Greenville County budget passes with key funding shifts
Greenville approves $473M budget with $44.6M going to public safety, $27.5M to roads, $3.5M for Greenlink while cutting affordable housing to $1M.
- South Carolina is operating under a temporary spending measure as lawmakers have not finalized the state budget.
- A legislative committee is stalled over disagreements on property tax relief and specific project funding known as earmarks.
- Without a new budget, planned raises for state employees and teachers cannot be allocated.
- Lawmakers are considering three options, including operating on the temporary measure for another year.
South Carolina has been operating under a temporary spending measure for the past two weeks after a small committee of House and Senate members has yet to finalize the budget.
After another day of stalled discussions, Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, said lawmakers have three options to keep the government funded. One of those options is operating under a continuing resolution, a temporary funding measure that keeps state agency funding the same as the previous financial year, until next year.
The General Assembly’s budget conference committee, a six-member group — three each from the House and Senate — met for a brief budget discussion on July 14. The committee decided quickly to adjourn until 2 p.m. on July 15 after failing to make progress on a spending plan.
Conference committee members are struggling to come to an agreement on property tax relief and earmarks, which are budget allocations set aside for specific projects. The committee most recently met on June 30, the day before fiscal year 2027 was set to start, and decided to push its next meeting out two weeks to give staff the time to collect information on the main differences between the Senate and House budgets.
More: SC lawmakers miss budget deadline over property tax relief, project funds
The committee reconvened on July 14, facing the same challenges as it did during the meeting in late June. Though the legislature has not finalized a budget for fiscal year 2027, state agencies are being funded at last year’s levels due to a continuing resolution.
However, the state will not be able to allocate funds for state employee raises and teacher salary bumps if lawmakers don’t pass a new budget.
“It’s important for the people of South Carolina to remember that government is open,” Davis said. “This is not a situation like in Washington, D.C. where state government is shutting down.”
Davis told his fellow committee members that he thinks they have three options: keep operating under a continuing resolution for the next year, pass a budget without property tax cuts or earmarks, or decide which earmarks can be removed to include some measure of property tax relief.
“Mr. Chairman, I think those are the three options in front of us right now,” Davis said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, said he thinks the state can have a budget and that relying on a continuing resolution is an “absolute failure of this conference committee to do their job.”
“In the next couple of days, we’re obviously going to be working hard,” Bannister said. “I’d like to do that in good faith.”
According to Davis, the House budget includes about $315 million in earmarks while the Senate version has about $130 million. He added that the Senate has $240 million in its budget for a property tax cut, which the House does not have.
The senator from Beaufort also said that there are rules in place that restrict how the conference committee can negotiate. He said for many of the earmarks, the committee either has to approve all funding for a specific project or no funding. The House also had not passed a property tax bill, limiting the committee to using a budget proviso to pass the funding.
“It becomes difficult for the House to agree to a property tax cut via proviso,” Davis said. “The rules constrain them in that regard.”
The conference committee will resume budget discussions on July 15 at 2 p.m. Davis said he hopes the committee can come to an agreement by the end of the week. The budget would still need approval from the House, Senate and governor before it is final.
Bella Carpentier covers the South Carolina legislature, state, and Greenville County politics. Contact her at bcarpentier@gannett.com.
