‘Experience is the best teacher’: McMaster urges SC voters to look at his record, not age
In the more than five years since Henry McMaster became South Carolina’s chief executive, the Columbia Republican has faced a nuclear scandal that upended the state-owned electric utility and a global pandemic that, to date, has contributed to 18,000 deaths in his home state.
He steered the state through hurricanes, was at the helm during the state’s deadliest prison riot in a quarter century, pushed an effort to reform the state’s education system, signed into law strict abortion legislation and watched the Legislature override his controversial decision to veto an increase to the state’s gas tax to help fix roads and bridges.
McMaster, who served as the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, attorney general and lieutenant governor then rose to governor in 2017 after Nikki Haley joined the Trump administration, wants to keep his job for four more years.
If reelected, the governor told The State newspaper he wants to raise teacher pay, bolster technical colleges, ensure protection of the environment and further expand the state’s economy by investing in companies to build here.
Now South Carolina voters must decide whether the 75-year-old should stay in office, thereby becoming the longest-serving governor in state history, or whether the state needs a fresh face in Democrat Joe Cunningham, who is 35 years younger.
At his State House office on Oct. 14, McMaster defended his longevity in public office and the institutional knowledge with it when asked whether his age should be a detractor from the race. In his campaign, Cunningham has called for older politicians to step aside to make way for a new generation and new ideas.
“Don’t look at the age; don’t look at the race; don’t look at the name; don’t look at the size,” McMaster told The State newspaper in a 30-minute interview. “Just look at the issues. Look at the record. What have they done? What do they believe? What do they want to do? And none of those other things matter. The most important thing is you need the right people in the right place at the right time, and experience is the best teacher there is.”
McMaster has no regrets in 1st term, including COVID response
Looking back at his more than five years in office, McMaster defended his administration, saying — despite criticism, mainly, that he failed to fully protect South Carolinians from a deadly virus and instead prioritized politics over good policy — he wouldn’t change a thing.
McMaster defended his administration’s stance when he wanted to sell state-owned utility Santee Cooper after the V.C. Summer nuclear scandal. And he backed his veto of the gas tax increase to pay for road and bridge work.
McMaster still wants Santee Cooper to be sold as the electric utility still has $6.8 billion in long-term debt. Lawmakers last year passed a reform plan with no sale provision for the agency.
“I still don’t see how they’re going to handle all that debt,” McMaster said. “I think they made some improvements, but I still don’t see how they are going to be able to survive indefinitely unless something changes.”
In 2017, McMaster vetoed a phased-in 12-cent per gallon gas tax increase to pay for road work around the state.
McMaster, who called taxes a killer in 2017, says he would veto it again.
“I believe we must be very careful when we’re raising taxes on the people of South Carolina,” McMaster said. “So I thought that was a big raise and we have seen recently with the economic explosion that’s where you make money.”
But, similarly to other governors across the country dealing with the same disease, the last two years of McMaster’s administration he has faced dealing with how to allow the state to operate amid COVID-19.
As the virus started to spread, McMaster ordered that close-contact businesses, including retail, restrict work. He also encouraged people to limit interactions, though stopped short of a stay-at-home order or mask mandate and pushed to keep students in class — decisions he said were meant to keep the economy going.
McMaster said he wouldn’t change his actions, even when confronted with the heavy death toll: More than 18,000 deaths in the state since the pandemic started in March 2020.
“We would probably do about the same thing we did because we really thought about it,” McMaster said. “The 18,000 (deaths), I’m not sure it’s because of COVID or with COVID. There are differences there.”
McMaster continued, “We took advice from that and information also from the U.S. Constitution, which says you can’t take somebody’s property from without paying them for it. The government can’t take it and I viewed shutting a business down beyond what you could prove was absolutely necessary and would be effective would be a taking to that property. We had, if not the lightest, one of the lightest restrictions in the country.”
But the politicization of whether people should take the vaccine or wear masks made it a challenge to fight COVID-19, state Department of Health and Environmental Control Director Edward Simmer has said.
McMaster, who has enjoyed a mostly good relationship with the Legislature, has had some disagreements with lawmakers, some of whom are in his own party.
“My goal was to get kids back in school, and it was clear to me at the time, the only way you were going to get kids back in school was to ensure teachers had an opportunity to get the vaccine if they wanted it,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield. “I don’t like masks, and I don’t like requiring masks but my position at the time was if this is going to keep churches open, if this is going to keep kids in the classroom, if it’s going to keep businesses open I would prefer to do that, as opposed to all those things closing down.”
