SC lawmakers to return to the State House. Here’s their priorities for upcoming session
As lawmakers prepare for their session that begins in January, they’re planning to revisit the state’s school voucher program, energy needs and whether to further cut income taxes.
Lawmakers will return to the State House Tuesday and Wednesday for their reorganization after the 2024 election.
General assembly members will elect chamber leadership, pick their seats in the chambers, and receive committee assignments when they return. But the expected leadership already is planning what next year’s legislative session will look like.
Facing legislators is how to react to the state Supreme Court’s decision partially striking down the private school portion of the state’s educational scholarship account program, how to address the state’s growing energy needs, and how to further cut taxes in the state, among other issues.
On the Senate side, expect the upper chamber to to kick off with a plan to address the educational scholarship accounts after they partially shot down by the state Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said public money could not be sent to private schools. It made a similar ruling when Gov. Henry McMaster wanted to use COVID relief money to help parents pay for private school tuition.
Committee work on how to move forward is expected to take place in December with the ability to have legislation for the full chamber to discuss in January, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said.
State Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, is slated to take the lead on the issue, and already has a panel of state senators scheduled to meet on Dec. 10.
“Hopefully we can get something moving even the first week on that,” Massey said.
Coming up with a response to the Supreme Court decision is a goal of leadership in both chambers.
“I think there was, there was some avenues in school choice to which we can put that matter before the court again that we believe would be would solve some of the concerns of the majority in there,” House Speaker Murrell Smith said.
Then the Senate expects to take items that didn’t cross the finish line during the session earlier this year such as tools for law enforcement to combat retail crime and gang activity. Massey said those issues, which will be followed up by tort-related issues, could occupy the chamber into February.
After meeting with the GOP caucus in Sumter in November, coming up with an a bill to further restrict abortion is not at the top of the priority list, Massey said.
Massey wouldn’t say if and when they will jump into an abortion debate, but a conversation took place in the all-male Republican caucus.
“It was a good spirited conversation as always,” Massey said. “We had a good conversation about it. I don’t expect that will be our only caucus conversation about it.”
House members have passed more restrictive abortion bans in recent years only for the pushes to stall in the Senate. Now with the 34-seat GOP supermajority in the state Senate, Republican may have more flexibility to push for a ban that starts earlier than the six-week mark of a pregnancy.
At least, that’s what House members want.
House Republican leadership has indicated that abortion restrictions need to start with the Senate.
“Some of those folks campaign on the fact that they’re pro-life, and some of the ones they beat, they claim we’re not pro-life,” House Majority Leader Davey Hiott said. “So let’s allow them to send it to us and we’ll take a look at it, because we’ve always been the one that started it, and it won’t sit over here if they send it to us.”
The hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus was more direct that the Senate should be able to pass more restrictions on abortion after the results of the election, which included the ouster of three Republican women who stood against the state’s current six-week law.
“I think the voters in South Carolina were very clear when it comes to life,” said state Rep. April Cromer, R-Anderson, and Freedom Caucus vice chairwoman. “We have three senators that lost their race solely based on their stand with the Democrats when it comes to life and I think that should speak to the current Senate. They gained a supermajority and there’s nothing that we can’t do for the people of South Carolina.”
House Republican leadership is looking to further reduce the state’s income tax. The tax rate is slated to stay at 6.2%. The question is whether lawmakers want to continue accelerating the planned income tax cut, which is expected to eventually bring the top rate to 6% as long as revenue to the state continues to grow at a sufficient mark. Lawmakers say the state’s tax rate is not competitive with South Carolina’s neighbors.
Smith said lawmakers plan to reduce the state’s income tax rate, but how to do that needs to be formulated.
“We have all decreed that tax relief is our priority, but we have never done anything to make a substantial reduction in our income tax,” Smith said. “And I think that there’s a commitment and there’s a will in our body, and I believe also in the Senate, I don’t speak for them, but I believe that they will see the same that we need to act before we are competitively disadvantaged with our neighbors in the southeast.”
Among the other House GOP caucus priorities is sending additional money to state agencies to cover costs for their responses to Hurricane Helene.
“We’ve got to figure out what that number is and factor that into our into our budget process. But fortunately, the economy is doing well, and there may be some funds there that we can dedicate toward hurricane relief,” Hiott said.
Included in House GOP caucus priority list is a crackdown on illegal immigration and mandate local cooperation with immigration enforcement, addressing the educational scholarship account program, removing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from educational institutions, increasing teacher pay, addressing increasing liability insurance, and removing “burdensome regulations” to encourage economic growth.
The Freedom Caucus pointed to the S.C. GOP platform in how it set up its priorities, including ending joint and several liability to make insurance rates in competitive, allowing families to direct tax dollars for their children’s education, closing the primaries, stopping diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in South Carolina, reducing the state income tax to 4.5%, and further restricting abortion access in the state.
A panel of state senators this fall also have been studying how to address the state’s growing energy needs. But how quickly the state Senate moves on an energy bill or bills remains to be seen as the Senate GOP caucus did not come up with a time frame for an energy package. The special committee may still have work to do.
“We want to move fairly quickly but we also want to get it right. This is one of those things where you want to make sure you’ve got it right, because the consequence of screwing up could be pretty significant,” Massey said.
How will the supermajorities function?
Both chambers now have Republican supermajorities, after the GOP gained four Senate seats in November. The House became a Republican supermajority after the 2022 election. Republicans make up more than two-thirds of each chamber, making them veto-proof if GOP members stick together. Also having a supermajority allows Republicans more flexibility to move forward with legislation without Democratic support and without the fear of opposition stalling bills from passage.
But the large majorities also can lead to struggles. With the Freedom Caucus, the House has been marked by infighting among Republican members in recent years.
The House Freedom Caucus, which expects to have 21 or 22 members, says with the GOP holding 88 seats in the House, the House should not have any subcommittees chaired by Democrats.
“The rules of the House should reflect that mandate of a supermajority, sad reality is in past, last session, we had Democrats as subcommittee chairmen on very, very powerful committees, in Ways and Means, Judiciary and (Labor, Commerce and Industry),” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jordan Pace said. “So our hope is, when we establish new house rules, that it will reflect the mandate that the people have said and only have Republicans as subcommittee chairs.”
It’s a notion that Speaker Smith seemed to dismiss, adding that each committee chair choose subcommittee chairs.
“We are a Republican body, and we’re going to support Republicans over here, but that doesn’t mean Democrats should be shut out the process,” Smith said.
Massey said he thinks he could avoid the infighting that has been seen in the House, especially after the Senate GOP’s November retreat.
“Everybody showed up, everybody was there, everybody participated and they were very good conversations, and my take away from that is people ran for the right reasons and they ran because they want to be involved and they’re willing to work and they’re willing to act in good faith,” Massey said. “If that happens I think we have a real opportunity to be successful.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 10:12 AM.
