S.C. governor looks to speed up tax cuts, pay teachers more
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Tax cuts, teacher and law enforcement raises, and road and bridge improvements are all areas where Gov. Henry McMaster wants your tax dollars to go in the year ahead.
On Monday, he unveiled his recommendations for lawmakers as they get to work writing the next state budget.
S.C. lawmakers discuss using lottery funds for school vouchers
State lawmakers are preparing for a new legislative session, and one of their top priorities involves South Carolina’s private school voucher program.
When they return to the State House on Tuesday, one of their top priorities will be ing the next state budget.
McMaster’s recommendations for that spending plan include nearly a quarter billion dollars focused on South Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene.
“The damage from Hurricane Helene was devastating,” he said,
The governor wants to put a combined $240 million dollar toward Helene recovery.
That includes $150 million to create a new grant program to help local governments, public utilities and nonprofits that were either denied assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or didn’t qualify for it.
“It is very likely that state funds will be necessary to offset disaster recovery costs incurred that will not be eligible for one reason or another,” McMaster said.
Under the governor’s proposal, more money would again go toward fixing infrastructure like roads and bridges.
S.C. lawmakers to consider letting armed staffers in public schools
Proposed legislation would allow public schools to decide whether staff should have firearms stored on campus in the event of an active assailant threat.
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McMaster is also calling on lawmakers to accelerate an income tax cut schedule they ed a few years ago – to drop the state’s highest rate from 6.2% down to 6 percent.
”Thus allowing taxpayers to keep an additional $193.5 million of their hard-earned money instead of sending it to the state government,” the governor said.
His executive budget would allocate money to raise pay for state law enforcement officers, put funding toward ensuring every school in the state has a school resource officer and raise teachers’ minimum pay up to $50,000.
That’s been the governor’s goal for years – but this proposal would come a year ahead of the target date in 2026 that he had initially set to hit that benchmark.
“But I emphasize again, we should not stop there,” he said. “If we’re going to educate our children, if South Carolina’s future is going to be bright, as fast as things change, we must have educated young people.”
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