|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by WILL FOLKS
***
South Carolina’s so-called ‘Republican’ supermajority is poised to spend a record $42.6 billion on its results-challenged state government during the upcoming fiscal year – which begins on July 1, 2026 and carries through to June 30, 2027.
That’s a whopping 8.75% increase over the previous year’s spending plan, which saw significant reductions in pork barrel spending thanks to the efforts of S.C. Senate finance chairman Harvey Peeler.
All told, legislators are hoping to blow an additional $3.43 billion of your money in the new budget – while providing a mere pittance of tax relief (to some).
Over the years, our media outlet has documented extensively how “Republican” lawmakers join with Democrats to blow billions of dollars in new money each year – including surplus funds that should’ve been pumped back into the economy (i.e. back into your wallets, pocketbooks and small businesses).
We’ve also documented how they refuse to embrace fiscally conservative proposals like zero-based budgeting and caps on excessive spending growth.
Nothing is changing this year, sadly…
***
The S.C. House Ways and Means committee – chaired by fiscally liberal state representative Bruce Bannister of Greenville, S.C. – advanced the gargantuan $42.6 billion proposal last week, and is poised to move it through the GOP-controlled chamber during the middle part of this week (March 10-12, 2026).
Only a handful of fiscally conservative lawmakers – most of them members of the S.C. Freedom Caucus – stand in the way of this monument to status quo preservation.
For those of you uninitiated, South Carolina’s state budget is comprised of three primary sources of funding: general funds (i.e. money from state taxes), federal funds (money from Washington, D.C.) and “other” funds (money from fines, fees and other levies assessed by the state).
Most mainstream media outlets report only on the general fund – which they mistakenly (misleadingly?) refer to as the “state budget.” If you watch local television newscasts, this is the number you will hear repeatedly represented as the totality of state spending.
It’s not… not even close, in fact.
This year, proposed general fund revenues ($13.936 billion) would represent the smallest of the three pieces of the pie (just 32.72% of the total state spending plan). They would also represent the smallest increase from last year’s budget – adding “only” $689 million from last year’s general fund spending (a 5.2% increase).
***
RELATED | ANOTHER GOP BAIT AND SWITCH ON TAXES
***
Where are the bigger spending hikes? Tucked away in the sections of the budget the media doesn’t like to talk about…
Federal funds are poised to soar in the coming year – climbing from $12.487 billion in the current budget to $13.989 billion in the proposed spending plan. That’s a 12% increase (more than $1.5 billion in new spending), although at 32.85% of the state budget, federal funds are not the largest slice of the pie, either.
Lawmakers argue they have no control over these monies, but that ignores the fact they can decide whether to take them to begin with and – in many cases – exactly when and how they appropriate them. Also, lawmakers have previously taken billions of dollars in passthrough federal spending and removed those line items completely from the state budget. A decade ago, they made more than $1 billion in state spending magically disappear – simply by refusing to count it anymore.
The largest part of the 2026-2027 budget (34.43%) is the “other funds” section, which is projected to skyrocket from $13.426 billion last year to $14.663 billion – a 9.2% increase – per the current House proposal.
Which monies go where? Aside from delineating between general funds and total spending, the budget document posted online doesn’t distinguish… it merely provides a recapitulation.
Keep it tuned to FITSNews as we dig into this document over the coming days in the hopes of providing some clarity regarding all of this new spending to our audience…
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
3 comments
Bend over SC. Your “leaders” need to spend more of your money.
Republicans are conservative only when compared to Democrats.
I realize there is always room for improvement, but you don’t get a AAA credit rating if you’re running up your budget deficit, have a high debt to revenue ratio, and taxation that causes your citizens to flee. We are one of only about 6 or 7 states with a AAA credit rating, so we actually handle our financial affairs pretty well. We also have a constitutional provision that was enacted back in the 90s that locks in the growth rate of government as a ratio of state population and GDP. And we are consistently in the top 3 destination states of the country for more than the last 10 years. That is not the picture of some oppressive tax burdened state. Could we eliminate income taxes, trim the budget a bit and then shift the shortfall over to accommodations taxes, liquor and “food & bev” taxes, sales tax in order to capitalize on out of state tourist revenue? Yes. But we are not as bad as this article would want to make it seem.