As lawmakers consider a $30 billion spending plan, their taxpayer-funded benefits keeps growing.

The 46-member Senate last month quietly added $1.25 million to its money for unspecified operating expenses, records show.

That’s on top of a $250,000 hike the House proposed for each chamber.

It will make Senate spending on itself grow by 11% to $16.3 million. The budget for the 124-member House chamber next fiscal year would be $22.7 million with its $250,000 increase.

A quick calculation shows that comes to $354,347 for each Senator and $183,064 for each House member.

Both chambers are sitting on huge reserves while seeking more tax dollars.

The Senate entered this fiscal year last July with a $6.1 million surplus.

The House carried over $25 million – nearly $2.9 million more than its entire chamber budget last year.

Senate president Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, Senate Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and Senate clerk Jeff Gossett did not respond to written questions.

The Senate ranked the $1.25 million hike for itself at No. 8 of 46 categories, ahead of a proposed $37 million to the state Department of Mental Health for 3 veterans nursing homes.

Special requests by House members include:

• $5 million for a convention center in Greenville housing an art collection that had been at the private Bob Jones University.

• $1.5 million which Rep. Chip Huggins, R-Lexington, said would be used to match a federal grant to extend the 3 Rivers Greenway trail in Richland and Lexington counties. The Senate would funnel another $1.2 million from surplus funds for “advertising.”

• $350,000 that Rep. Kirk-man Finlay, R-Richland, said was for a foster care program run by the nonprofit Epworth Children’s Home in Columbia.

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve. Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@the-nerve.org .