Regular session ends with SC budget package far from done

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — While the South Carolina Legislature’s regular session is officially over, the work is far from done.

Legislators’ primary task when they return for a special session June 16 will be passing a budget for the fiscal year that starts just two weeks later.

A six-member budget committee will meet next week in hopes of having a compromise on the main budget bill before the special session starts.

Legislators of both parties call this session a disappointment.

The issue that topped nearly all of their to-do lists — fixing South Carolina’s roads and bridges — has again been punted to next year, as the Senate failed to even take a vote. Another issue that’s been called a top priority since 2012 — ethics reform — died early in the Senate.