SC Senate Passes Budget - No Earmarks - But Your Employees Did Vote Themselves A Pay Raise - CLICK LINK FOR DETAILS - https://scdailygazette.com/2025/04/23/sc-senate-passes-budget-including-more-spending-money-for-legislators Senators advanced a spending plan that would give themselves a pay raise, threaten to take money back from the city of Columbia and keep lottery tickets cash-only. The $14.4 billion spending plan approved by the Senate on a 41-2 vote was largely similar to the version passed by the House in March. Both plans include a $1,500 pay raise in the minimum salary for teachers, a 2% raise for the state’s lowest-paid employees and completion of the Legislature’s 2022 law that phased in income tax cuts. That will reduce state revenues by more than $290 million in the fiscal year starting July 1.