SOUTH CAROLINA HOUSE LEADERSHIP CHANGES
On Tuesday, House Speaker Jay Lucas announced last week that he will not seek re-election and will be leaving the House at the end of this session.
This follows the announcement earlier this month that Representative Gary Simrill would not seek re-election. Representative Simrill serves as Majority Leader in the House and has been the House Ways and Means Higher Education Subcommittee Chair for the last several years. Representative Simrill’s leadership has been key to higher education’s budget success in recent years.
Changes in a number of House leadership positions are expected as the session progresses.
LAST WEEK IN SOUTH CAROLINA
On Thursday, March 18, the Senate voted unanimously to advance S.2, a bill that would split the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control into two new agencies.
The bill would dissolve DHEC and create two new cabinet-level agencies: the Department of Behavioral and Public Health and the Department of Environmental Services.
The environmental control responsibilities of DHEC would become the Department of Environmental Services, which would also take over the Water Resources Division currently housed under the Department of Natural Resources.
BUDGET
The South Carolina House of Representatives completed its work on the state budget on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
The House budget is largely unchanged from the Ways and Means Committee’s version of the budget. Below is a summary of the items impacting Clemson University and Clemson PSA:
Clemson E&G
$9.9 million in recurring funding for tuition mitigation*
*In order to retain the above appropriations, each institution of higher learning listed above must certify to the Commission on Higher Education by August 15, 2022, there is no in state undergraduate tuition or in state undergraduate fee increase, excluding increases in auxiliary fees, for the 2022 2023 academic year.
$32.5 million in nonrecurring funding for maintenance, renovation and replacement
Clemson PSA
$2 million in recurring funding for Rural Health Cooperative Extension and Research
$750,000 in recurring funding for Laboratory Services Support
$500,000 in recurring funding for Integrated Agriculture Technology
$3.6 million in nonrecurring funding for Critical PSA Infrastructure
$7 million in nonrecurring funding for Edisto Research and Education Center Research Infrastructure Upgrades and Expansion
The House also included several items of interest from the Executive Budget:
$60 million in recurring lottery dollars for need based grants at the Commission on Higher Education. This would represent approximately $5M in additional need based grant opportunities for Clemson students.
$20 million in recurring tuition grants at the Higher Education Tuition Grants Commission. These dollars are beneficial to students attending private higher education institutions.
$4.1 million in recurring lottery dollars for students with intellectual disabilities attending college transition programs. This represents additional funding for ClemsonLIFE.
The House budget includes a 3% pay increase and a one-time bonus of $1500 for state employees. The proviso directing the authorization of these funds provides flexibility to higher education institutions to reward both the pay raise and the bonus based on merit for unclassified employees.
The House budget also includes an increase in the cost of health insurance and an increase in retirement contributions for state employees and employers. The employee portion of both will be paid by the state. The employer portion of both will have to be covered partially by the university.
The House adopted a proviso that suspends Act 35 of 2021 pertaining to college athletes name, image and likeness (NIL). This proviso has the support of Clemson and our fellow higher education institutions who are working together to ensure competitiveness in athletics.
The budget now goes to the Senate Finance Committee.
Senate Finance Budget Subcommittees that hear Clemson’s budget requests:
Natural Resources and Economic Development Budget Subcommittee:
Senator Nikki Setzler, Chair (D-Lexington)
Senator Kent Williams (D-Marion)
Senator Tom Corbin Clemson ’87 (R-Greenville)
Senator Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington)
Senator Mike Gambrell Clemson ’80 (R-Anderson)
Higher Education Budget Subcommittee:
Senator Ronnie Cromer, Chair (R-Newberry)
Senator Darrell Jackson (D-Richland)
Senator John Scott (D-Richland)
Senator Tom Corbin Clemson ’87 (R-Greenville)
Senator Ross Turner Clemson ’86 (R-Greenville)
From a state budgeting standpoint, Clemson is considered two separate state agencies: a research university that receives an educational and general (E&G) state appropriation for teaching and student support, and a land-grant Public Service and Agriculture (PSA) division that receives a state appropriation to support agriculture, forestry and natural resource Extension, research and regulatory programs.
The university also has auxiliary operations, such as athletics, student housing and dining services, which receive no state funding and must generate all of their own revenue.
2022-23 State Budget Priorities
Clemson E&G
Recurring Requests
Base Appropriations Increase (In State Tuition Mitigation) $12.6 million
Rural Health $1.3 million
Nonrecurring Requests
IT Network Infrastructure Improvements $39.7 million
Advanced Materials Innovation Complex $25 million
Planned Maintenance and Renewal Projects $17 million
Clemson PSA
Recurring Requests
Rural Health Cooperative Extension & Research $2.4 million
Laboratory Services Support $1.5 million
Integrated Agriculture Technology $1 million
Nonrecurring Requests
Critical PSA Infrastructure $3.6 million
Edisto Research & Education Center Infrastructure $8.3 million
Upgrades and Expansion
Poultry Science Research Facility $4.7 million
BILLS OF INTEREST
The Clemson University Governmental Affairs office is monitoring several bills that have potential impact on Clemson. A complete listing of these bills may be found here. Click on the bill number for a description of the legislation, along with the bill’s current status.
NEWS AND FYI
Please follow CU at the Capitol on Twitter. Current news coverage of interest may be found here.