COLUMBIA, S.C. - A coalition of child advocates wants a cigarette tax increase, more funding for the state's early childhood education program and a law that would require clergy to report allegations of sexual abuse.

The Alliance for South Carolina's Children released its legislative agenda Thursday focusing on children's health, preparation and protection.

The sexual-abuse reporting bill would add clergy members to the list of professionals required to report child abuse. That list includes doctors, nurses, coroners, mental health workers, school teachers and religious healers.

Members of the clergy would not have to report cases if they learned of abuse through a religious confession.

The bill has passed the House and is in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The alliance also wants more funding for the state's early childhood education program, First Steps. The proposed $5.1 billion state budget includes $18.5 million for First Steps. That's about half the program's current budget.

Rick Noble, director of Richland County First Steps, said the program has been under scrutiny since its inception. But, he said, a report in January by a nonpartisan research group praised First Steps after only two years of operation.

The group is one of several organizations pushing for an increase in the state's seven-cents-a-pack cigarette tax to fund Medicaid, a federal program that pays for health care for the state's poorest residents.

But the president of the South Carolina Association of Taxpayers says the cigarette tax hike is likely dead for this year. "It appears that the South Carolina House of Representatives will pass a state budget that funds essential services, and fully funds Medicaid, without raising taxes," said Don Weaver, president of the taxpayer group.

The state Department of Health and Human Services Department has said it needs $52 million more than budgeted to pay for Medicaid at its level.