Thank you to our Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester County Senators (Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, Sen. Larry Grooms and Sen. Sean Bennett), on the Senate Finance committee, for all of their hard work getting a balanced budget to the Senate floor.
The budget deliberations began this week as the Senate took up their version of the FY24-25 budget. In a previous edition of The Advocates, I shared which Chamber priorities the House included in their version of the budget. The Senate included many of those same priorities:
* Indicates the amount the House funded the priority at.
We supported $20 million to the Charleston International Airport in the House budget to help finance ongoing capital improvements. The Senate funded the ask at $1, which typically means it is something they are willing to negotiate in conference committee.
The Senate included $9.5 million to Trident Technical College for maintenance, renovation and replacement. We supported Trident Tech’s ask for their Electric Vehicle Institute at $31.6 million. The House budget included $2.3 million.
The Senate also allocated $16 million to the statewide water and sewer grant program for communities to update their water and sewer systems and $2.5 million to the Department of Social Services for the Working Families Child Care Scholarships and Support.
Senators differed from the House when it came to dealing with the Homestead Exemption Fund (HEX). The fund has a $600 million surplus that the Governor called on the General Assembly to allocate to the state’s bridge program. The House budget utilizes the surplus for a one-time property tax reduction for homeowners. The Senate chose to allocate the $600 million to multiple priorities:
We anticipate the use of HEX funds to be a critical focus area as budget negotiations move forward between the House and Senate. The Board of Economic Advisors (BEA) could announce additional revenue available in May that may ease some pressure. Regardless, we are anticipating a conference committee in late May/early June.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions. Have a great weekend!