Adam Crain

Wait…SC spends how much?

Tax & Budget
June 14, 2017

Adam Crain

On July 1, SC will plow into Fiscal Year 2017 with an appropriated budget of $27,429,395,307. Governor McMaster issued a veto of $56 million, but the legislature looks poised to wait until January to take up the vetoes, leaving those funds (.21% of the budget) in “limbo” until then. Nevermind that the fiscal year begins in 15 days.

The total budget as outlined by the Conference Committee and adopted by the General Assembly – a sum of federal funds, state general funds and “other” funds (which would include public college tuition payments and taxes on motor fuel for example) – is $1.1 Billion larger than the budget of fiscal year 2016.

Most of the budget increases stem from the public policy battles you’ve no doubt heard about: more money for the state’s ailing pension system and a bigger budget to tackle the state’s crumbling roads. Even after South Carolina said “no” to Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services – the government agency that oversees SC’s Medicaid program – has been appropriated almost $300 Million dollars more than it was last year. Medicaid is already expanding in South Carolina without Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.

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But how much is SC really spending? What are South Carolina’s sources of revenue? Where does all this money go? Consider these charts:

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