Staff reports | Oconee County Republican Sen. Thomas Alexander became the new president of the state Senate following the resignation this week of Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, who took the powerful position of chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
While controlling the day-to-day business and debate of the state Senate is a key position, Peeler’s move to chair the budget-writing committee is actually a step up in power because of the way the position has its fingers in every part of funding state government. The position became open last month after the passing of longtime Finance Chair Hugh Leatherman of Florence.
After Peeler, now the Senate’s longest serving Republican, turned over the purple president’s robe to Alexander, he said, according to the Associated Press, “While serving as the first elected president of the body is and always will be one of the greatest honors of my life, my work on the Finance Committee will allow me to focus on the issues most important to our state.”
Alexander, 65, is seen as a consensus builder who works toward compromise. He was chosen unanimously, a mark of the respect he has among Democrats and Republicans. He was first elected to the S.C. House in the late 1980s as a Democrat and moved to the Senate in 1994.
In other recent news:
House removes private vaccine ban after business push. The S.C. House this week considered a bill pushed by conservatives that would have banned employers from requiring COVID-19 shots, but the business community pushed back, leading the GOP to rewrite the bill. The House on Thursday spent five hours debating the vaccine ban proposal, but at the last minute switched to remove a vaccine ban for private employers. The bill still needs Senate approval, which won’t come until next year.
S.C. experts say state could have sun, few clouds in economic forecast. Amid concerns that new COVID-19 variants could derail the national economy again, South Carolina’s economy is booming and has recovered almost all of its losses from the pandemic, according to state experts at the University of South Carolina’s annual economic conference. More: The Post and Courier.
New House, Senate districts approved. South Carolina state senators approved new districts for the Senate and House Tuesday, but legal challenges are almost certain before filing begins in March for the 2022 elections. Work is still underway to finish maps for the U.S. House districts. Efforts were delayed after Democrats appeared ready to put up a fight over efforts to split Charleston between the 1st and 6th districts. More: Associated Press, The State, The Post and Courier.
No murder arrest. More than six months after the wife and son of a prominent Hampton County attorney were gunned down at their family’s estate, their killings remain unsolved and no arrests in the case have been made. Meanwhile, the legal drama around Alex Murdaugh has only grown. On Friday, state Judge Alison Renee Lee of Richland County will oversee a new virtual bond hearing for Murdaugh on the multiple indictments of financial misconduct. Murdaugh now faces more than 50 charges. More: AP News, WSAV, The HIlton Head Island Packet.
Episcopal church split in S.C. goes back to high court. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that 29 Episcopal Church parishes that broke away from the church were to hand over their properties while seven breakaway churches could keep their properties. Now, arguments over the split have returned to the state’s highest court and may help clarify the 2017 decision. More: The Post and Courier.
Federal prosecutors still investigating Orangeburg Massacre. The U.S. Department of Justice still has cold cases from the civil rights era open. Included in those cases is Orangeburg Massacre, the 1968 event at S.C. State College in Orangeburg that led to three men dying after police officers fired on the crowd. More: Orangeburg Times and Democrat.
Three new state parks stem from unpaid taxes settlement. South Carolina will receive three pieces of property from Dominion Energy after the utility offered them up as a part of a settlement over unpaid taxes against its predecessor, South Carolina Electric * Gas Co. The properties include parcels along Lake Murray, North Augusta, and along the Black River in Georgetown County.
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