SC Budget Heads to Conference Committee

May 10, 2024

The SC General Assembly ended the 2024 session yesterday without a state budget, and has appointed members to a Conference Committee to reconcile differences between the chambers.

 

The 2024 legislative session came to a close at 5 pm yesterday, but the House and Senate were not yet able to reach an agreement on the State Budget. To settle the differences, the chambers have appointed a Conference Committee that will meet in the coming weeks. Among other budget items, the committee will need to work out the $1.6 million difference in arts funding.

Now is the time to reach out to legislators, whether they are on this committee or not, but especially if they are, and encourage them to adopt the House version of arts funding.

The following legislators have been appointed to the Conference Committee:

• Rep. Bruce Bannister (R-Greenville)

• Rep. Phillip Lowe (R-Florence County)

• Rep. Leon Stavrinakis (D-Charleston County)

• Sen. Harvey Peeler (R-Cherokee/Spartanburg Counties)

• Sen. Sean Bennet (R-Berkeley/Charleston/Dorchester Counties)

• Sen. Nikki Setzler (D-Lexington County)

By the Numbers: There are two versions of arts funding that the Committee has to work with. Funding is focused on the staffing and implementation of six Arts Hub Regions by the SC Arts Commission.

The House included:

• + $600,00 (recurring)

• + $2 million (one-time)

The Senate included:

• + $1 million (recurring)

• + $1 (yes, one dollar) (one-time)
  * This number serves as a placeholder, and signals that they are willing to work with the House to increase the amount of non-recurring funds.

What’s Next: The Conference Committee will meet in the coming weeks and put together a compromise.

• However things pan out, it looks like the arts will get a budget increase — but the amount could be either the House version ($2.6m total), or Senate version ($1m total), or somewhere in the middle.

• The full Legislature will return after the June 11th primaries to approve the Conference Committee report.

• Once the Committee’s report is adopted, it’ll then head to the Governor for his vetoes. The Legislature will return again to vote on those vetoes.

Read the full bill »

Be on the lookout for another alert as we get closer to the return of the Legislature this summer – we’ll need you to contact your legislators again!