WEEK IN REVIEW | The S.C. Senate Finance Committee advanced a $14.4 billion budget plan this week that, in a surprise move, contained only one earmark — a $300 million expenditure to cut the state’s top income tax rate from 6.2% to 6%.
Under current law, the rate was set to drop to 6.1%, the number adopted in the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee budget plan last month.
But in light of last week’s apparent collapse of a standalone S.C. House bill that aimed to drop the rate to 3.99% while raising taxes for most filers, senators moved to accelerate the existing tax cut — and in the process, all but eliminated earmarks in this year’s state budget.
Earmarks — long a target of conservative budget hawks — are legislator-requested spending items that typically benefit local projects like new fire stations or nonprofit grants in members’ districts. Last year’s budget, still flush with federal COVID relief aid, contained more than $400 million in earmarks. Earmarks often are criticized as “slush fund spending.”
A visibly pleased Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler (R-Cherokee), sometimes accused in the past of driving what critics call the “tax and spend” earmark process, touted the new approach.
“I joke that it’s hard to cut taxes more than Harvey Peeler,” he told colleagues at an April 9 committee meeting. “But a lot of what I say in jest is true.”
On the same day that the Finance Committee released its plan, House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister (R-Greenville) joined Peeler in lauding the decision to kill earmarks.
“Over the last few years, we’ve been able to provide for a great deal of community investments,” the chairmen said in an April 9 joint statement. “However, in this appropriations bill, we’ve agreed instead to focus on what should be every member’s top priority — tax reform.”
The Finance Committee spending plan is expected to reach the Senate floor on April 22. After passage by the full body, a joint conference committee will be appointed to work out any differences between the House and Senate budget bills, with an eye toward passing a final budget before the session ends in May.
In other recent news
S.C. treasurer petitions S.C. Supreme Court to halt efforts to remove him. State Treasurer Curtis Loftis filed a petition seeking an injunction Thursday, about a week and a half before the Senate is set to weigh whether Loftis “willfully neglected his duties” for his role in a $1.8 billion accounting error that went unreported for nearly a decade.
State officials looking at major charter school reforms. Amid ongoing concerns about lackluster academic performance and fresh allegations of financial self-dealing, state officials are considering major reforms to rein in South Carolina’s charter school system.
S.C. wildfires prompt bill increasing penalties for those who start them. Following wildfires that scorched more than 18,000 acres in South Carolina, legislators are considering increasing penalties for the people who carelessly put lives and property at risk.
S.C. House passes hands-free driving bill. With $50 million in federal highway funds on the line, the S.C. House on Wednesday passed a bill to require hands-free cell phone use while driving. The bill will now move to the state Senate for consideration.
Critics say S.C. House bill regulating wild animals doesn’t go far enough. Lawmakers are considering a bill to regulate wild animal ownership in S.C. Experts say a poisonous snake bite in Florence shows why the bill wouldn’t do enough to protect the public.
S.C. House committee kills bill to study high speed rail. A House Education and Public Works voted 2-1 Thursday to end consideration of a bill to study high speed rail opportunities in S.C. “It’s just not practical,” committee member Chris Huff (R-Greenville) told the Post and Courier. “And we already know it’s not practical.”
In-state students may be protected against future tuition increases. The S.C. Senate Finance Committee has rejected a House budget proposal that could lead to higher tuition costs for future in-state students at state colleges and universities. The disagreement will have to be worked out between the House and Senate during the budget reconciliation process later this year.
Lawsuit prompts bill changing ‘racial quota’ rules. A pair of senators wants to remove a provision in state law that requires South Carolina’s Commission for Minority Affairs to have a majority-Black governing board.
Gambling expansion draws attention at Statehouse. Efforts to expand gambling in South Carolina are getting more attention right now at the Statehouse than they have in a while, including a push to develop the state’s first casino.
S.C. Senate committee discusses vaccine bill. Some S.C. lawmakers want to bring back permanently a bill that made it illegal to require public employees to be vaccinated in the state.
24-year-old Dem wins S.C. House primary battle by 11 votes. Keishan Scott, a 24-year-old Bishopville town council member, won a Democratic primary for a S.C. House seat by 11 votes, according to a recount.
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