A $4.1 million appropriation in disaster relief funding recently passed in the S.C. Senate's version of the state budget was rejected last week by the S.C. House, leaving those aide dollars in question for local governments, including Aiken County.
The relief dollars are associated with the ice storm known as Pax that hit Aiken County and other counties in the state in February 2014. Aiken County would be set to gain about $1.6 million, the City of Aiken about $100,000, and North Augusta roughly $38,000 if the Senate's version of the budget is moved forward.
Since the House didn't concur with the Senate's bill last week, the budget is now being considered in conference committee, which involves legislators from both chambers of the General Assembly being tasked with resolving disagreements over the bill. Sen. Tom Young, R-S.C., said he is hoping the conference committee will adopt the Senate's version of the budget to insure those reimbursement dollars are provided to local governments impacted by the storm.
"The non-federal state local match reimbursement from the state to the local governments impacted by the ice storm is very important to not only Aiken County, but several other local governments within Aiken County," Young said. "Our delegation strongly believes and supports the inclusion of those reimbursement monies in the final version of the budget."
The legislative session is set to adjourn Thursday at 5 p.m., creating a clear time frame for legislators to work out the details of the budget.
However, according to S.C. Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, measures that have moved as far along in the legislative process to be in conference committee are still "alive and well" and can be considered after the session adjourns.
After the February 2014 ice storm that took down trees and cut electricity and power to thousands of homes in the county,
Aiken County officials spent a total of about $33.2 million to pick up more than 1 million cubic yards of debris and enact recovery and emergency services. The City of Aiken spent about $2 million. Aiken County has received federal reimbursement of about $26 million out of the expected $27 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, according to County Administrator Clay Killian. That left the County paying about $6.1 million out of pocket without the state's match.
Michael Ulmer is the opinions page editor for the Aiken Standard. Follow him on Twitter @MikeUlmer.
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