Finally at ‘Promised Land,’ what Harvey Peeler’s new finance role means for SC, the Senate
South Carolina Sen. Harvey Peeler now sits at the helm of one of the state’s most powerful legislative panels responsible for doling out state dollars every year — a multi-decade wait inside a chamber that operates almost entirely on seniority.
His colleagues say the Gaffney Republican is more than prepared, forecasting some differences from his predecessor.
“Sen. Peeler, and I joked the other day that he’s kind of like Moses. He had to wait 40 years to get to the Promised Land,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield. “I think Sen. Peeler has been waiting for this. He’s been planning for this and preparing for it for a number of years.”
First sworn in to the Senate in 1981, Peeler, a retired dairy farmer and the chamber’s first president, now has more control over the state’s purse strings, making him one of the most sought-after South Carolina legislators after the death of longtime Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman.
Peeler’s Senate colleagues told The State they expect the senior senator to clamp down on spending and be fair.
Months into his first session as finance chairman, Peeler has kept on Leatherman’s staff.
“You wouldn’t go in there and change and get a bunch of people that don’t know the business of South Carolina,” said state Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington. “That would be foolish.”
And Peeler has not decided — or at least said publicly — whether he’ll continue the practice of keeping Democrats as chairs of spending subcommittees, a practice which in year’s past has helped gain bipartisan support for the state budget.
Peeler did not return a phone call and his office declined to comment for this article.
“That’s up to the chairman,” said state Sen. Nikki Setzler, D-Lexington, the former minority leader who has chaired the Senate Finance Committee’s Natural Resources Subcommittee. “I will support him any way I can. I’ve worked with him and I’m ready to support him and work with him for what’s best for South Carolina.”
The first five months of Peeler’s new job will be dominated by money, and lots of it.
The Legislature has roughly $3 billion available to spend that wasn’t available to lawmakers last year. Budget writers also have another $2.5 billion in federal COVID-19 relief and $525 million from the Savannah River site settlement.
“I don’t see him as somebody going around and rewarding his friends and punishing his enemies,” said state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Richland County Democrat who has known Peeler for almost 60 years and were students at Clemson University together. “I think he’s somebody who’s going to make decisions about what’s best from a financial standpoint for the state of South Carolina.”
In 1981, Peeler, 73, joined the Senate as a Democrat, switching to the Republican Party in 1989.
And though he and Leatherman joined the upper chamber the same year, by virtue of alphabetical order, Leatherman served as the Senate Finance Committee chairman for two decades, a tenure that made him the most powerful legislator in the state.
Now as the committee’s leader, Peeler will be tasked leading 22 other senators in helping to draw up a state spending plan that must be approved by a majority of the 46-member Senate before it becomes law.
It’s a challenge Leatherman faced, and a challenge Peeler’s colleagues said he can handle.
“He may have a different philosophy,” said state Sen. Kevin Johnson, D-Clarendon, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee. “As long as he’s fair and consistent, I think it will be tolerable.”
One way budget leaders can curry favor with members is through the sometimes controversial practice of earmarking, often referred to as pet projects that steer money toward specific projects or organizations in legislators’ districts.
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland, who often criticized the lack of transparency with earmarks under Leatherman’s leadership, said Peeler might view them differently.
“I don’t think the earmark process is going to be as dominant as it was under Sen. Leatherman,” Harpootlian said. “I think if you want something and you’re not afraid of making it public, and it’s not to fund some local interest group that helps a senator or House member get reelected, and if that’s the only reason you’re funding them, he’s not going to do that.”
Though new, Setzler said Peeler brings a considerable amount of experience into his new job.
“He is conservative, but he wants to provide for the people of South Carolina, and he, like I, wants the future of South Carolina to be better for our children and grandchildren than it is today and that’s the most important,” said Setzler, who’s been in the Senate since 1977. “It’s not about conservative or liberal.”
