From Wire and Staff Reports

Debate on South Carolina’s $6 billion spending plan for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 will stretch into a fifth week after the state Senate adjourned with a pile of unfinished work.

Thursday’s daylong debate accomplished little, leaving senators to return Tuesday and resume work on the budget.

During Thursday’s debate, senators nixed plans to cut health care spending for the elderly, poor and disabled, create taxpayer rebates and give bigger tax breaks for businesses with records of firing people.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, says there’s no chance now to get a compromise version of the budget worked out with the House, which already has passed a budget plan, and deal with possible vetoes by Gov. Nikki Haley before the Legislature adjourns June 2.

However, legislators already are slated to return to Columbia in mid-June for a session originally intended to focus on legislative and congressional redistricting.

The holdup in passing a budget proposal through the Senate also now threatens to maroon until next January proposals that would limit lawsuit awards – a subject many senators want to avoid anyway – and make changes to the state’s jobless benefits system, aimed at saving businesses money.

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