SC Senate spending plan includes $100M in earmarks including cash for Columbia venue
State senators want to give the Columbia Convention Center $19 million to help pay for an expansion, the Sumter Opera House $15 million for renovation and Colleton County $350,000 for a food assistance program.
The projects are among the more than $107 million state senators have directed to recipients of their choice through 90 earmarks proposed as part of a $10.6 billion state spending plan up for debate this week in the Senate.
If approved, the earmarks, ranging from $8,000 to $19 million in value, will flow to nonprofits, local governments and universities at the request of 31 of the state’s 46 senators.
Senators released the list of proposed earmarks ahead of the budget discussions under a new Senate rule requiring disclosure of each proposed earmark, how much money the recipient would receive and the senator or senators making the request.
That Senate rule change was made in January, after The State and its news partners published investigative reports revealing the secret way lawmakers direct state tax dollars to projects of their choice. Some of those projects have had ties to the lawmakers themselves or their relatives.
The State and its media partners are polling every member of the General Assembly on whether they support a permanent change in law that would force transparency on earmarks for legislators into the future and hold recipients accountable for how they spend the money which is not happening now.
House members have a similar rule when it comes to earmarks, though it isn’t always followed. Chamber rules can change from session to session and critics of the earmark process say a change to permanent law is needed to make transparency a consistent part of the budget process.
In previous years, lawmakers would add earmarks to the budget by bundling the money in vague categories, such as sports marketing grants or medical contracts. The money would be added to the budget of a state agency that did not request the spending and would serve merely as a pass through.
Among funding requests in the Senate’s 2021-22 spending plan is $12 million for improvements in downtown Spartanburg, $1 million for body cameras in the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, $300,000 for a Darlington lift station and sewer project, $1 million for the Cayce History Park, and $2 million to help pay for a memorial through the Mother Emanuel Foundation to honor nine people killed in a mass shooting in 2015.
One of the projects receiving funding is a 96,000 square foot expansion of the Columbia Convention Center, which includes adding 75,000 square feet of exhibition space to the current 25,000 square feet. The state would in chip in $19 million toward the $75 million project.
“We don’t get conventions here because we don’t have enough exhibition space,” said state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland, who along with Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, requested the funding.
Harpootlian added that an expansion of the convention center would all the city to compete with Charleston and Greenville, and money is not going to a private developer.
Harpootlian has been critical of earmarks being doled out secretly without the projects not being listed in the budget. He said he was pleased the Senate budget writers were following the rules laid out at the beginning of the legislative year.
“The earmark requests are going to be public, so if someone wants to object to them, debate them we could do that under the budget process,” Harpootlian said. “So far I’m very pleased with the way Senate Finance, Sen. Leatherman have approached the transparency.”
Harpootlian said the Senate’s earmarks process is superior to the way the Department of Commerce awards tax credits to attract businesses to the state. Harpootlian sued the Department of Commerce over its secrecy on how it put together a pair of economic development deals.
“This is a much more transparent process of allocating state dollars,” Harpootlian said.
Senator Richard Cash, R-Anderson, said he has concerns about the way earmarks are included in the budget, although the process improved this year by attaching names to the proposed earmarks.
Cash said he doesn’t necessarily support earmarks, but if the earmarks are included, senators should each receive an equal amount of money to distribute as they see fit.
“I think there’s got to be more clarity, if we’re going to have earmarks, as to what is a legitimate earmark, what is the process for getting an earmark and can that be done in a way that’s equitable to all districts and without encumbering the independence of all senators who want their districts to being treated fairly,” Cash said.
Cash questioned why some of the earmark money is going to nongovernmental organizations.
“Is that a proper function of government to take taxpayer money and give that to the nonprofits?” Cash said.
The House last month passed a $9.8 billion state spending plan, which did not include individual member-initiated projects because new revenue figures from state budget forecasts had not come in yet, said House Ways and Means Chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter. However, that may change when the House takes a second swing at a budget next month with the new revenue figures.
“But if we do do local projects, I am committed to there being more transparency about the sponsor, the project and the purpose of the money, and I’m also committed to making sure the agencies that fund those are going to provide reports and provide accountability on what the money was spent (on) and it was used for the intended purpose,” Smith said.
While Smith previously said there are no hidden earmarks in the House’s budget in its current form, some departments appear to have a spot for earmarks later on when amendments are added. For example, the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department has a $6.5 million for “sports marketing,” a category within the agency’s budget which lawmakers have funneled money to their projects in years past.
Lexington, Richland senators’ earmark requests
Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry
▪ None requested
Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland
▪ Columbia Convention Center - $19 million (request made with Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland)
Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland
▪ Tri-City Visionaries - $200,000
▪ Community Wellness Group - $100,000
▪ St. John Community Holistic Wellness Center - $100,000
▪ Antioch Senior Center - $200,000
▪ Lower Richland Diamond Fest - $30,000
▪ Trinity Technology Center - $100,000
Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield
▪ None requested
Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter
▪ Sumter Opera House - $15 million (request made with Sens. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and Kevin Johnson, D-Claredon)
▪ Shot Pouch and Swan Lake-Iris Gardens - $1.5 million
▪ Black Cowboy Festival - $50,000
Sen. Mia McLeod, D-Richland
▪ The Renaissance Foundation - $400,000
▪ James R. Clark Memorial Sickle Cell Foundation - $300,000
Sen. John Scott, D-Richland
▪ Career Clusters at Allen, Benedict, Claflin and Voorhees Universities - $450,000
▪ SC State Institutes of Innovation - $750,000
▪ South Carolina HIV Council “The Wright Wellness Center” - $300,000
Sen. Nikki Setzler, D-Lexington
▪ Brookland Center Community Programs - $300,000
▪ Cayce History Park - $1 million
Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington
▪ PACE Center for Girls - $350,000
▪ Men Against Domestic Violence USA - $330,763
▪ SC Cervical Cancer Awareness Initiative - $161,000
▪ Paths to Wholeness, Inc. - Pilot Re-entry Program - $100,000
▪ Special Olympics South Carolina - $250,000 (request made with Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown)
Reporter Andrew Caplan contributed to this article.
