Quinn wants to shift $40 million

A top House Republican says he’s found $40 million in the state budget to help pay for Medicaid and to lower state employees’ health insurance premiums.

But the money that Majority Leader Rick Quinn, R-Richland, would take comes from two politically sensitive sources — business tax credits and the state conservation land bank.

Quinn’s proposal came Tuesday, the first day of House deliberations on the proposed $5.3 billion state budget for 2004-05.

The tax credits go to businesses that create 12 or more new jobs. Those businesses are entitled to receive a portion of the state income tax their employees pay.

Quinn says the program normally costs $50 million a year but that the state wanted to expand the program by another $30 million. Quinn would take that extra $30 million.

The remaining $10 million comes from the land bank, a favorite program of Gov. Mark Sanford and Lowcountry legislators. The bank is used to protect large tracts of land and offset development of other property. The $10 million is all the money that the proposed state budget would give the bank.

Quinn said he’ll likely introduce his budget amendment today.

Quinn said both the tax credit program and the land bank are good ideas, but “in a bad budget year we need to delay these things until times are better. We’ve fired 4,000 state employees in the last few years.”

The $40 million would plug a hole in next year’s budget, created when lawmakers abandoned a plan to take $40 million from the Second Injury Fund.

Quinn’s amendment would split the $40 million like this:

• $20 million to help shore up Medicaid, the state health insurance for the poor, elderly and children

• $10 million to help lower state employees’ health insurance premiums. State employees have not had a pay raise the past several years but have seen their insurance premiums climb.

• $10 million to the Department of Corrections, which has run a deficit the past two years.

Sanford’s office had not seen the amendment.

“The governor obviously laid out all those as priority items in his executive budget,” spokesman Will Folks said, “whether it’s economic development dollars, dollars that address deficits at Corrections, or funding the conservation land bank this year.”

Other budget developments Tuesday in the House:

• More than 180 amendments to the spending plan had been offered, prompting House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, to say Democrats were trying to stymie the bill.

• Democrats’ first battle line was over how Harrell’s committee paid for K-12 education programs, including moving money around from different sources to cover school spending.

• House Minority Leader James Smith, D-Richland, criticized Republican efforts to scuttle the First Steps early childhood education program and a reading course for middle school students. Harrell said school districts would get the money through another source and would be able to pay for reading programs if they choose.

• Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, asked about money from the state lottery being used to cover basic education programs. Harrell said state education spending hasn’t fallen below a level set by state law, so the General Assembly is free to use lottery money for greater education funding.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.