Tax cuts, teacher raises and a few social issues in South Carolina budget compromise

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A budget compromise reached by a small group of lawmakers Friday means South Carolina will accelerate a planned income tax cut, raise the salaries of all teachers and state employees and send more money to adult and juvenile prisons.

A conference committee agreed to the more than $13 billion spending plan for next budget year, sending it on to the House and Senate to approve at a special session Wednesday.

And as always, there are social issues that weren’t taken up in the regular session that will be included as one-year special items in the budget.

Lawmakers want to ban public school students from using cellphones during class time, require students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of the sex assigned at birth and require libraries to provide detailed plans on how they will keep inappropriate material out of the hands of children or lose state funding. The details will be up to state agencies to figure out.

“I think this is a budget we can all be proud of,” said Democratic state Sen. Nikki Setzler of West Columbia, who worked on his last budget as he retires from the Senate after 48 years.

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