SC Senate’s $12.6B Budget Gives Workers Raises, No Bonuses

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s price range will probably face intense negotiations within the Legislature after Senate price range writers superior a $12.6 billion plan primarily based on $2 billion in revenue tax cuts and rebates.

Lawmakers within the Senate Finance Committee adopted the spending plan unanimously Wednesday, The Submit and Courier reported.

The Senate’s price range bundle is constructed round $1 billion in revenue tax rebates and one other $1 billion in cuts, in contrast with the $600 revenue million tax lower proposed by the Home.

Just like the Home’s model, the Senate plan would give state staff a 3% cost-of-living increase. However the Home plan comprises a one-time, $1,500 bonus not included by senators.

“We’re placing all residents and taxpayers first with the tax discount,” mentioned Senate President Thomas Alexander, who famous that public staff would additionally profit. “It’s a special method.”

Though the Home plan would improve minimal pay for academics by $4,000, to a flooring of $40,000, the Senate model would increase that minimal by solely $2,000. Underneath the Senate plan, first-year academics would make not less than $38,000.

Each the Senate and Home variations would ship $227 million in further assist to highschool districts, although the Senate plan would give districts extra flexibility in how the cash is spent and allocate these {dollars} by means of a method Gov. Henry McMaster has promoted as being a simplification of the state’s present, complicated funding system.

A spokesman for McMaster’s workplace criticized the Senate’s plan for not elevating instructor minimal salaries excessive sufficient.

“Our system is damaged. The Senate’s plan is a half-measure and doesn’t get to the foundation of the issue,” spokesman Brian Symmes instructed the newspaper. “The governor and Home don’t assume any instructor in South Carolina ought to be paid lower than $40,000 a yr, and within the Senate plan, that’s not going to occur.”

The Palmetto State Lecturers Affiliation, the state’s largest advocacy group for academics, mentioned the Senate plan may present districts with an excessive amount of flexibility, resulting in wider wage discrepancies between prosperous and poor districts and the possibility that much less cash will get spent inside school rooms.

“I help the idea of flexibility within the summary. Districts do want the power to focus on cash to the wants of their college students,” affiliation spokesman Patrick Kelly mentioned. “However I feel a statewide minimal of $40,000 in 2022 ought to be nonnegotiable.”

A small group of lawmakers from each chambers will probably negotiate the variations between the price range plans and recommended tax cuts later this spring.

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