COLUMBIA, S.C. ― The state’s financial oversight board agreed Monday to dip into reserves and give South Carolina State University $12 million over three years, though questions remain about how the money will be doled out and whether the school must repay any of it.
The Budget and Control Board voted 3-1 to get the money from tax collections that came in above advisers’ expectations. Gov. Nikki Haley, the board’s chairwoman, did not vote, calling the decision completely irresponsible to both the university and taxpayers.
“If y’all choose to do this, I will not be any part of it,” she said. “There are a whole lot of questions and very few answers.”
University President Thomas Elzey said the money represents the support needed to move forward.
Whether the funding for the state’s only public historically Black college represents a loan or a bailout becomes part of legislators’ budget debate in the upcoming session.
Last week, a legislative panel approved the $12 million plan, as recommended by a group of former and current college presidents assembled by Senate President Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman. The plan calls for the school to receive $6 million this fiscal year to pay long-overdue bills, then $4 million in 2015-16 and $2 million in 2016-17.
Normally, the budget board must approve loans and their conditions. But a clause in the 2014-15 budget removed that final step in this case. It specified that the budget board’s only role would be to identify the funding source within 15 days of a decision by the Joint Bond Review Committee, which Leatherman chairs.
