Archive for month: May, 2024

Last week, the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors (BEA) announced that state budget writers will have an additional $610 million to appropriate when they return to Columbia in the coming weeks to finalize the state’s FY2024-25 budget. Of the $610 million, $143 million is recurring revenue that can be used for multiyear expenses while $467 million is nonrecurring revenue that will likely be used on one-time expenses. All told, budget writers have a total of $816 million in recurring revenue and $1.33 billion in nonrecurring revenue at their disposal for the FY2024-25 budget.

The revenue increase was driven largely by better-than-expected corporate income tax collections and investment earnings. Sales tax revenues, income tax revenues, and corporate license fee revenues were also higher than anticipated, albeit at lower levels than corporate income tax collections and investment earnings.

Members of the FY2024-25 budget (H.5100) conference committee will be able to use this additional revenue to iron out differences between the $13.8 billion House and Senate spending plans. Many SC Chamber priorities are included in both versions of the proposed FY2024-25 budget including a reduction in the individual income tax, investments in all facets of the state’s critical infrastructure, funding for technical college scholarships for critical-needs jobs, and teacher pay increases.

Last week, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) released data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that reveals key facts about South Carolina’s current labor market. This data shows that South Carolina is continuing to experience record levels of employment as the labor force participation rate in April increased to 57.2% which equates to 2,484,243 working or job-searching South Carolinians. In April alone, the number of employed persons increased by 4,810, marking a 32,638-person increase since this time last year.

Conversely, the number of unemployed individuals also increased to 79,793 which includes 1,843 newly unemployed individuals in the month of April. In comparison to this time last year, there are 8,870 more people out of work, bringing the statewide unemployment rate to 3.2 % while the national rate slightly decreased to 3.9%.

More information on the current state of South Carolina’s labor market can be found here.

Join the MCR team for a fun day of finding out what NICA is all about. Come and get information about the upcoming season and enjoy team member led rides down the trail. Skills courses, group rides, a yoga class, and a bike maintenance class.

To see the full flyer, click here.

Congratulations to the 2023-24 Class of Fellows in Education as they enjoyed their graduation luncheon on Monday, sponsored by Duke Energy.

The class of 27 local civic and business leaders shared Florence 1 Schools experiences over the last 10-months to witness and share a behind the scenes look into several F1S schools. It was an opportunity to see firsthand what is occurring in the district each day as we educate our children.

Fellows In Education is a joint program between Florence 1 Schools, the School Foundation and the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce.

This year’s class included the following individuals:

Charlie Abbott, Kirby Anderson, Amber Bendle, Swapna Bharadwaj, Stephanie Bishop, Jason Cox, Brian Davison, David Fountain, Brittney Gadd, GE Hinson, Celeste Johnson, Thomas Kennedy, Rachel Lane, Chaquez McCall, Chief Thomas McFadden, Carolyn Pearce, Dr. Justin Pearson, Jennifer Powers, Temple Robinson, Gregg Robinson, Melissa Scott, Alyssia Smith, Kyle Srimoungchanh, Malorie Steadman, Brad White, Kevin Yokim

To see more photos, click here.

Five St. Anthony Catholic School students demonstrated excellence on the 2024 National Spanish Exam (NSE) and secured gold, silver, and bronze medals. Alex Finianos and Eli Seif secured gold medals, Oliver Thomas secured a silver medal, and Bianka Acaylar and Gia Hieshetter secured bronze medals. The achievement of earning a medal on the National Spanish Exam is a testament to the dedication and hard work of these students.

To read the full press release, click here.