Buried in the $32.3 billion 2020-21 spending plan is $26.5 million for pork.

Not the squealing kind.

$19 million is for a proposed downtown Greenville convention center.

$7.5 million will renovate the Sumter Opera House.

The requested $26.5 million would come from a projected $945.5 million in non-recurring tax money, part of an estimated $1.8 billion-plus state surplus.

Lawmakers told news reporters in January they don’t expect taxpayers to get any money back.

This is larger than the proposals for at least 45 state agencies including the Election Commission and police training academy.

The $26.5 million almost doubles the SC Arts Commission’s total budget.

Yet the relatively small agency didn’t ask for the money in its request for next fiscal year which starts July 1, commission spokesman Jason confirmed.

Asked which House members wanted the money, he replied, “We are not aware but have ourselves asked who requested those.”

House Ways and Means chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, said he and Rep. David Weeks, D-Sumter, signed the request for the Sumter Opera House.

He said the money for the Greenville convention center was in Gov. Henry McMaster’s budget, and the committee followed his recommendations.

So-called earmarks are requests for projects that didn’t come from the agency that would receive the public tax dollars. Earmarks are not identified as such.

We requested the House earmark list under the Freedom of Information Act.

House clerk Charles Reid said they do not have it yet.

The House is expected to take up the Ways and Means budget this week. The House spending plan will then go to the Senate.

Brundrett is news editor of The Nerve www.thenerve.org . Contact him at rick@thenerve.org .