It’s your tax money – all $1.8 billion of it. It’s money state lawmakers didn’t plan on getting. And it’s not yet in their hot little hands – but their experts forecast it’s coming. What’s more, half of it’s recurring revenue. This means $900 million more each year – forever. The other half is what lawmakers call “1-time money” and they can’t count on it coming next year. So what should they do with it? Give it back? No, that’s too costly. It would take several million dollars, lawmakers estimate, to write checks to taxpayers and mail them. How about credit on your next year’s tax bill? Nice try. Nothing doing. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey says there are sensible things they could do with the money.

• Give teachers and state employees a pay raise.

• Repair badly neglected state buildings.

• Pay off part of the state’s billions in pension liability. “We promised these employees they would get this in retirement,” the senator who represents Lexington County told reporters at the SC Press Association’s annual legislative briefing. “We have to do it, but we need to reform the retirement system or the problems will continue.” Sen. Massey said lawmakers don’t need to spend all $1.8 billion of the surplus. “I’d rather we didn’t. “But we will,” he predicted. “We’ll spend it all.” SC Governor Henry Mc-Master’s 2020-2021 Executive Budget proposal includes $425 million to be returned to taxpayers. Whether that will happen is up to the legislators.