STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 21.17 | APRIL 29, 2022
BIG STORY: State rocked by gun violence over past week
NEWS BRIEFS: Senate’s $12B state budget heads back to House
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Different kinds of shells
COMMENTARY, Brack: Legislative session again is down to the wire
SPOTLIGHT: Charter Communications
FEEDBACK: Thanks for the reminder
MYSTERY PHOTO: Wouldn’t want to be here at night
EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s issue is a day later than usual due to a death in the family. We appreciate your patience.
State rocked by gun violence over past week
By Andy Brack | Ever since 18 people were shot during recent Easter weekend rampages at a Columbia mall and a Hampton County nightclub, police across South Carolina have been busy investigating and arresting people after multiple incidents of gun violence.
In addition to shootings this week in Rock Hill, Anderson, Greenville, Greenwood, Murrells Inlet, Florence, North Charleston and Columbia, a Cayce police officer died early Sunday after responding to a domestic disturbance in which a suspect reportedly opened fire.
“Our hearts are breaking in Cayce,” Cayce Mayor Elise Partin told a Columbia-area television station after the death of Officer Roy Andrew “Drew” Barr. “Officer Drew Barr has been an important part of the Cayce family since 2016.”
Gov. Henry McMaster ordered flags to half-staff on Thursday at the Statehouse and on state buildings to recognize Barr, whose funeral was Thursday.
The governor also pledged in an April 26 statement to back a Democratic-led proposal to curb gun violence and promote tougher laws on illegal gun possession.
Among the other shootings during the week:
MURRELLS INLET: Three people were shot early Wednesday in a Murrells Inlet home. A 76-year-old man died.
GREENVILLE: Two teens were hurt in a Wednesday shooting at a Greenville County park.
ROCK HILL: Police on Tuesday night found two dead on the side of the road in Rock Hill, as well as one dead in a car and the fourth injured from a gunshot to the arm. Police arrested a 17-year-old, who was charged with two counts of murder.
ANDERSON: On Tuesday night, Anderson police collected evidence after an apartment parking lot shooting involving two youths. It apparently was connected to a Monday night shooting (described below).
NORTH CHARLESTON: Shots rang out Monday night near a North Charleston park as a youth baseball game was underway. Players and parents scattered. Now parents are demanding answers from city leaders on what they’re doing to make the area safer.
ANDERSON: Around the same time in Anderson, two people were treated for injuries after a drive-by shooting. Again, children were playing ball in a nearby field when the shooting occurred.
COLUMBIA: Police responded to a “shots fired” call Monday night on Millwood Avenue. One person was hurt.
GREENWOOD: Police arrested a man after a Saturday morning shooting left a man in critical condition. Police were searching for two others.
FLORENCE: Four separate shootings between Friday evening and Sunday morning, left four dead, including an 11-year old boy and a teenager. Florence Mayor Teresa Myers Ervin reassured the citizens of Florence that police are there to not only handle crimes, but to work with the public to help prevent similar situations from happening. There have been more than 100 shootings this year in the Pee Dee, according to this report.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Senate’s $12 billion state budget returns to House
Staff reports | State lawmakers have until May 12 to approve a $12 billion budget following Thursday’s approval of the spending plan pushed by the state Senate.
Because the Senate bill, which includes a $1 billion income tax reduction and a $1 billion rebate for taxpayers, is different than a House plan, which didn’t feature a billion-dollar rebate, the House is expected to reject the Senate plan. That will then send the measure to a compromise committee of three senators and three House members to hammer out an agreement.
During the week, several GOP state senators expressed some regret over the rebate, but backed off. They wanted the extra money used to build roads and schools and to pay for employee raises.
In other recent news:
Sumter Republican elected next S.C. House speaker. The S,C. House unanimously elected state Rep. Murrell Smith on Thursday to be the next speaker of the House, the top and most powerful position in the chamber. The Sumter Republican, who currently chairs the powerful Ways and Means Committee, will take office after the May 12 close of the chamber’s regular session when current Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Hartsville, steps down.
Emanuel AME survivor pushes Senate for hate crimes law. Polly Sheppard, a survivor in 2015’s Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston that left nine dead, urged Republicans in the state Senate to join 48 other states in passing a hate crimes law. The bill has been stuck for months with eight Republicans senators objecting. Only eight more legislative days remain before the bill dies. Sheppard urges the objecting senators to at least vote on the bill, instead of letting the measure die. Charleston City Council passed a resolution supporting a hate crimes bill,
McMaster signs law preventing vaccine mandates. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster signed into law this week preventing South Carolina employers from mandating Covid-19 vaccines and that worship services are “necessary and vital to the health and welfare of the public” during a state of emergency.
S.C. House advances abortion-reversal bill. The S.C. House on Wednesday advanced a controversial bill that would require doctors to disclose information about “abortion reversals” to women receiving chemical abortions, which are induced by ingesting two drugs. However, despite passing the bill for a second reading, there are only seven legislative days left in the session, facing a tight deadline to become law.
S.C. recognized in role of desegregation. The Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site Expansion Act was unanimously passed earlier this week by the U.S. House, modifying the legislation to expand its National Parks sites to recognize the five cases that were combined as Brown v. Board of Education. In addition to the Monroe School building in Topeka, Kansas, locations in three other states and Washington, D.C. will become recognized as historic sites.
Cost to extend I-526 in Charleston triples to $2.4 billion. The South Carolina Department of Transportation on Tuesday updated the estimated cost of a long-awaited project that would extend the Mark Clark Expressway from West Ashley across Johns Island to James Island, bringing the new total estimate to a whopping $2.35 billion.
Bill allowing limited betting on horse races advances. Legislation allowing limited gambling on horse races to invest in South Carolina’s equestrian industry is advancing in the Senate, with backers saying it’s time for the state to benefit from bets already placed illegally.
