Tax cuts, education, abortion top priorities in McMaster’s State of the State address
Watch Governor McMaster’s State of the State address below.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster used his bully pulpit Wednesday night to pressure legislators to follow his lead and return excess state cash to taxpayers, adopt his plan for improving public schools, help him pass a sweeping abortion ban and end a secretive process that sends millions of taxpayer dollars to pet projects in lawmakers’ districts.
Those items were among the many priorities McMaster set forth in remarks prepared for his 2020 State of the State address.
“Last year we took bold steps in education reform to empower the next generation’s workforce,” McMaster said in his third annual address to the public and legislators. “We invested in our classroom teachers, in rural schools, in keeping our children safe and secure. This year our continued investment must be the most significant ever.”
McMaster reiterated most of the same goals he made earlier this month when he rolled out his executive budget, a wish list of how he’d like the Legislature to spend its roughly $10.2 billion general fund budget.
That spending, McMaster told lawmakers Wednesday, should be “publicly disclosed, debated and allowed to stand on their own merits,” referring to a system of awarding money to earmarks in lawmakers’ districts without any debate and often without clearly stating how the money will be spent. McMaster said he would make spending transparency a priority after The State reported late last year on more than $20 million in secret spending lawmakers approved in last year’s budget alone.
“It has become a bad habit, a routine exercise of votes and vetoes between the governors and the General Assembly,” said, McMaster who got applause for the remarks but not from every lawmaker in the House chamber. “Maintaining the public’s trust in government, at all levels, requires transparency and accountability on how and why every single taxpayer dollar is spent.”
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland, who asked McMaster this month to issue an order that would stop the Legislature from spending money through vague earmarks, said he is unsure that McMaster’s proposal to set up a grant alternative is a “reasonable alternative.”
“The particular piece concerning the issues I raised about transparency, I think the solution is line items in the budget and total transparency,” Harpootlian said. “I don’t think setting up grant alternatives is a reasonable alternative. Who’s going to supervise it? We need to put it in a line and let everyone vote on it.”
McMaster’s speech was congenial, full of shoutouts to S.C. teachers of the year, businessmen and women, agency directors, college presidents and even former Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who joined McMaster with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee earlier Wednesday to talk about a balanced budget amendment.
McMaster also gave a shoutout to University of South Carolina president Bob Caslen, whose hiring was marked by controversy over the past year.
After the speech, S.C. House Majority Leader Gary Simrill, R-York, called it a “profile of success.”
“The future is so bright in South Carolina. I think that is what he exhibited tonight,” Simrill said. “There’s always room for improvement, and he laid that out tonight.”
Education, abortion
On education, McMaster urged lawmakers to spend $213 million to give every S.C. public school teacher a $3,000 pay raise and expand the state’s free, 4-year-old kindergarten program for children living in poverty to more school districts. McMaster also urged lawmakers to expand school choice, in part by allowing money sent to districts based on enrollment to follow students “to the school the of the parents’ choice.”
“We must have a new path forward,” McMaster said. “The House has passed a comprehensive education reform bill, and the Senate is currently debating their version. I ask that these two versions be reconciled and sent to my desk as soon as possible so I can sign it into law, and we can get to work.”
Hours before McMaster’s speech, S.C. senators were continuing to debate a 64-page education bill that teachers and even some senators have criticized, saying it will do little to actually fix education. Senate Education Committee chairman Greg Hembree, R-Horry, has said he expects the debate to take more than two weeks. But its opponents say that debate could stretch on far longer.
McMaster also promised lawmakers he will sign a House bill that would effectively ban women from getting abortions effectively around the sixth week of pregnancy. That bill originally did not exempt women who become pregnant because of rape or incest. However, state Rep. Nancy Mace — a Republican candidate for the 1st Congressional District race — successfully got those exemptions put back in with a provision after she retold her own rape on the House floor last year. The Senate at first stripped away those protections but later added them back in along with an additional requirement that the rape and incest must be reported to police.
Despite pressure from the governor to pass the bill, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, told reporters this month that there are not enough Republican votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the right to life is the most precious of rights and the most fragile,” McMaster said in his speech, acknowledging Wednesday was the 47th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which guarantees access to abortion. The remarks received applause mostly across party lines, with Republicans standing in applause and Democrats sitting silent.
“We must never let it be taken for granted.”
Tax cuts
Saying South Carolina is “winning,” McMaster mentioned the economy seven times in his speech and taxes another eight, calling on lawmakers to cut personal income taxes this year by $160 million for a total of $2.6 billion in cuts over five years. He also again asked lawmakers to spend $250 million to send back to taxpayers in the form of a one-time check — an average of $200 per taxpayer.
Lawmakers returned to Columbia last week looking at $1.8 billion in new dollars to spend. About $1 billion of that is for one-time costs.
“This year, with a $1.8 billion surplus, if we don’t cut taxes and send money back to the people, shame on us,” McMaster said.
In his call for tax cuts, McMaster struck a bipartisan tone, invoking the names of Democratic and Republican presidents.
“Many people don’t believe it but reducing taxes in fact results in tax receipts increasing, not decreasing. It happened when President (John F.) Kennedy did it, again when President (Ronald) Reagan did it, and it is happening now, under President (Donald) Trump. North Carolina and Georgia, two of our strongest competitors, have just done it, bringing their income taxes down lower than ours.”
First response, law enforcement
With lawmakers staring down $1 billion in new one-time cash to spend this year, McMaster called on lawmakers to use $100 million of that pot to send to the state’s woefully underfunded prisons systems to make them safer — both inside the prisons and outside.
House budget writers, who will get to craft the state’s spending plan first, have appeared open to the idea, particularly after seven inmates were killed during a nearly seven-hour riot at Lee Correctional Institution more than a year ago.
McMaster also repeated his request that the Legislature spend at least $60 million to raise salaries for law enforcement across the state and spend another $5 million specifically “for the sole purpose of hiring 100 new troopers by the end of the year.”
“We are losing valuable and experienced personnel because our agencies are unable to remain competitive with pay and benefits,” McMaster said. “Our highways are dangerous without troopers on patrol.”
Watching from the audience was North Charleston police chief Reggie Burgess, McMaster’s nominee to lead the state’s Public Safety Department, which oversees Highway Patrol. Burgess’ nomination will come back before a Senate panel hearing next week after senators declined to approve his nomination on Tuesday so that he could amend his tax disclosure forms.
“Chief Burgess is one of the finest leaders our state has ever produced,” McMaster said to a standing ovation. “I am confident that he will do an excellent job recruiting and retaining additional highly qualified troopers, addressing challenges and taking morale and public confidence to new heights.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 7:04 PM.
