Staff reports | State lawmakers say S.C. Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom should lose his job over a $3.5 billion accounting error after he disclosed an unintentional exaggeration of how much money the state had.
“To ensure accuracy in the state’s finances, all the duties of his office need to be transferred immediately to one or more agencies that will produce documents that we can rely on and have confidence in,” state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, told The State newspaper.
In a Wednesday report, a Senate Finance subcommittee said Eckstrom, the state’s elected accountant, should be fired and his office’s constitutional responsibilities distributed to other agencies.
In a statement, Eckstrom said his office said it worked “tirelessly” to identify the problem’s cause and to fix it, according to the Associated Press. He said he also planned to make the office an appointed position.
Earlier this month, House members called for Eckstrom’s impeachment.
In other news this week:
Brack column named best in state. Three 2022 columns by editor and publisher Andy Brack that appeared in Statehouse Report were named “best of the best” in South Carolina at the S.C. Press Association awards banquet last week. The columns also are published in the Report’s sister publication, the Charleston City Paper, which won 25 press excellence awards, including 10 first places.
$1.3B Scout Motors incentive passes Houses, heads to McMaster. A $1.3 billion incentive package to entice Scout Motors to build a plant in the Town of Blythewood has passed the S.C. House and is now headed to Gov. Henry McMaster.
Bright new billboards celebrate trans kids, LGBTQ+ people. Seven bright yellow billboards touting “God loves trans kids” and “God loves LGBTQ+ people” are the backbone of a new statewide awareness campaign unveiled Tuesday by the Charleston nonprofit Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA). One of the billboards is scheduled to be on Gervais Street near the Statehouse.
McMaster nominates Shrivastava-Patel to be DHEC chair. Gov. Henry McMaster nominated Seema Shrivastava-Patel as the new chair for the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.
S.C. Senate advances bill banning property purchases by Russians, Chinese. The primary goal of the bill sent to the Senate floor is to curtail operations by companies and individual citizens of countries the U.S. government considers a “foreign adversary” from buying or controlling land in South Carolina.
S.C. considers limits on high-interest loans. South Carolina lawmakers are weighing a proposal to cap interest rates and fees lenders can charge on loans to help people from paying what some call exorbitant fees.
Haley wants entitlement program changes for younger generations. At a campaign rally Monday night in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley proposed changes to entitlement programs for younger generations without taking away from Social Security and Medicare for seniors.
Furman advances, CofC ends season. No. 13 Furman beat No. 4 Virginia 68-67 in Thursday’s NCAA first-round game to advance to the second round Saturday against San Diego State, which beat the College of Charleston Thursday.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!