This week, the House approved the state’s nearly $14 billion budget (H.5150, FY 2022-2023 General Appropriations, and H.5151,Capital Reserve Fund).
Highlights of the House Budget include:
- 3% raise and one-time bonus for all state employees
- $4000 increase to the starting minimum salary for teachers
- $600 million income tax cut, in a plan that would drop the state’s top tax bracket from 7% to 6.5% immediately and then gradually down to 6% in subsequent years
- $38 million for law enforcement and correctional officer pay increases
- $55.3 million to freeze tuition for in-state undergraduate students at four-year colleges and universities and two-year University of South Carolina campuses
- $465 million to pay for maintenance, renovation and capital needs at the state’s colleges, universities and technical colleges
- $120 million for the South Carolina Department of Transportation to obtain matching money through the federal infrastructure bill.
The House plans to take a furlough week March 22-24th and will return to Columbia on March 29, 2022.
While the House worked through the budget, the Senate spent the week debating and ultimately passing Special Order bills S.133, Federal Constitutional Convention, and S.2, Restructuring Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Of note on REALTOR® priorities, the Senate Judiciary Committee gave a favorable report to S.1031 ,Qualifications for the Office of the Register of Deeds. The bill sets out education and experience based requirements for the Register of Deeds and allows for a fair and legal process for removing an individual from the office if the officeholder does not fulfill the duties of the role. The bill now awaits review by the full Senate.
A Senate Judiciary Subcommittee gave a favorable as amended report to H.3524 , Prohibition of Eminent Domain for Petroleum Pipeline Companies. The bill would extend the moratorium that prohibits private, unregulated, petroleum pipeline companies from exercising eminent domain powers through June 30, 2024. The bill now heads to the full Senate Judiciary Committee for review.
Stay tuned next week and in the weeks to come as I provide an update on the movement of our priority legislation and other issues of interest.
For more information regarding SCR’s 2022 priorities, click here.
Sincerely,
Lindsay Jackson
Chief Advocacy Officer South Carolina REALTORS®