And then there were 122
Staff reports | For the second time in a month, House Speaker Jay Lucas suspended a member of the S.C. House of Representatives following a criminal indictment.
On Wednesday, Lucas suspended state Rep. Chris Corley, R-Graniteville, following an indictment on felony domestic violence and weapons charges related to a Dec. 27 incident.
“The Aiken County Grand Jury has indicted Representative Chris Corley on multiple felony charges,” Lucas said in a statement. “Pursuant to state law, he has been suspended effective immediately from the South Carolina House of Representatives. Because this case is an open investigation, additional inquiries should be directed to the S.C. Attorney General’s office.”
Last month, Lucas suspended state Rep. Jim Merrill, R-Daniel Island, after indictment on several corruption charges.
Legislature starts new session Tuesday
The first session of the 122nd General Assembly of the state of South Carolina will begin at noon Tuesday with a legislative agenda already packed with urgent issues.
Not only will lawmakers work to craft and approve a state budget worth about $8 billion, they’ll have a month less to do it ,thanks to a measure that passed last year to shorten the session to end in early May.
Top issues for the session include seeking solutions to invest more money in infrastructure for roads, bridges and dams. Lawmakers will look at reforming the state’s complicated tax code and whether to overhaul the state’s complicated education funding system. There are challenges that require legislative fixes to the state’s pension system, which is $20 billion behind where it should be. And then they may consider new calls for ethics reform, particularly since there’s a quiet, ongoing investigation into corruption at the Statehouse.
On the first night of the session, lawmakers and Statehouse fixtures will meet at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center for the annual Riley Institute’s Wilkins Awards Dinner where honorees are Rep. Rita Allison, R-Spartanburg, and retired Greenville insurance executive Hayne Hipp, who started the Liberty Fellows program.
All in all, the session has already shaped up to be a doozy — and it really hasn’t gotten started yet.
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