S.C. House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Wednesday that they say will allow both chambers to pass this year’s $15.6 billion state budget sometime in the next two weeks. But they did it more by finessing their differences than resolving them.
State agencies have been operating at last year’s funding levels since July 1, when the fiscal year began without a budget due to the Senate’s refusal to accept $315 million in House earmarks as well as the House’s refusal to go along with the Senate’s $250 million in permanent property tax cuts for senior citizens.
Under this week’s agreement, earmarks will be stripped out of the 2026-27 budget and handed off to a House-Senate committee for further consideration between now and Sept. 30. Meanwhile, the tax cut was slashed to a one-time $80 million reduction.
Negotiators also agreed to fund a $32 million settlement of an environmental lawsuit involving Captain Sams Spit on Kiawah Island, and up to $150 million in cost overruns at the state-subsidized Scout Motors manufacturing site in Richland County.
Assuming the deal passes both chambers on schedule, additional dollars for roads and bridges, teacher and state-employee pay raises, and health and welfare programs should begin flowing in mid-August.
Speaking to reporters after the agreement was reached, lawmakers were clear-eyed about the scale of the accomplishment.
“What we’ve done today,” Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis said, “is agree on what we can agree on.”
Sanford joins crowded Senate race
Former congressman and Gov. Mark Sanford on Thursday jumped into the crowded Aug. 11 GOP primary race to replace the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in this November’s general election. He called for dramatic action to reduce the country’s spiraling national debt.
“I’m running for Senate because I believe our nation is at a financial tipping point,” Sanford said in a release. “We can’t keep spending money we don’t have and expect good things to happen, and yet we’re on pace to add roughly a trillion dollars to the national debt over just the next 100 days.”
Sanford, who briefly challenged President Donald Trump for the 2020 GOP presidential nomination, joins a still-growing field that already includes Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed last week to serve the remainder of her brother’s current term, as well as 7th District U.S. Rep. Russell Fry and former 5th District U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman.
After initially leaning toward Fry, Trump pledged his “complete and total endorsement” to Graham, who until recently served as head of the state Commission for the Blind.
Other candidates include businessmen Mark Lynch of Greenville and Sam Shepherd of Lexington, former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride and Walterboro attorney Duke Buckner. A ninth contender, North Carolina resident Clark Neilson, told The State newspaper this week he plans to establish residency in S.C. now that he’s filed for the race.
Also on Thursday, the state Republican Party announced that it will sponsor a televised Senate debate at 7 p.m. on Aug. 3, though it couldn’t yet say which candidates would participate.
“As Republicans consider who should represent us on the ballot and represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate for the next six years, it’s critical that they have an opportunity to compare the candidates on the issues and how they communicate their ideas to the public,” S.C. GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said in a statement.
The debate will air on Gray Media TV stations across the state and on the web.
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