McMaster ‘reluctant’ to support bill that taxes SC businesses for requiring COVID vaccines
Gov. Henry McMaster said he’s reluctant to sign any bill that would impose significant financial penalties on private businesses for enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The governor’s comments come as South Carolina lawmakers debate legislation that would levy heavy taxes on private businesses that terminate workers who refuse to roll up their sleeves.
McMaster reiterated Tuesday he does not support mask and vaccine mandates, but said he’s hesitant to tell private employers how to run their businesses.
“I think mask and vaccine mandates are disruptive and unnecessary in most cases that I can think of,” McMaster told reporters. “But that’s a matter for all those businesses. And I’d be reluctant to interfere with the workings of a private business.”
Leading Republican lawmakers appear to be less concerned about dictating to businesses how to operate.
Just hours after McMaster’s comments, the Senate Finance Committee advanced an amended bill proposed by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, that would assess private employers a surcharge equal to 10 times the highest unemployment insurance tax rate for the next four years if they fired even a single employee over their failure to comply with a company vaccine mandate.
The Senate’s anti-vaccine mandate bill expands on House legislation passed late last year that bans public employer vaccine mandates, prohibits student COVID-19 vaccination requirements and entitles terminated vaccine refusers to unemployment benefits.
The House originally sought to limit private employers’ ability to enact vaccine mandates, but ultimately removed that provision from its bill to secure passage after facing pressure from business groups.
The Senate’s bill does not prohibit private employers from enforcing vaccine mandates, but does go beyond the House legislation by taxing them heavily for firing unvaccinated employees. It also prohibits businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, medical facilities, retail stores and entertainment venues, from denying access to unvaccinated people.
Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, said he feared the bill could cause irreparable harm to the state’s pro-business reputation and motivate large businesses to leave the state or decide not to locate operations here.
“I think we will absolutely lose jobs because of this. I think we’ll lose revenue because of this,” he said. “I just don’t think this is a thing we should rush into because of politics or really any other reason.”
Republican proponents of the bill said they aren’t entirely comfortable interfering in a private employer’s operations, but said they’ve been left with no choice.
Massey said he’d been backed into a corner by public and private employers, such as North Charleston and the Medical University of South Carolina, that had terminated workers who refused to comply with vaccine requirements.
“I feel like I’ve gotten to the point that I’m forced to do something,” he said last week.
The concerns some lawmakers had about the bill were partially assuaged Tuesday after the Finance Committee amended it to exempt employers that have or are seeking federal contracts that contain a valid, enforceable COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
For others, the amended bill remains a nonstarter because it still imposes steep tax penalties on non-exempt private businesses that enforce vaccine mandates.
The Finance Committee deadlocked on the tax penalty portion of the bill Tuesday, but ultimately advanced it by a 14-9 vote with the intention of debating and possibly amending that controversial provision on the Senate floor.
Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, joined all eight Democrats on the committee in opposition to the bill.
Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, said afterward he expected the tax penalties to be the “big discussion” going forward and hoped to bring the bill to the floor as soon as possible.