COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Last week, lawmakers passed a state budget of around $13 billion to Governor Henry McMaster’s desk. However, not everything included made the cut. This year, the governor decided to only veto 21 items in the budget that was sent his way. Those vetoes totaled $2.3 million and are a small part of a multi billion dollar budget that the governor is pleased with for the most part.  “They made some progress but not nearly enough,” said Gov. McMaster.  McMaster is talking about a bill he signed into law that reforms the way South Carolina judges are selected. He believes that much more work is still needed.  “We would be much better served if we adopted a system that has worked for hundreds of years in the federal system,” the governor said. “The president makes a nomination and the Senate has hearings.” When it comes to the state’s 13 billion dollar budget passed last week by lawmakers, McMaster approves of income tax cuts, teacher pay raises and a proviso banning cell phones in schools. “There’s been books and studies,” McMaster said. “Also, common sense will tell you that when children have cellphones in the classroom, you can’t teach them. Can’t do it.” Also concerning education, McMaster supports technical college scholarships as well as additional funding for school resource officers. The governor hoped more money would go towards SROs as well as the state’s road and bridges. “We needed that money. Maybe we can compensate somehow,” McMaster said. “The Department of Transportation has been good about that in order to keep things moving. The money is there and we thought this would have been the right thing to spend it on.” In the end, 200 million has been allocated for infrastructure improvements. However, 21 items in the budget were vetoed by the governor for being earmarked funds. “They all sound good and many are probably for valuable purposes. For some of them, we have no idea of what they are going to do,” the governor said. “We also have no idea when they get the money if they ever do it. This has got to change. This is not the way to spend the people’s money. This is a lot of money that I’m vetoing here.” Also in the state budget, lawmakers included tuition freezes for the state’s public universities as well as funding for a vet school at Clemson and a new med school campus at the University of South Carolina. Categories: Local News, News, Politics, Richland Tags: Governor Henry McMaster, Judges, SC lawmakers, SC Statehouse, School Resource Officers, south carolina budget, South Carolina Department of Transportation, South Carolina General Assembly, state budget