State worker bonuses, teacher pay raises. How SC will spend $9 billion

[TexasTowelie]

COLUMBIA, SC -- State workers, teachers and college students are winners in this year’s $9.3 billion state budget, which lawmakers gave final approval to Tuesday.

Thirty-two thousand S.C. state employees are slated to get a $600 one-time bonus added to a 2% pay raise this year after state lawmakers adopted the state’s spending plan — which starts July 1.

The budget still needs Gov. Henry McMaster’s signature to become law, and he has the right to issue vetoes if he objects to any part of it. However, the governor and lawmakers have worked closely together on the budget, meaning it’s unlikely McMaster will have major objections to the spending plan.

But S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, said Tuesday he doesn’t plan to call the House back until next January to take up the governor’s vetoes, barring an “emergency.”

Read more: https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article230604694.html