Massey also encouraged a mask mandate at the time when McMaster was against it because the governor questioned whether it could be enforced.
One lawmaker also gave McMaster a mixed review over the governor’s handling of the pandemic response.
House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, didn’t advocate for a complete shut down of the economy and pushed for people to have access to activities where they can socially distance, like reopening of boat docks
But the Democratic leader was critical of McMaster for fighting against school districts that wanted to put in place mask mandates.
“I think that he did handle the pandemic well because we ended up coming out of it and South Carolina business wise did OK,” Rutherford said. I don’t think he handled it well from a health standpoint. I think that he could have been done a lot better.”
Despite criticisms over his handling of COVID-19, McMaster’s relationship also has proved effective when pushing through priorities through the General Assembly.
House leaders gave credit to McMaster for cultivating a relationship with lawmakers when his two most immediate predecessors, Mark Sanford and Nikki Haley, had at times a combative relationship with the General Assembly.
“He immediately reached out to the General Assembly about collaboration, cooperating and moving South Carolina forward in a united front,” said state Rep. Gary Simrill, R-York, the former majority leader and current House budget chief who did not seek reelection this year. “Gov. McMaster brought that cohesion back to the forefront.”
That improved relationship has helped him get priorities through the Legislature, including more restrictive abortion legislation, more money for school resource officers and more money for mental health counselors.
“Needs-based scholarships was an area the governor was interested in and it came to fruition,” Simrill added.
Rutherford, who said he has a good relationship with McMaster, says the governor has done a good job of not getting in the way of the General Assembly, such as when the state dealt with agency problems at the departments of Social Services, Juvenile Justice and Corrections..
“(McMaster) allowed us to start to fix them. He allowed us to allocate the funds necessary to fix them in a piecemeal process,” said Rutherford, who endorsed Cunningham in the Democratic primary.
What McMaster says he wants in a 2nd term
If reelected, McMaster told The State newspaper he wants to focus on education, the environment and economic development.
But, lawmakers told the newspaper there are still lingering issues the governor, or whoever steps into the role, needs to keep focus on in the next four years.
Problems, from widespread staffing issues, training and security problems, have continued to plague the Department of Juvenile Justice, now under new leadership after Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, and others loudly pushed for the removal of Freddie Pough, who McMaster repeatedly defended.
“We did have some struggles there, but everything has worked out,” Shealy said, applauding Eden Hendrick’s work. “I think she’s doing a good job. She took over a very messed up situation, but now we have a good director in charge. (McMaster) supports the new director and I think he’s glad now he made that decision.”
Like DJJ, lawmakers also want legislators to focus on tax reform. But to do that, some say the state must finally confront Act 388, which changed how much school districts can levy in property taxes from homeowners.
Earlier this year, McMaster signed a $1 billion tax cut which includes bringing the top tax rate from 7% to 6% over the course of several years as long as revenues to the state continue to grow, as well as a $1 billion rebate to income taxpayers, and signed legislation that makes military retirement pay tax deductible.
“I think we ought to continue with tax reform. That tax reform is something that I’ve been promoting, encouraging calling forever since I got into this office and I think before,” said McMaster, who declined to say whether he’d support changes to Act 388. “I’m opposed to over taxing people, and I think we have to be very careful when you add up our taxes.”
Over the next four years, McMaster said he also wants to focus on decreasing crime.
Recently, he issued an executive order to crack down on bail bonds men to make sure offenders comply with bond conditions. The governor has also made proposals to prevent repeat offenders from being released on bond and higher penalties for repeat offenders with repeat gun offenses.
“We’ve been working in this direction ever since I’ve been here,” McMaster said, when asked whether he should have made the proposals sooner.
And he said he wants to continue focus on economic growth, protect the environment and improve education.
“I want to continue and expand our economic growth because South Carolina’s business is business, and if you don’t have people working all the other problems multiply,” McMaster said.
He has said he also wants to continue raising teacher salaries, but McMaster hasn’t specified how much beyond the current starting pay of $40,000. When he entered office, the starting pay was $30,000 a year.
“That’s in six years, but we’ll keep going,” McMaster said of the teacher pay raise.
When asked why he wants to still be governor, McMaster called the job the “best in the world.”
“I just love the state, and I think it’s the best place, you’ve heard me say, to live, work and raise a family and I really mean it,” McMaster said. “And to have the opportunity to make things better for these people is wonderful.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
