April 16, 2024
Last week, the full Senate Finance Committee met to discuss and adopt their version of the budget, which includes a $1 million increase to arts funding.
Background
The SC House adopted their budget in March and included the following increases for the arts:
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$600,000 (recurring) to staff 6 regional Arts Hubs.
- $2 million (one-time) for implementation of the Hubs.
What’s New
Last week, the Senate Finance Committee adopted their version of the budget that does include increases in statewide arts funding, but not at the level the House recommended. Instead, the committee adopted a $1 million increase in recurring funds for implementation of the Hubs. Their budget also includes a $1 placeholder in the non-recurring column, which allows for (but does not guarantee) the addition of one-time funding later on as budget negotiations continue.
Although the committee adopted a smaller increase than their counterparts in the House, this is still a significant increase to arts funding in our State.
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Although the total increase is less, the Senate version includes more recurring funding than the House version — recurring funding is harder to come by than one-time money.
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Like the House, the Senate version provides the necessary funds to staff the proposed Arts Hubs.
Go deeper
Recurring revenue is harder to come by each year, as the General Assembly continues it’s 5-year plan to reduce income taxes to 6%. Additionally, the Senate is funding state employee salary increases at almost double the level that the House adopted, which eats up a significant amount of recurring funds. It’s also worth noting that, unlike the House, arts funding in the Senate originates in the K-12 Education Finance Subcommittee. As the General Assembly continues to make large investments in public education ($253.5 million in the Senate version), education-related spending will likely take priority over arts funding on the Senate side.
What’s Next
The full SC Senate is set to debate the budget next week. If the Senate Finance version stays in place in the Senate floor debate (likely), then the budget heads over to the House one more time where they get the chance to tweak their budget based on the Senate recommendations. If the House maintains their version of arts funding, then we will have two versions – House ($2.6m increase) and Senate ($1m increase).
The budget is then sent to Conference Committee (3 House, 3 Senators) to work out differences. They will have the option to choose between either arts funding scenario, or sometimes split down the middle. Once this process plays out, both Chambers will need to adopt the Conference Committee report before it is sent to the Governor.
The Governor has the opportunity issue vetoes, and then the House and Senate have to vote on those vetoes, before the budget bill is finally signed into law.
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