STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 21.19 | MAY 13, 2022
BIG STORY: Session ends in rush of work
NEWS BRIEFS: S.C. voters may have no-excuse early voting soon
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Ban this book
COMMENTARY, Brack: Pat a legislator on the back
SPOTLIGHT: AT&T
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Lights
Session ends in rush of work
Staff reports | South Carolina lawmakers this week rushed to get final approval for bills to send to Gov. Henry McMaster that would reform the state’s sex offender registry, update police force and pursuit standards, and allow true early voting without a voter needing an excuse.
The regular session ended at 5 p.m. Thursday, which also marked the end of Rep. Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, as speaker. Lawmakers will be back June 15 to finish work with the state’s $12.6 billion budget, vouchers and other measures still in House-Senate compromise committees. When they resume session, House members will be led by new Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter.
Below is a look at what was done, still needs work and what wasn’t finished.
Passed this week
Sex offender registry. Lawmakers approved a bill that updated the state’s sex offender registry. In June, the state Supreme Court ordered the legislature to change rules of the registry to allow ex-convicts to be removed if they aren’t likely to be reoffenders. The overhaul eliminated a requirement to register for life without a hearing.
Force standards. Lawmakers also set up minimum standards for the use of force and vehicle pursuits for the state’s law enforcement officers.
Disabled workers. Legislators passed a ban on paying disabled workers less than minimum wage.
Early voting. Earlier in the week, the Legislature sent a bill to the governor to allow for no-excuse early voting, which may start two weeks before the June 14 primary if McMaster signs the bill soon.
Birth control pills. As the clock wound down Thursday, senators approved a House-passed measure to allow women over 18 to get birth control pills or other hormonal contraceptives from a pharmacist without a doctor’s prescription – a move to make it easier for women to thwart unwanted pregnancies.
Still up in the air
State budget. House and Senate conferees are continuing to hammer out details for the state budget. A $12.6 billion Senate version calls for a $1 billion tax cut and $1 billion in rebates. A $14 billion House version cuts income taxes, provides more road money and includes larger teacher pay hikes. Lawmakers will return June 15 to pass the final version.
Vouchers. Other conferees will be working on whether to approve a voucher measure that will let parents of poorer students use public money to pay for private school tuition.
Abortion. Lawmakers also have reserved the right to come back in special session sometime this year if the U.S. Supreme Court changes the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision.
Failed to pass
USC board reform. Opponents in the SC. Senate stalled a measure to reduce the number of trustees on the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees. Supporters of the measure complained that not making changes would allow for more mismanagement to occur by the board, which has been under the gun in recent years for various decisions.
Breaking up DHEC. Lawmakers were not able to pass a proposal to split the state Department of Health and Environmental Control into separate agencies – essentially one for health and the other for the environment.
Hate crimes. South Carolina remains one of two states in the nation without a hate crimes law after lawmakers failed to act again this year.
Charleston loophole. Lawmakers failed to close a loophole to keep some people from not getting guns. The measure has been on the Statehouse agenda for several years and since nine people were massacred at Emanuel AME Church in 2015.
Medical marijuana. While the bill to approve compassionate use of medical marijuana passed the Senate for the first time in seven years, it was ruled out of order earlier in the month in the House. It has to start over in 2023.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
S.C. voters may have no-excuse early voting soon
Staff reports | If Gov. Henry McMaster soon signs an early voting bill that he has indicated he supports, South Carolina voters might be able to go to the polls without needing an excuse two weeks before the June 14 primary.
The S.C. Senate on Wednesday unanimously voted to bring back early voting in an election reform bill. The House quickly approved the bill. More.
Starting Monday, in-person absentee voting will open at county voter registration and election offices – if you have an acceptable excuse.
- If you want to vote in the June primaries, you must register by Sunday.
In other recent news:
S.C. legislators agree to special session if Roe is overturned. The S.C. Senate on Tuesday agreed to come back in special session later this year to take up bills in response to the possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court allowing states to ban abortion. While lawmakers will talk about abortion in special session, they won’t consider a hate crimes measure.
Fight over firing squad could stretch through summer. The S.C. Supreme Court gave a Richland County circuit court judge 90 days to hear a civil lawsuit filed by four death row inmates who claim a new firing squad and the century-old electric chair violate the state’s ban on cruel, corporal and unusual punishment.
S.C. lawmakers to redraw S.C. House maps to settle discrimination suit. The list of things the S.C. lawmakers need to do in the final days of the General Assembly got a little longer as the settlement of a redistricting lawsuit includes redrawing S.C. House maps.
S.C. bill to end state control of hospital expansion dies in Statehouse. A bill that would have removed the need for South Carolina hospitals to seek state permission to build new facilities, make expansions or buy expensive equipment is dead for this year’s legislative session.
McMaster signs extended foster care bill. The governor signed into law the extension of children in the foster care system. The bill offers extra support to those in the foster care system and extends foster care services to youths until the age of 21.
