Teachers, other state workers may see a raise

COLUMBIA -- Teachers and other public employees in South Carolina could get their first raise in four years.

The House budget-writing committee on Wednesday tentatively approved spending plans for 2012-13 that would also add more than 50 law enforcement officers, set aside $180 million to deepen the Charleston Harbor, and provide health insurance coverage to an additional 80,000 children.

The full Ways and Means Committee expects to vote on the overall plan today.

The proposal would increase by $153 million a key education funding source that goes toward salaries for teachers and assistants. Teachers' raises would differ by district, since some districts have managed to fund step increases through local taxes. A budget clause would require all to receive at least 2 percent.

The so-called base student cost would increase to $2,012 for 2012-13, up by $132 per student from this year.

The panel chairman, House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham, said legislators wanted to make a statement that education is a priority, and designating $2,012 in 2012 was a way to do that.

"That's all we could afford to do. A lot of agencies are hurting" after years of cuts during the recession, he said. "We wanted to call attention to the fact that education is important ... and is a priority for our state."

The committee also approved 2 percent raises for most other state workers, though Department of Public Safety officers would receive 5 percent raises.

After years without, officers are leaving the agency to work for local governments that pay more - which is the opposite of how it should be - and it's expensive to train new troopers, said Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is getting additional staff, rather than the higher raises. The 51 new employees include 30 agents and eight people in its severely backlogged DNA crime lab.

"The number-one job of law enforcement is to protect the public. It is a vital function of government," said Pitts, a retired law enforcement officer.

House Minority Leader Harry Ott said the budget met Democrats' minimum requirement on raises. Anything less would have sparked a long debate, he said.

"I would have preferred 3 percent but I'm prepared to live with 2," said Ott, D-St. Matthews.

Gov. Nikki Haley's budget proposal called for workers to go a fourth year with no raise.

Missing from the committee's spending plan are key items in her budget. Her plan called for $140 million in personal and corporate income tax cuts, and $75 million for encouraging counties to take over maintenance of some state roads.

Not doing those items allowed, for example, legislators to fully fund the state match for deepening the Charleston Harbor, which is in a race to accommodate mega-size ships following the widening of the Panama Canal in 2014. The federal government is expected to provide 40 percent of the $300 million expected cost.

Committee Chairman Brian White, R-Anderson, said the deepening project is vital to international businesses across the state, and for South Carolina's economic success.

"It's the number-one economic issue facing our state," said Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Mount Pleasant. "We've taken a giant step forward."

The committee adopted Haley's budget request for the state's Medicaid agency, which would pay to enroll more children who are already eligible under state law. The lawmakers also agreed to put nearly $100 million into a state savings account as she requested, about $60 million more than state law requires this year.

The committee's plan also differs starkly on education.

Haley's proposal would have reduced the base student cost to $1,766. That's because she eliminated $56 million funded this year through previous surpluses, saying long-term expenses shouldn't be paid with one-time money.

Legislators agreed, while shifting money around to fund their education increases with recurring money.

"We're glad to see that," Scott Price of the state School Boards Association said of the increase. "It's certainly better than where we are now, though it's nowhere near where we should be."

Under a state formula recalculated yearly, the base student cost, considered a building block for education support, should be $2,790.

The budget plan would also put an additional $5 million for schools organized in the statewide charter school district.

And it would add $2 million for Teach for America, which puts top college graduates who didn't major in education into low-income schools, and $1.75 million to launch STEM centers, which stands for Science Technology Engineering Math, aimed at preparing students for careers in technology.

Those two initiatives were advocated by the Education Oversight Committee and recommended in Haley's budget proposal.