South Carolina state budget (2011-2012)

Note: This article was last updated in 2012. Click here for more recent information on state budgets and finances.

As of 2012, South Carolina was spending $199 million on principal and interest payments for the state debt of $1.86 billion.

Legislative budget

The legislature approved a $6 billion state budget on June 22, 2011. The Senate passed the plan by a vote of 24-17 after the House approved it with a vote of 57-54.

On June 28, 2011, Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed $213 million in proposed state spending, including $106 million in the state’s proposed $6 billion general fund budget and $107 million in spending from a separate state reserve fund. The vetoes included:

• The entire $1.9 million budget for the state Arts Commission
• $6 million for the Educational Television network
• State money to pay for the 2012 Republican presidential primary
• $5.5 million for tourism advertising
• $38 million for maintenance at state colleges
• $13 million for the state’s technical schools to train workers for Boeing’s new North Charleston aircraft plan

Education

The approved spending plan raised the state’s per-student spending to $1,880 from $1,615, but did not meet the $2,720 required by a state school funding formula.

Medicaid

The budget the legislature passed made permanent Medicaid program cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, which in early 2011 eliminated or reduced a variety of Medicaid services, including adult dental and vision services and home health care visits. The budget additionally cut $125 million from reimbursements to doctors, hospitals, and other caregivers.

Negotiations

A conference committee comprised of three Senators and three Representatives met on June 8, 2011, and adopted portions of the budget that were the same in both chambers' version of the budget.

The House approved a fiscal year 2012 state budget that included General Fund appropriations of $5.2 billion.Overall, the House budget increased spending by 3.5 percent and general fund spending would rise by seven percent.

Governor's proposed budget

Eight days prior to leaving office, Gov. Sanford released the fiscal year 2012 state budget.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper said that he worked with Governor-elect Nikki Haley's fiscal crisis panel. He also said that the committee would write the first legislative draft of the budget and Haley's proposals to trim a shortfall that could top $800 million would be incorporated there or later on the House floor.

Haley's cuts included:

• $1 million for the 2012 presidential primary
• $16 million from state worker health care spending
• Nearly $2 million from the state Arts Commission
• $5 million from a University of South Carolina aviation and research program
• $1 million from pay to lobbyists who work for state agencies

Haley urged new limits on what the state could spend, in a proposal that would refund any extra revenue back to the public. She also proposed eliminating the state's corporate income tax.

See also

• South Carolina state budget and finances