FY 2023-2024 Budget Brief: Interesting Initiatives Part 2
The House Ways & Means Committee met during the evening on February 22, 2023 to debate and vote on subcommittee allocations. The summary control documents are posted on the Ways & Means Committee webpage. View this primer for how to read a summary control document. Looking for what was included in budget requests by state agencies and entities? The Department of Administration posts them online; another transparency initiative of state government.
The first post discussed the big ticket items; today’s post will highlight some interesting initiatives of state government that may not make the front page of local newspapers. This is Part 2 of a series; click here to read Part 1.
The probabilities of these items included in the enacted budget range from highly likely to a coin flip. But in four minutes - 968 words - readers will be that much more informed about this version of the budget.
Interesting Initiatives
Education
USC School of Law tuition mitigation: $5M recurring
Department of Employment and Workforce, Statewide Workforce Development (H.3726): $4.4M recurring and $3M nonrecurring
Department of Education, High Intensity Tutoring (H630): $15M nonrecurring
The School of Law at the University of South Carolina is the state’s first and flagship school of law. However, speaking with alumni and alumnae both young and old, they frequently mention that USC is losing the highest academically performing in-state undergraduates to out-of-state law schools. And these attorneys say often, though not always, what state you attend law school is where you will begin practicing law, meaning these students won’t return home to South Carolina. This line item would provide scholarships to recruit and retain these in-state students.
House Speaker Murrell Smith has made workforce development one of his top priorities as he begins his first full year as Speaker of the House. H.3726 has passed the House and is a comprehensive bill to streamline and consolidate that state’s workforce development ecosystem under the Department of Employment and Workforce. These two line items would pay for the costs of this transformation, if the bill becomes law.
The declining achievement of South Carolina’s public school students in literacy and mathematics has caused great concern throughout the state. One of the tactics to combat learning loss is high intensity tutoring. A February 2022 report by The Education Trust analyzed the results of five states and their experience implementing high intensity tutoring, which all showed promising results. This line item would support high intensity tutoring efforts in the Palmetto State.
Economic Development
Department of Agriculture, Growing Agribusiness Fund: $20M nonrecurring
Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Military Enhancement Plan Fund: $5M nonrecurring
Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers wants to recruit more agribusiness to the state especially in processing and packaging. While his first request was $75M for this initiative, budget writers allocated $20M to it with the clear message that if this first installment shows success, more investment could be made available in the future. Agriculture is a $50B industry in South Carolina, with a little more than half from traditional agriculture and the remainder from forestry.
South Carolina lays claim to being the most military-friendly state in the nation and the General Assembly has enacted many public policies to improve the lives of military-connected families. But what every state with a military presence is always looking to the horizon is the next round of BRAC: Base Realignment and Closure. Since 1988, there have been five BRAC rounds where the Department of Defense and Congress engage in a process of aligning military assets with future national security needs. The results of this process include the expansion of some military installations but also closure of others, such as Naval Shipyard Charleston in 1993. This line item supports South Carolina communities with military installations so they can promote the positive aspects of being a military community and make infrastructure improvements around military installations, such as land acquisition for buffers/future expansion and remediate environmental impacts.
Potluck
Office of Resilience, Disaster Relief: $20M nonrecurring
Department of Archives & History, SC American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission: $1M nonrecurring
Department of Motor Vehicles, IT System: $35M nonrecurring
Department of Transportation, Off-Interstate Litter Control: $2M recurring and $6M nonrecurring
The Office of Resilience was created in 2020 and its mission is to lessen the impact of disasters on the communities and citizens of South Carolina by planning and coordinating statewide resilience, long term recovery and hazard mitigation. One way the agency fulfills that mission is the implementation of the South Carolina Disaster Relief and Resilience Act, which includes a fund that can be used for certain expenses after a federally declared disaster. Such expenses include infrastructure repairs for homeowners and communities that may not be eligible for some types of federal assistance, loans and grants to local governments in disaster areas that need immediate cash flow assistance, and financial assistance for verifiable losses of agricultural commodities due to a natural disaster. This line item invests in the disaster relief fund should a natural disaster befall South Carolina this year.
The year is 2026 and it’s a big birthday for the United States of America - our 250th or sestercentennial. Since 2016, federal and state governments have been planning for this once-in-a-lifetime event and celebration. South Carolina is recognizing the American Revolution anniversary years (1770-1783) via the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission. This allocation supports the Commission’s activities.
Many comedians, and even a few politicians, have made punchlines at the expense of state departments of motor vehicles. In the 2002 South Carolina gubernatorial election it was a core debate topic. Since that time the experience at a branch of the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has significantly improved. A key component has been vastly improved technology and software, an information system called Phoenix. But as time marches on, the software and technology age-out of their service lifetime and must be replaced. This $35M allocation would be the first down payment on a new DMV system that could cost at least $100M.
“Litter Trashes Everyone” - a slogan from PalmettoPride, the state’s anti-litter and beautification nonprofit organization. While PalmettoPride works to change the behavior of litterbugs, the Department of Transportation has a program to clean up litter away from the interstates on the state and county roads traversed every day. These allocations would support DOT’s efforts to beautify South Carolina. If we all do our part and not litter, maybe one day this funding can be used to fix more roads and bridges.
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