S.C. Senate OKs $7.5 Billion Spending Plan

The South Carolina Legislature's $7.5 billion spending plan for next fiscal year is one vote from Gov. Nikki Haley's desk.

Senators voted 36-9 Tuesday to approve the budget compromise reached over the weekend by a panel of Senate and House members. House approval would send the package to Haley, who has the authority to veto specific items.

Spending she might strike could include the $40 million of aid to farmers whose crops were wiped out by last October's catastrophic flooding. The Legislature already overrode Haley's veto of legislation setting up how that aid will be distributed.

Republican Sen. Tom Young of Aiken complained that negotiations eliminated $12 million that would have finished reimbursing counties' clean-up expenses from the 2014 ice storm. The biggest chunk would have gone to Aiken County.