- Want more headlines every business day that are like this? Visit our friends at SC Clips.
Different kinds of shells
Cartoonist Robert Ariail often interprets things a little differently, but always has an interesting take on what’s going on in South Carolina. Love the cartoon? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Legislative session again is down to the wire
By Andy Brack | With just two weeks to go in the regular legislative session, the General Assembly has three full plates of work.
Overall, legislators scored a “D” this session, writes longtime analyst Holley Ulbrich of Clemson, “for being even later than usual with their homework or failing to turn it in, claiming that the other guy’s dog ate it.” And the House, she said, gets no extra points for passing a $12 billion budget in a single day, which “smacks of reading Cliff Notes instead of the book!”
The state’s budget plate will be dealt with, one way or another. The Senate and House plans include a $1 billion reduction in income taxes but what remains to be seen is how lawmakers will deal with a $1 billion tax rebate that the Senate wants and how much of a pay increase teachers will get. We hope they invest in teachers and employees over a giveaway that is an election year gimmick that uses public money to curry favor with voters in the fall.
What happens with the General Assembly’s two other filled plates isn’t as clear. One plate that is about to topple over includes things legislators should do before the clock runs out, while a third includes bad proposals that need to die by May 12, the last regular day of the session. The other is packed with what it should avoid.
Still to do
Election reform. Part of the reasoning for the need for election reform is the false narrative that there’s election fraud (there just isn’t). But good government advocates say what legislators have come up with this year will improve election processes and voter confidence. “Voters want early voting,” said Lynn Teague of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina. “Election officials badly need more time to process absentee ballots and other helpful measures. Voter confidence and election management would benefit from risk limiting audits. It will be very unfortunate if these die in the final days of the session.”
Education improvements. For years, teachers have wanted more time to spend planning for students, a measure now poised to pass after years of work, said Sherry East, president of the S.C. Education Association. If it goes through, teachers would get a big win. They would have more to celebrate if all teachers got pay hikes, not just new teachers. Too many teachers are leaving the profession. Let’s bump their pay so they stick around.
Medical marijuana. For seven years, lawmakers have gotten closer to approving medical use of marijuana to relieve suffering of too many sick South Carolinians. It’s time to pass this measure and stop messing around.
Other work legislators should finish with are to pass a hate crimes law, close the “Charleston loophole” to keep guns out of the hands of bad people and fix the state’s sexual predator registry, which the courts found to be unconstitutional. It can be fixed by providing an adjudicatory process for adding or removing someone.
“The main thing (overall with state government) is to do something,” observed Steve Skardon of the Palmetto Project. “The public is very cynical about the government just now and part of the reason is that it does not appear to be doing anything to solve problems.”
What to ignore
But lawmakers should avoid the poison on the jam-packed third plate of pending legislation that includes a warmed-over proposal for vouchers that seeks to use public money for private schools. They should get off the “critical race theory” bandwagon that tries to fight a culture war that doesn’t exist in South Carolina (talk about your Don Quixote-type bills). They need to stop fiddling with abortion. And they need to stop picking on transgender kids who want to play sports. (Schools already have a way of dealing with this and legislators don’t need to poke their nose in it just to score points.)
Bottom line: Do what needs to be done, but cause no more harm.
Andy Brack is publisher of the Charleston City Paper and editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Charter Communications
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. Today, we’re happy to shine the spotlight on Charter Communications, the nation’s fastest-growing TV, internet and voice company. Committed to integrating the highest quality service with superior entertainment and communications products, Charter is at the intersection of technology and entertainment, facilitating essential communications that connect 24 million residential and business customers in 41 states, including South Carolina. In addition to being committed to giving back to the communities we serve, the bedrock of our business strategy is to serve our customers and exceed their expectations.
“We, at our core, are a service organization,” President and CEO Tom Rutledge says. “And every product we sell has a huge service component.”
- To learn more, visit Charter’s South Carolina services online.
Thanks for the reminder
To the editor:
Thanks to Andy Brack for the excellent opinion piece on the proliferation of guns and gun violence in S.C. The National Rifle Association seems to have done an excellent job of influencing our lawmakers so they are afraid to take one meaningful measure — they are cowards.
Many of us thought that the AME shootings would be the catalyst to get something done, but there is too much fury over “our rights” in this state to support obvious and easy safety measures. Thanks for reminding us that we all know someone who should not have a gun.
– Denice Kark, Salem, S.C.
Stiffer gun sentences needed
To the editor:
I agree that we need reforms in this area, but we have to make the sentences for the crimes much stiffer. The young people think that it’s OK to shoot someone with no regard of life. I am not sure what the answer is, (but) it may need to start in the home life?
– Charlie Long, Greenwood County, S.C.
- Have any other comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
Wouldn’t want to be here at night
Here’s a spooky setting sent in by a reader. The photo is sure to be tough as nails to identify, but give it your best shot. Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com — and remember to include your name, home city and contact information.
Last week’s mystery, “Concrete jungle,” was a scene in downtown Greenville, which has modernized its architectural landscape in recent years as its attractiveness to visitors has grown.
Hats off to several readers who identified it, including George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Robert Ridgeway of Clarendon County; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Elizabeth Jones and Jay Altman, both of Columbia; Pat Keadle of Wagener; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; and Lisa Griffin of Tega Cay.
Lupo wrote, “Greenville is doing a good job of making the city’s center a pedestrian-friendly place where people want to be. (It’s certainly changed a lot since I was in high school there!) This view of the now-pedestrian portion of Laurens Street looks south from ONE City Plaza, a 2014 Civitas-designed update to the 1980s Piazza Bergamo, itself an update to an update of what I believe was originally an extension of Coffee Street.”
>> Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
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