COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Thousands of South Carolinians would get pay raises under the nearly $14 billion state budget the House of Representatives passed Wednesday.
At the start of this legislative session, Speaker of the House Murrell Smith, R – Sumter, said House leaders wanted to fund people and not programs this year.
After House members gave the bill a third reading on Wednesday to send it over to the Senate, Smith told reporters that is what this spending plan would do.
“This is a transformational budget for South Carolina,” Smith said.
Among the highlights of the House-approved budget, public schools collectively would receive $261 million more than they did last year.
The plan would also raise the statewide starting salary for teachers by $2,500, up to $42,500. The minimum pay for each step on the teacher pay schedule — based on a teacher’s experience and education — would also increase by $2,500.
Districts already paying above the new minimums could decide if they want to spend their additional money on further raises or elsewhere.
“We strongly encourage them to send that to teacher pay raises,” Smith said.
“I think most of the districts have told us they intend to, but we’ve left that flexibility in place if they wanted to do something different, they would have the ability to do that,” Rep. Bruce Bannister, R – Greenville and chair of the House’s budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, added.
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