A few years ago I was named to the House Ways and Means Committee (aka the Budget Committee) and since that time I’ve been given the responsibility to chair the Higher Education Sub Committee. Serving alongside me are Rep Bill Taylor (R-Aiken) and Rep Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Orangeburg)
Hearing each year of the needs (and wants) of our state’s colleges and universities is really eye-opening. I have learned so much in just a short time.
Unfortunately, when you have almost $2 Billion in new requests but only around $300 Million in funding available for those requests (in addition to the annual recurring budget of $1 Billion), you have to say “No” a lot of times. I mean….A LOT of times.
This year was no different as the full committee passed the House version of the 2024-2025 state budget and we now send it to the house floor for debate the week of March 11th.
I’ll share highlights next week and we will then see in the weeks ahead how the Senate’s version ends up. After that, we always have 3 House members and 3 Senators serve on Conference Committee to iron out the differences (aka compromise) and submit a budget in time before the June 30th deadline.