Rotarians hear how SC is doing financially

One of the more interested members of the audience at yesterday’s Walhalla Rotary meeting to hear the speaker was likely Dr. Michael Thorsland, superintendent of Oconee public schools.  Because Senator Thomas Alexander was talking about the need for the state to spend up to $30 million extra a year for new school buses.  Alexander announced he’s going to support an override of the governor’s veto of the part of the budget funding new buses.  In Alexander’s view’s it’s paramount that South Carolina return to a cycle of replacing faulty and worn down buses every 15 years.  Alexander’s colleague in the House, Bill Whitmire of District One, had something to say about state revenues.  The latest forecast from the Bureau of Economic Advisers shows South Carolina can expect a surplus of $292 million, but that could easily dissipate, Whitmire says, by finding increased spending requests of state agencies, education being one of them.