Legislators restore $900K for bus fuel, parts

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Earlier this week, the state Senate overrode by a vote of 29 to 14 a veto by Gov. Mark Sanford that would have cut $900,000 from the school bus fuel and parts budget.

State Department of Education (DOE) spokesman Jim Foster told News Channel 7, "$900,000 represents less than three days of operations, fuel and parts, so it's a good thing that we got it, but we're a long way from where we need to be."

Foster added that the entire budget for fuel and parts for the state’s school bus fleet has been cut from $70.1 million this year to $56.6 million for the next budget year, which starts July 1.

Due to that cut, DOE officials said that the agency won’t have sufficient funds to run the buses for all 180 school days for the upcoming year.

However, Foster told the news source that the DOE is confident that if it was going to run a deficit, the General Assembly would give it permission to do so, or provide an emergency appropriation.