Local representatives weigh in on SC House budget

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — 13 billion dollars.

That’s how much money lawmakers in the South Carolina House are proposing for the next fiscal year’s budget.

“I think the biggest takeaways are that we’re proving over 600 million dollars in tax relief to South Carolinians and increasing teacher pay,” said Rep. Micah Caskey, a Republican from Lexington County. 

While lawmakers from the two parties have disagreed on several bills, there are a couple of issues in the budget where they do see eye to eye.

“There’s no question that our public infrastructure has got to get better and that requires investment. Investments aren’t cheap but it’s what we have to do to make our roads better. The House budget does that,” Caskey said. “It makes substantial investments to improve our roads and bridges. I think anyone who has been down I-95 knows how important that is.”

Democrat Representative Beth Bernstein also supports infrastructure improvements and also agrees with Republicans on increasing the starting teacher salary to $47,000.

“I’m glad that we’re going to focus on education and teachers’ raises,” Bernstein said. “I’m also thankful that we’re going to be able to give state employees raises.”

However, she disagreed with those across the aisle on the Constitutional Carry Bill and would like to have seen an increase in Medicare funding instead. 

“It would be a wish of mine to allocate more money towards helping more people be insured and making sure more people are healthier,” Bernstein said.

Moving forward, Bernstein hopes to see a Hate Crimes Bill and an IVF Bill passed in both chambers. 

On the other side, Republican Micah Caskey is pleased with most of the work done this legislative session but believes more could be done for law enforcement.”

“We have struggled in the state to deal with the earnings cap for retired police officers. This is not something that we’ve addressed in this budget,” Caskey said. “We’ve got to take a lot at it as we try to bring more people into uniform to police our streets.” 

Under the current budget proposal, around 100 million dollars would be given to technical colleges so they can offer scholarships and help fill the state’s critical job openings in healthcare, manufacturing and education.