SC lawmakers added hundreds of pet project requests to the state budget. Here are a few. (2024)

COLUMBIA — One lawmaker wants state money to help move a historic Beaufort County church out of the way of an adjacent airfield.

Another wants to add $1 million for dredging popular Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant. Still others want to improve all sorts of local recreation offerings in rural parts of the state.

South Carolina lawmakers have submitted more than $435 million in one-time spending requests to the yet-to-be-adopted 2024-25 state budget that lawmakers will return to Columbia next month to hash out before the new fiscal year begins July 1.

While most state funds are doled out to agencies for the everyday cost of doing business — salaries and benefits, government programming or infrastructure — a key part of South Carolina’s budget process includes the handing out of budget earmarks, which are one-time appropriations legislators ask for to fund things at home within their district.

These earmarks can cover a litany of purposes, ranging from funding long-desired road improvements and high school football all-star games to beach restorations and local obscurities like a one multimillion-dollar earmark requested by Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis to physically move an at-risk historic church from one location to another.

Here’s some of what’s on the table.

Which lawmakers asked for the most?

Members of the House of Representatives asked for the most, with $274.5 million in earmarks across 339 separate requests.

The Senate asked for a little over $180 million across 187 requests, while a handful of Statehouse committees requested a little more than $10.6 million in funds for projects ranging from a prostate cancer awareness campaign to rectifying reported discrepancies in the city of Edgefield’s population count in the 2020 U.S. Census.

While many lawmakers asked for nothing in this year’s budget, some submitted several requests.

Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla, submitted nearly $7.4 million in one-time spending requests for his district, headlined by nearly $1.9 million for what were termed unspecified “community investments” across Oconee County.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, had more than $10.2 million in requests for his district, including $4 million for the construction of an indoor recreational space in the town of Clover.

Mount Pleasant Republican Sen. Chip Campsen submitted $6.3 million in requests for various infrastructure projects around the district (including $1 million to dredge Shem Creek), while Rock Hill Republican Sen. Wes Climer joined with colleague Michael Johnson, R-Fort Mill, on an $8 million request for road projects in York County.

While his $3.1 million ask wasn’t the largest, the most requests were submitted by Belton Republican Michael Gambrell, who requested a dozen earmarks ranging from domestic abuse support services in Anderson County to money for a restroom and press box at a Belton-area public pool.

Like in the Senate, members of leadership dominated the requests in the House.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, requested a combined $14.7 million in earmarks across nine different headings, including a $5 million renovation and expansion for downtown Greenville’s Bon Secours Arena.

House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, nearly equaled him with roughly $14.6 million in requests, toplined by a near-$6 million funding request for competition facilities at Sumter’s Bobby Richardson Park.

Greenville Democrat Chandra Dillard requested $6.3 million for her House district, including a $2.5 million rehabilitation for the water and sewer systems in the historic Judson Mill area and $2 million for sickle cell research at a local hospital.

Rep. Raye Felder, R-Fort Mill, asked for $4 million to renovate the local community center, while Rep. Jackie Hayes, D-Dillon, submitted nearly a dozen small requests primarily centered toward the area’s emergency responders.

What are the biggest projects?

In the Senate, the five largest asks by dollar amount are:

• York County Transportation Infrastructure Improvements ($8 million)
• Murrells Inlet Dredging ($5 million)
• Piedmont Technical College, Edgefield Campus Completion ($5 million)
• Children’s Hospital Collaborative ($5 million)
• City of Columbia, Marketplace at Congaree Pointe ($4.4 million)

In the House, the largest asks are:

• Richland County Recreation Commission, Aquatics Center ($6 million)
• City of Mauldin, Multi-Purpose Stadium ($6 million)
• City of Sumter, Richardson Competition Facilities ($5.9 million)
• Town of Aynor, Levister Recreation Center ($5.27 million)
• City of Seneca, Recreation Complex Addition ($5.15 million)

What are the most interesting projects?

Several projects in particular jump out from the list.

Davis is requesting $4 million to relocate Hilton Head Island’s historic St. James Church, an iconic Gullah-Geechee cultural center that currently sits within the runway protection zone of the nearby Hilton Head airport.

The City of Columbia will receive a combined $5 million in funding between requests from Democratic Sen. Dick Harpootlian and downtown Columbia Democratic Rep. Seth Rose for street improvements. According to The State newspaper, the funding will help to lure a long-desired hotel to the college-bar district.

Downtown Myrtle Beach could get a combined $10 million in funds for revitalization work as well as a long-anticipated tech hub in the area.

How much could it all cost?

In all, members of the South Carolina General Assembly have submitted more than $435 million combined in one-time spending requests for the next fiscal year. It’s also a significantly smaller pool of requests than has been seen in recent years, though — nearly $300 million less. South Carolina Policy Council analyst Bryce Fiedler said this was likely due to a slimmer stream of revenues than the state has seen in recent years.

“I would say that an explanation of earmark shrinkage, if this is the case, should factor in that the new budget has a smaller surplus than those of recent budgets,” he said.

It’s not guaranteed all will get through.

In 2021, Gov. Henry McMaster moved to veto some $152.5 million in spending proposals across 226 separate earmarks over what he called “transparency concerns” while urging lawmakers to come back the following year with detailed descriptions of what the spending would actually go toward.

Most lawmakers complied, and the following year McMaster vetoed just 14 legislator earmarks from the 2022 budget totaling $53 million. The move to deny those funding requests raised frustrations from some — like Harpootlian — over major projects like a quantum computing center in his district.

Later that summer, McMaster’s office issued an executive order mandating descriptions for those earmarks in all ensuing budgets — a rule that has continued to prevail today.

The governor’s office is currently reviewing those requests, which consist of thousands of pages, while The Post and Courier currently has an outstanding public records request for specific details on each of the involved projects.

The process has improved in recent years, Fiedler said. But it could stand for even more transparency, he said.

“We could still do more to make them public sooner,” he said. “Ideally, earmark requests (with all their relevant information) should be posted to an online dashboard on the Statehouse website, and the page should be updated regularly to show new requests as they’re made. Moreover, earmark transparency measures should be codified.”

It is unclear when the budget will come up for a final vote. Historically, that has been sometime in June.