State lawmakers found out near the end of their legislative session that South Carolina would be getting more than $200 million in one-time federal money. Some of it was specifically earmarked for Medicaid, and that plugged the state?s budget hole for that health care need. Lawmakers set aside much of the rest for education. They then decided to send an additional $44.6 million of that federal money to our schools, to help raise the state?s per-pupil spending from $1,701 to $1,777.

Congress left it open to the states to use the money for essential government services like education, health care and law enforcement. But since South Carolina lawmakers decided to spend it all on the first two, that leaves none for law enforcement. It was a classic dilemma for them, having to decide how to spend limited resources. Should they raise per-pupil spending in our schools, which have been hit by previous budget cuts and have more on the way? Or should they spend it to help keep us safe?

Department of Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden says, "We were never in line to get any of that federal money. It wasn?t earmarked for us." But the Highway Patrol could certainly have used some help.

The Highway Patrol graduated a new class of 26 troopers Friday. Ideally, the Patrol would have liked for that class to be about 80 troopers, but budget cuts prevented that. Even with the new troopers on the road, the Patrol is shorthanded by about 270.

It?s one-time money that Washington is sending to the states, so it wouldn?t have been wise to use it to hire more troopers, since money for their salaries wouldn?t be there in future years. But Col. Russell Roark, the Patrol?s new commander, says the one-time money would have helped with equipment needs. "Equipment is a morale issue," Col. Roark says. "This year we bought 54 cars. That was some money we had that we?ve set aside in order to buy vehicles. We?re so far behind on vehicles it was almost a must to buy those. We need to buy around 300 a year to roll our fleet out."

He says the Patrol also needs new radar equipment and new body armor for troopers.