Will Black South Carolinians rally to McLeod? With only four weeks to go, the 2022 Democratic primary for governor has so far been a low-profile affair.
States turn to tax cuts. More states around the country look to tax cuts and rebates to help ease people’s pockets, but these proposals could have unintended consequences of increased prices, The New York Times reports.
Power rates headed up for Dominion customers. Starting in May, customers of Dominion Energy South Carolina will start to pay higher rates to reimburse the company for the higher cost it paid for fuel. Residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity will see a 5.19% increase in their monthly bill, or about $6.53 more each month in the May 1 billing cycle.
- Want more headlines every business day that are like this? Visit our friends at SC Clips.
Ban this book
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.
Pat a legislator on the back
By Andy Brack | For all of the grief that South Carolina legislators get, we all should remember to pat them on the back more often.
The job they do is often thankless. Not only are they barked at by cynical columnists, but they listen to endless citizen complaints and ideas, sit through mind-numbingly long meetings on issues big and small, and move from one political crisis to another. From January to May on Tuesdays through Thursdays, they convene in Columbia, many now driving back and forth every day.
Their official pay? A measly $10,400 a year. Of course, they also get paid $1,000 a month for in-district expenses and $140 in per diem payments for each day that the legislature is in session. But when everything is totalled, the average South Carolina legislator earns about $35,000 a year from the state just to be a cog in the wheel that runs state government.
At least they get paid something. Legislators in New Mexico get no base pay and those in New Hampshire get $100 a year, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. Both, however, get reimbursed for mileage. There are some 7,572 elected state legislators in the United States. Just over 3,300 are Democratic. Another 3,900+ are Republican and 217 are in other parties, according to the NCSL. Seven of every 10 are white. Just under three in 10 are female.
Across the country, most legislators are like those in South Carolina – they’re “citizen-legislators” in that the job is part-time. The notion is that by having elected officials in business and the community at the same time, they’ll remain closer to the will of the people. Sometimes the tension between regular jobs and legislative jobs causes conflict, but that’s why, in part, news organizations serve as watchdogs to make sure that the public’s business is on the up-and-up.
On Thursday, the last day of the session, legislators worked at a frenzied pace to finish much of their work as possible, approving measures to overhaul the state’s sex offender registry and to ban paying disabled workers less than the minimum wage. They didn’t approve bills restructuring the University of South Carolina’s board and they failed again to approve a hate crimes bill or close the dangerous gun loophole.
While they’ll be back twice in June to consider vetoes and to finish unfinished budget and other bills in compromise committees of House members and senators, there was some rejoicing and relief as the two-year regular session ended. In January, everything restarts. All unfinished business has to be refiled and begin again.
In the House, some members prayed. Others took selfies, the Associated Press reported, and many shook the hand of House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Hartsville, who ended his tenure when the bell rang at the 5 p.m. close of the session. The new speaker is Murrell Smith, R-Sumter.
“You know it’s been a mentally exhausting week when you adjourn shortly before 10 (p.m.) one night and shortly after 10 the next,” freshman S.C. Rep. Kimberly Johnson, D-Manning, wrote on Facebook Thursday. “You know you’ve given it your all when you look at your colleagues and see them crying tears of pain and frustration because of bills and amendments being introduced in 2022.
“During session, I took a selfie to remind myself of the very task God assigned to me and I accepted. Last night, we hugged not because of a victory, but because we’ve been in this for two years together.”
So to all state legislators this year, thanks for showing up and doing the jobs that need to be done to keep South Carolina functioning. Could you do more? You betcha. But that’s why you have columnists to offer ideas and make suggestions.
Andy Brack is publisher of the Charleston City Paper and editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
AT&T
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Love Ariail’s cartoon
To the editor:
Love it!! [Ariail, 5/6/22] I am a retired librarian who will never understand why anyone thinks he/she/it/they has the authority to dictate what is available for others to read or see. I may concede parents can screen reading for their own children, especially below adolescence, but not for anyone else.
– Mary Bostick, Columbia
Send us your thoughts
Have a 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.
Lights
These two men talk in silhouette below a bunch of lights, but where are they? Be specific. Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com — and remember to include your name, home city and contact information.
Last week’s mystery, “Spring scene,” showed a gate at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet.
Congratulations to those who identified the statue, including George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Jacie Godfrey of Florence; Elizabeth Jones and Jay Altman, both of Columbia; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Lawrence Moore of Folly Beach; Pat Keadle of Wagener; and Ross Lenhart of Stone Mountain, Ga.
Graf shared, “The statue in the center of the photo is Karl Heinrich Gruppe’s 1925 Tennessee Marble ‘Joy’ sculpture. Gruppe (1893 – 1982), was the son of an American artist who painted scenes of Holland, and who spent his youth near The Hague. After the family returned to New York City, he worked in the studio of Herbert Adams and studied at the Art Students’ League. An early version of Joy was awarded the Barnett Prize of the National Academy of Design in 1926. “
>> 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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