COLUMBIA, S.C. — Time is ticking for South Carolina lawmakers to pass bills before the legislative session ends Thursday.
"This will be a busy week we'll probably be in every single day until the end of the day and into the evening," said House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford (D-Richland).
The House will be prioritizing the budget after the Senate approved it last month.
"We have more money now than we've ever had. And we still don't have an agreement on how we spend It."
The House's version gives teachers a $4,000 raise, while the Senate's version gives teachers a $2,000 raise.
The Senate's version also gives South Carolinians a $1 billion income tax cut and $1 billion in tax rebates compared with the $600 million income tax cut proposed by the House.
"More money, more problems has proven to be true in the budget this year," said Sen. Josh Kimbrell (R-Spartanburg).
Also likely heading to conference committee is the House's election bill which would establish two weeks of early voting. The two chambers are at odds regarding oversight of the State Board of Elections.
“The voting bill came back from the senate," said Rutherford. "The house has attached the house version of it to other senate bills and sent that back as well.”
"It's unfortunate, this late in the session with as much has been accomplished, that we're kind of starting to see this tension threaten really high priorities," said Kimbrell.
This week the Senate is fast tracking a bill to allow healthcare providers to opt out of providing care that violates their conscience.
"I believe that the mandate is of great importance to many people across the state," said Kimbrell who is the primary sponsor of the bill. "I'm very encouraged to see we're going to, I believe, we'll get that done."
The House is also taking up a bill designed to fix what's been ruled unconstitutional about South Carolina's Sex Offender registry.
The Senate's road fee bill is also awaiting approval from the House.
With the exception of a special session to vote on the budget, if bills aren't approved Thursday they will need to be refiled next year.