SC Legislative Update
By Ben Homeyer
The State will conclude its budget work this week and it will be in place to begin the new fiscal year July 1. The General Assembly plans to take the next two months just for sub-committee hearings but will not meet again in regular session until September. One of the Sub-hearings that will most likely take place is the electrification study which will look at electric vehicles and their effect on the roads and road funding. During the next session they plan to discuss the $2.5 billion appropriation from the federal cares act as well as redistricting should the new census data be available. This will determine both districts for the General Assembly as well as federal allocations associated with population.
Items of note in the budget include.
- $50 million for the County Transportation Committees
- $40 million for Rest stop renovations
- $1.6 million for Palmetto Trail Highway 301 Pedestrian Bridge
- $850K for Five Points Road funding
- $500K for Historic T-Bridge Repairs
- $500K for Forest Lake Place Bridge
- $500k for City of Forest Acres Bridge Replacement
- $3.7 million for the deal closing fund at the Department of Commerce.
- $5 million for Trident Technical College Lowcountry Transportation and Logistics Center
- $21.5 million for job training within the technical colleges
- $200 million in one-time monies to the SC Ports Authority (SPA) for infrastructure improvements
There will also be numerous projects such as convention center re-builds, items in downtown Spartanburg, and projects in all 46 counties that will need ready-mix.
