COLUMBIA, S.C. — Weeks after it passed the South Carolina House, state senators debated the proposed FY 2019-2020 budget for the first time on the Senate floor.
Wednesday began what is expected to be a three day process to approve a Senate version of the bill with Senate amendments attached.
Early in the day on Wednesday, Senators pushed back debate on the potential selling of Santee Cooper.
A Senate resolution, which was included in the budget, was made a 'special order' item to be debated after the budget.
Lawmakers expressed that they were pleased the debate was moved to give it more time.
"What's it going to look life if we sell it? I don't have any illusions that this is suddenly going to help rate-payers make rates go down or not increase. So, I think we need to be forthright about that. That's an issue that's big enough that's going to take more study than a couple of days or a week," said Thomas McElveen, (D) Sumter.
McElveen said he was willing to debate the potential sale for the rest of the session, which lasts till early May.
Other items of note in the Senate's version of the budget:
- $40 million for a new statewide voting system
- $25 million in farm aid for farmers with damage from hurricanes Florence and Michael
- Roughly $2 million for school resource officers
Other amendments were debated and tabled throughout the day on Wednesday.
Senators tabled an amendment that would limit classroom sizes in low-performing or failing schools.
They also tabled an amendment that would have given teachers a 5 percent raise, but would have lowered the starting salary for teachers to $33,600, which is lower than the $35,000 approved in the House version.
"It's about recruiting and retaining high quality teachers, I mean that is the-- there is no magical answer. There's no silver bullet. But to really simplify it, that is the key to improving our system of K-12 education in South Carolina is great leadership and great teachers," said Senator Greg Hembree, (R) Horry.
Lawmakers went back and forth on other bills throughout the day and into the evening:
- An amendment passed that begins implementation of a plan to install toll systems on some portions of I-95 in areas heavy with interstate traffic
- An amendment was tabled that would ban state healthcare from paying for state employee abortions in cases of rape and incest
- An amendment passed that removed some standardized social studies testing in elementary schools
Debate over the budget is expected to continue into late Thursday or Friday.
After the Senate completes and approves its version of the budget, representatives and senators will confer on the differences.