The state Senate's version of the budget for the coming year gives USC its first funding increase since 2008, including $10 million for the law school, $5 million for Palmetto College, and $7 million for increases in employee salaries.
While we applaud the Senate for finally redirecting attention to the needs of higher education, there is one critical issue with the budget proposal as it stands — new requirements in salary increases and funding for benefits like insurance will bring the total increase in employee costs to over $17 million dollars. While on the surface they have increased our funding for the coming year, the Senate is in fact creating a budget shortfall.
The state of South Carolina likes to complain about "unfunded mandates" from the federal government, rules that must be followed without providing the budget to do so. The state is doing the same thing to USC here; by failing to note the full effect of new regulations on the budget and providing less than half of the mandated increase, the Senate is only exacerbating an already critically short fiscal situation. The burden will be passed down in the form of tuition increases to students already overwhelmed by record tuition hikes.
This budget has not yet passed, so we encourage our senators, as well as the representatives who will work to reconcile the two versions of the budget, to reconsider the requirements as provided. We want our instructors and staff to be paid well, but to do so the state must provide at least a majority of the money, not the students.