SC budget: $13 billion includes pay raises for teachers, will establish $75 million Clemson vet school

Clarification: The conference committee report posted this week showed Clemson University was given $75 million to build its veterinary school. The story has been updated to reflect that.

Teachers and state employees will get their pay raises after all as the South Carolina budget stalemate ended Thursday.

Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee was pleased after he convinced his peers in the House chamber to give Clemson $75 million to establish the state's first veterinary school.

"All of this, honestly, the most transparent budget that we've ever had in the history of this state and the budget is balanced," Peeler said Thursday.

Both chambers agreed to give a $2,500 pay raise to state employees who make less than $50,000 and give a 5% raise if they more than $50,000. School teachers will see a $2,500 pay hike. Tuition fees in higher education institutions was lowered to nearly $100 million and lawmakers dedicated salaries towards hiring school resource officers and increasing minimum salaries for mental health professionals and correctional officers.

"But this budget is a really good piece of legislation for the state of South Carolina, and I think it takes care of our kids and our teachers and our law enforcement," House Ways and Means Chair Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville. "At the end of the day, this is a very good product. I'm proud of it, and I appreciate all the hard work everybody's done to get here."

Lawmakers have requested $20 million to improve downtown Greenville, the Wade Hampton and Laurens road corridors and trail systems around the city. A similar $20 million earmark was requested for downtown Spartanburg.

Upstate lawmakers have also requested money to improve greenways and trail systems. The Saluda Grade Rail Trail, which passes through downtown Inman, Gramling, Campobello, Landrum, Tryon, and Saluda into North Carolina could get $10 million.

All of these budget items are likely to be funded after the House and Senate vote to agree with the conference report and send it to Gov. Henry McMaster's desk.

Here's why the SC budget debate stalled

The conferees met three times this week. On Monday, the meeting lasted a mere three minutes. Lawmakers hoped they would become with a resolution in the next meeting. But by Wednesday, some lawmakers were at the cusp of losing their patience as the impasse continued.

Senate lawmakers were keen on funding the vet school and giving Clemson $112 million. But House lawmakers, who offered Clemson close to $8 million for the vet school, argue that that type of funding is not commensurate to what other schools are receiving.

Difference in philosophies swirled. House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, who stepped in after Rep. David Weeks, D-Sumter went on his two-week vacation, said the Senate was prioritizing pets over people. "How is this not the House being concerned about higher-ed and the Senate being concerned with Mr. Ed, because that's the impasse that I see," he said Wednesday.

Peeler appeared miffed. "Is that going to kill the whole budget?" he asked. "Who made that so important? The Speaker did," Peeler said about House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, who is not part of the conference committee.

The Gaffney lawmaker seemed to blame the origins of the stalemate on Smith.

"I think the sooner the Speaker of the House of Representatives realizes that he is not the Speaker of the Senate, the better," Peeler said.

SC politics: Here's how the state budget could boost Greenville, Spartanburg downtowns.

It will have been close to a month since the committee first started negotiating budget line items. For the first half, the negotiations were progressing. To add to that, the Board of Economic Advisors announced the state had collected an extra $800 million and the state was in sound economic shape. Additional money meant lawmakers could fund many of their pet projects.

But when it looked like negotiations would stretch past this week and risk missing the July 1 deadline before the new financial year began, Bannister said lawmakers wanted to protect the planned pay raises for teachers and state employees.

House lawmakers had floated an idea to convene a new Ways and Means meeting to add the salary hikes in the continuing resolution, a failsafe measure to keep the state government operational on last year's budget.

But Peeler said his patience was running thin. He challenged the House conferees to go back and ask if two-thirds of them didn't want a veterinary school. To him, House lawmakers were choosing to prioritize spending $400 million on special projects and earmarks.

"Even if it's not perfect, having a budget is the most important thing we could do," Bannister said Thursday.

Devyani Chhetri reports on SC politics for the Greenville News. Reach her via email at dchhetri@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC budget: $13 billion pay raises for teachers, Clemson vet school