COLUMBIA - With the close of the year’s state legislative session Thursday, legislators from the Pee Dee expressed satisfaction with it.

Discussing topics ranging from education funding to changes in legal liability cases and state employees salaries, lawmakers said they were able to address many important issues this year because of millions of more dollars in revenue.

Many said balancing the budget without a tax increase was another feature of the term.

“This has been the best legislative year of my 25 years in the South Carolina Senate,” said Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Flor-ence.

A release from Leatherman’s office outlined $315 million, or a 23.6 percent increase, in funding for K-12 schools.

“Funding the Base Student Cost at its highest level in state history sends a clear message that education is the No. 1 priority in South Carolina,” Leatherman said.

The increase for teacher salaries in the bill put the average salary for a teacher in the state at $42,737. Leatherman said he was pleased with other legislation, too.

“We passed tort reform and medical (malpractice) reform,” he said.

Leatherman also listed the passage of a bill that will allow small businesses to pay a 5 percent rate of income tax, instead of 7 percent; increased pay for state workers; and fully funding Medicaid as important legislation.

Leatherman said property-tax relief is an issue that should be addressed in the next session. He said he is not sure what direction that debate will take.

“I’m going into it with an open mind,” he said.

The satisfaction with the budget transcended party lines.

“This was the best session I’ve been a part of,” said Rep. Lester Branham, D-Lake City. “It was a bipartisan effort to do the necessary things we did for the citizens of the state.”

Branham said much of the items funded this year were things that have been under-funded during the last five years of lean revenue for the state. He credited the new revenue for the cooperation.

“People seem to get along better when there’s more money,” he said.

Branham said he looks to get more funding for the state’s roads, especially secondary roads, in the future.

“We can plan to look at” more funding for roads next session, he said.

Branham said tax reform is another issue that needs attention in the future.

“Property tax is what people say they want and need,” he said.

Branham also said he was glad to see legislation that tightens seat belt laws passed.

Rep. Marty Coates, R-Flor-ence, said the Legislature moved on important bills early in the session, and that made it one of the busiest.

“We jumped out with an agenda to tackle major legislation before we saw the budget,” Coates said, indicating that the House usually moves slower in the beginning of the session. “We are usually very busy between April and May, but this session it was very busy from January through the end of May,” he said.

Coates listed tort reform, changes in medical malpractice litigation and the Education and Economic Development Act, which increases career and technology education in high schools, as top legislation.

And, he said, a 4 percent pay increase for state workers and a 10 percent pay increase for law enforcement on the state level were important, too.

Funding to Francis Marion University and Florence-Darlington Technical college also were positives cited by Coates. He said he would like to see more attention paid to economic development, property-tax relief and equity in funding for education addressed when the General Assembly meets next year.

Rep. Denny Neilson, D-Darlington, said she was pleased to see passage of the S.C. Education and Economic Development Act, which will allow students more options in career and technology courses in high school.

“The (course structure) will enable students to graduate and have a seamless transition to employment, further training or post-secondary education,” she said.

Neilson, who is chairwoman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Aging, said changes in laws to help shore up retirement benefits for state workers was another area that she was pleased to see addressed. She said funding that will pay for more oversight of the state’s retirement facilities was another plus this session.

Neilson and Branham said $4 million in the year’s budget to fund trauma centers in the state was another need that was met.

Rep. Jackie Hayes, D-Hamer, said that of his seven years as a representative, this one was the best.

“And for the first session since ’99, we were able to reach out and meet needs,” Hayes said.

“Education and health care are two of the main things. And we passed a tort-reform bill.”

Hayes said funding equity in schools is a major issue that needs to be addressed in next year’s budget.

He said his No. 1 priority will be working to bring economic development to the Pee Dee.

Rep. Jim McGee, R-Florence, said he “feels real good” about the session.

“We passed a domestic-violence bill,” he said. “There are a lot of good things in that bill,” which make criminal domestic violence a felony, considers the past record of an offender, and makes criminal domestic violence in front of a child an even more serious offense, he said.

McGee said he was pleased that growth in state revenues allowed the General Assembly to add funding to secondary and higher education and increase the salaries of state workers and law enforcement personnel.

Rep. Jay Lucas, R-Hartsville, said the legislative year was unlike any other.

“I’m very happy with what we accomplished,” he said. “Raising the Base Student Cost is the centerpiece of the budget.”

Lucas said bipartisanship was a positive aspect of the session, too.

“This was a great year for working together. It seemed the sentiment for Republicans and Democrats was to work across party lines,” he said.

Lucas said increasing pay for state workers, law enforcement and full funding of Medicaid were all successes of the budget. He said money in the budget that will go to FMU and Florence-Darlington Tech as well as $750,000 for the Governor’s School for Science and Math in Hartsville is good for the Pee Dee. He noted the lowering of income tax rates on small business, the job tax credit and a tougher criminal domestic violence bill as highlights as well.

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