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Matthews sees more school funds, cigarette tax hike

Matthews

The S.C. Senate Finance Committee will focus on education as it begins crafting next year’s budget, with special attention to improving early childhood education in the state, Sen. John Matthews said Monday.

A judge recently ruled in a lawsuit brought by rural school districts that the state does fund education to the “minimally adequate” standard set in the S.C. Constitution, although it must improve early childhood education.

The House set aside $6 million in its version of the state budget for early childhood education, but Matthews said, “The state needs to do more to prevent children from falling behind.”

The Bowman Democrat, who is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, says the Senate will come up with a plan to fund a comprehensive early childhood education program.

All in all, Matthews said he expects the Senate Finance Committee to focus on education and health care when it takes up the state budget next week. The House passed its version of the $6.3 billion state budget last month.

“We’re never able to meet all those needs,” Matthews said, but the state will be able to do better than in prior years.

“We are going to fully fund public education” based on state formulas, Matthews said.

He is also hopeful the Senate will find the money needed to fund deferred maintenance at the state’s higher education campuses, such as South Carolina State University. The university has asked lawmakers for $27 million to address its building maintenance needs.

Matthews also expects an increase in the state’s cigarette tax to fund children’s health programs and expand the number of available nursing home beds. At 7 cents a pack, South Carolina’s cigarette tax is the lowest in the nation.

“I think it needs to increase to 32 cents,” or perhaps as much as 36 cents, he said. “That will be one of the major issues.”

At the same time, the Senate will begin developing its own version of property tax relief. Matthews expects the Senate to adopt a “circuit breaker” approach to reducing property taxes, with the reduction based on homeowners’ ability to pay.

A previous plan “came close together and then it came apart,” he said.

“I think we’ll come back with something everyone can agree with,” he said.

The consensus on a Senate subcommittee that dealt with issue is that “no one will pay more than 2 to 5 percent of their adjusted gross income,” Matthews said. The relief could be paid for with a half-cent to 1-cent sales tax increase.