The State Senate returned to Columbia on Tuesday and completed work on the state budget for FY 2011 by addressing the remainder of Governor Sanford’s vetoes.
None of the vetoes had an adverse effect on more than $107 million in general fund appropriations for Tuition Grants ($21.7 million) and for other scholarships such as the Palmetto Fellows, LIFE, and HOPE. The Governor’s veto pen also skipped more than $187 million in lottery proceeds allocated to all the scholarship programs. Tuition Grants will receive directly $7.7 million in lottery funds.
PASCAL is still on track to receive $169,674 in state funds and up to $1.5 million in lottery funds if there is sufficient unclaimed lottery prize money at the end of the year. In an “average” year, the amount of unclaimed prizes is sufficient to fund all the programs ahead of PASCAL with around $1 million to spare, but there are no guarantees. If PASCAL does receive money from the lottery, it will mark the first increase in PASCAL’s state appropriations since the program lost $2 million at the end FY 2007-2008.
In spite of over $2 billion in cuts to state programs and agencies during the past three years, funding for higher education grants and scholarships have held steady. Thanks to the support and advocacy of students, parents, and friends of independent higher education, the General Assembly continues to recognize the importance of investing in the future of South Carolina, one student at a time.
