SENATE BUDGET ADDRESSES STATE’S MAJOR NEEDS
Education, tax cuts, infrastructure, and healthcare are focus of the
2007-08 Budget
Columbia, SC - April 26, 2007 - The South Carolina Senate passed a new
budget for South Carolina that addresses the fundamental needs of our
citizens and puts the state on a bright path for our future. Next
year’s state budget will include permanent tax cuts on groceries,
full funding of education, expanded access to healthcare, increased
emphasis on law enforcement and crime prevention, and substantial
investment in our state’s infrastructure. In addition, the state’s
trust funds and “rainy day” accounts are all fully funded.
Senate Majority Whip Jim Ritchie noted, “South Carolina is growing.
This balanced budget targets the spending to address our immediate and
long term needs for strong schools, colleges and universities,
affordable healthcare, and economic and community development. Most
importantly, we were able to use the surplus to provide permanent tax
cuts and restore our rainy days funds.”
Chairman of Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Hugh Leatherman commented,
“This was a great budget. In fact, this was one of the better
budgets that I have seen during my service in the Senate. We were very
successful in providing our state’s most precious agencies with
increased funding, which will serve to assist many South Carolinians.
Specifically, we did a great job in fighting crime, putting a nurse in
every elementary school in the state, fully funding the Education EFA
Inflation Factor, and providing health care for our neediest citizens.
One thing that I heard about most from my constituents back home was the
grocery tax. This reduction gives our hard working families 90 million
dollars in tax relief this year.”
The Senate’s budget will send $90 million back to the taxpayers
through a two cents permanent reduction in the grocery tax, effective
November 1, 2007.
The formula for a successful future is founded upon the children of
South Carolina, and education and healthcare are the two most critical
components in that equation. Education makes up the largest portion of
the budget, with more than half of the total funds going to K-12 and
Higher Education programs. The State Children’s Health Insurance
Program (CHIPS) was expanded this year to offer healthcare to even more
of our state’s uninsured children. The budget also addresses the
critical shortage of nurses we are currently experiencing by expanding
programs and scholarships available to the students of South Carolina.
In addition, this year’s budget puts 50 new Highway Patrol officers
on the roads; funds gang prevention efforts and gives State Law
Enforcement Division (SLED) funds for GPS tracking of sexually violent
offenders.
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