COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A panel has cut by a third the estimated cost to display a Confederate flag that was removed from the South Carolina Statehouse earlier this year.
The State newspaper reported that the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum Commission on Tuesday reduced the estimated cost of the display from $5.3 million to $3.6 million.
State lawmakers ordered the removal of the flag from in front of the Statehouse in July in reaction to the shooting deaths of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston in June.
The panel’s initial $5.3 million proposal was criticized as too expensive by a number of lawmakers and others.
The lower amount comes by eliminating money to repair a roof, convert a courtyard into landscaped space and reducing construction and display costs.
