By Bill Davis, senior editor | State Rep. Bruce Bannister (R-Greenville) said this week that no issue has flooded his email inbox more than a proposal this year to allow teachers to carry guns “since the legislature considered changes to bear-hunting season.”
That issue and a host of others will fight for space in the coming legislative session, in the nooks and crannies not filled by the “big four” issues expected to dominate the General Assembly’s agenda: roads, education, tax reform and saving the state’s pension system.
House Speaker Jay Lucas’ office declined to discuss anything beyond the “big four,” despite repeated requests.
In the House: Conservation, job training, DSS, judges, EITC, health care
Bannister, who is finishing out a term as House majority leader, said there will be a lot of talk about several issues, some via pre-filed bills, but doesn’t know if there is enough political will to pass many of them.
And with the legislative session shortened by one month, he said sideline issues could face an even harder time getting floor debate.
Bannister said he expected little time would be carved out to discuss a proposed single-gender bathroom bill, similar to the one bedeviling North Carolina. He wondered if it would even make it out of committee.
But he said to expect a “big fight” in the House over the reauthorization of the state’s Conservation Bank, which protects wetlands and other vulnerable natural assets.
Bannister said some of his colleagues were dead set against reauthorizing it, but said it was one of those issues where voters either “care a great deal about it or do not know anything about it.”
In his upper-corner of the state, filling tech jobs has become a problem, so he expects the House to look at plugging money into training programs.
Across the state, Bannister said there have been calls for changes in Department of Social Services policies that would allow family members to process out of programs more quickly. Alongside this would be proposed changes to the state’s alimony law.
Additionally, Bannister said there would be a push to allow the legislature to vote on all judicial nominees, and not just a final three cleared by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, as well as renew the Angel Investor Tax Credit, which encourages early investment in fledgling companies.
Bannister’s colleague in the House, Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Orangeburg), one of that chamber’s masters of the back hall compromise, said she will champion an effort to “provide relief” to working families via an enhanced earned income tax credit.
“A similar effort is already in place in 27 other states,” said Cobb-Hunter. She also plans to challenge the General Assembly to reassess the wisdom of allowing $600 million in off-the-top property tax relief in a time when public education funding is a strain.
On education, Cobb-Hunter said to expect noise to be made in regards to what she said many consider to be the legislature’s ongoing inaction in response to the Abbeville education equity lawsuit.
She said something had to be done in South Carolina to help the “hundreds and hundreds of thousands of our citizens who can’t afford to get sick” because of a coverage gap in medical insurance for the working poor between state Medicaid programs and assistance provided by Obamacare.
In the Senate: Guns, scholarships, ethics, education, wages
Like Bannister, state Sen. Larry Grooms (R-Bonneau) said this week that some sort of debate would erupt over gun control, which he said was a “stowaway” from promises made by candidates on the campaign trail this year.
Grooms said to expect floor discussion of expanding state scholarships to private and parochial schools for students with “exceptional needs,” to include students crippled by poverty.
As chairman of the Transportation Committee, Grooms knows he will see tons of debate this year in how to address the state’s growing infrastructure shortfalls.
But, he said he also expected ethics to continue to be an issue, as calls for more transparency continue in regard to not only have candidates disclose how much they earn, but also to disclose from whom they earn it.
Sen. Gerald Malloy (D-Hartsville) wondered how much attention can be spared on smaller issues in the shorter session. But he said that changes in Senate rules meant to quell filibusters and skirt roll call votes could create more time.
Like Cobb-Hunter, Malloy said he hoped the legislature gets more serious this year about the Abbeville case. And like Grooms and Bannister, he said he thought gun control would be an issue.
An increased minimum wage will get discussed, Malloy said, but doubts there is anywhere near the political will present for anything to happen to increase the state’s current $7.25 hourly minimum wage.
Two issues Malloy said could sneak into agendas, if only in committee, would include legalizing medical marijuana use and allowing gambling of some sort in the state not governed by South Carolina, which oversees the lottery.
At the governor’s mansion
Many in Columbia have taken a “wait and see” approach to Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster becoming governor with Gov. Nikki Haley’s imminent departure to be ambassador to the United Nations.
Described as more practical, moderate and service-focused than the ambitious Haley, McMaster is expected by many to be easier to work with than Haley, who blossomed as a governor in the face of natural disasters and racist shootings.
McMaster will set the tone for the remainder of Haley’s term when he delivers he delivers his priorities as governor.
McMaster did not respond for comment for this story.
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