man told dispatchers he \u2018killed his family\u2019 in 911 call<\/a><\/p>\n

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