Gov. Nikki Haley announces Executive Budget FY 2016-17

• In order to provide South Carolina children with a leadership team sharing a common vision and goals, such as the team Governor Haley and Superintendent Spearman have formed since 2015, the governor will continue to fight to give every governor the ability to appoint the Superintendent of Education.

• The governor has announced a multi-step process to ensure that every student is going to school in a safe and clean learning environment by addressing the needs of many outdated facilities across the state.
• Governance of this entire process would fall to a five-person committee, chaired by the Governor or her designee, who will serve along with the Superintendent of Education, Director of the Department of Administration, and Chairs of the House and Senate education committees.
•  The first step to this plan is a business process during which the committee will evaluate the condition of the facilities districts currently own, prioritize projects based on districts’ needs and ability to self-fund, and then set the constraints under which state funding will be allocated and received.
• The FY2016-17 Executive Budget allocates $2.5 million for the Department of Education, in consultation with the Division of General Services at the Department of Administration, to contract with facilities management specialists to create a comprehensive view of the condition of South Carolina’s public schools. This allocation will also be used for the Department to contract to develop a stringent set of building standards that allow districts to build age and size appropriate schools.
• The governor has proposed to set aside 1% of the state’s General Obligation debt capacity for exclusive use of K-12 schools. Upon recommendation of a majority of the committee, bonds may be initiated in annual lots no larger than $200 million. The project list and principal amount will be forwarded to the State Fiscal Accountability Authority for final approval and issuance by the Treasurer.

• ​County partnerships will be restructured under the Children’s Trust Fund of South Carolina – a non-profit with a proven record as both a fiscal agent and proponent of children’s issues.

• 4-year-old kindergarten will be consolidated under an early childhood division within the Department of Education.

• The Department of Health and Human Services will be designated as the lead agency for Babynet, but will be required to establish a formal partnership to divide fiscal and programmatic responsibilities with the Department of Education.

• $40 million for district technology initiatives.

• $13.5 million to expand the governor’s Rural Teacher Recruiting Initiative, which was launched in 2015, to address persistent recruitment and retention challenges in South Carolina’s rural and underserved districts.

• $10.8 million to hire 144 new prosecutors in order to make sure all domestic violence cases are prosecuted by a solicitor and reduce the average caseload per prosecutor by 25%.

• $1.17 million for three new circuit court judges and supporting staff.

• $6.6 million for the Commission on Indigent Defense to hire 88 new public defenders.

• $75 million for the Adjutant General – Emergency Management Division to cover the state and local share (25%) of public infrastructure damage costs under FEMA’s Public Assistance program.

• $1.5 million to repair National Guard Armories that were damaged by the storm.

• $49 million for the Department of Transportation to cover the cost of repair projects for roads and bridges that are not eligible for federal reimbursement.

• $40 million for the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism to initiate emergency beach nourishment projects that had significant erosion caused by the storm.

• $661,500 to enhance DHEC’s Dam Safety Program and provide for additional field inspections and dam reclassification inspections.

• $5 million to fund the Pathways Initiative, which provides workforce scholarships.

• $13.5 million as a continued investment in the ReadySC Initiative.

• In an effort to attract more service members, who boost the state’s workforce and economy, to South Carolina, the Executive Budget proposes a $33.7 million tax cut for retirement income derived from active duty military service,

• $13 million for the Closing Fund at the Department of Commerce, which supports a variety of economic development projects in order to attract new businesses to the state and encourage existing South Carolina businesses to expand.

• $1.9 million to the Rural Infrastructure Fund.

• $280 million in nonrecurring funds to the State Highway Fund.

• $65 million in motor vehicle sales tax to the State Highway Fund.

• ​$49 million motor fuel fees to the State Highway Fund.

• A reduction of income taxes at all levels by 30% over the next 10 years.

• Restructuring of the South Carolina Department of Transportation and refocus the agency on maintaining the roads we have first, in an apolitical way.

• Add ten cents to the state’s gas tax over three years, offsetting a portion of the income tax savings with a priority on infrastructure spending.

• $8 million for SLED to enhance the capabilities at its forensics laboratory.

• $8 million for the Department of Corrections (DOC) to implement a correctional officer hiring and retention plan.

• $3.5 million for DOC to implement its mental and medical health remediation plan.

• $1.2 million for the Department of Corrections to hire 20 new healthcare workers to staff its crisis intervention unit.

• $6.4 million for the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services (DPPPS) to replace lost funds revenue caused by the successful implementation of sentencing reform.

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