STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 23.52 | Dec. 27, 2024
BIG STORY: A look back at the big Statehouse stories of 2024
MORE NEWS: Bald eagle finally is nation’s official bird
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: A holiday return
BRACK: Lawmakers need to rethink the state’s priorities
SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Institute for Independent Journalism
MY TURN, McCorkle: Jefferson’s warning on education
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
A look back at the big Statehouse stories of 2024
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | Referring to the ideological conflicts that occasionally roiled his administration, President Ronald Reagan once winkingly noted that “sometimes our right hand doesn’t know what our far-right hand is doing.”
In 2024, Republican leaders in the South Carolina Statehouse could have offered much the same observation, as they struggled to find party unity on major legislation involving taxes, guns, hate crimes and more.
And it’s with those legislative hits and misses — some surprising, all controversial — that we begin our wrap-up of S.C.’s biggest statewide stories of 2024.
What passed — and what didn’t
After a bit of pushing and shoving between the two chambers, the General Assembly in June passed a $14.5 billion state budget. The plan cut income taxes, invested in roads and bridges, raised teacher pay, froze college tuition and fully funded a new medical school building at the University of South Carolina and a veterinary college at Clemson University.
Also becoming law in 2024 were a ban on the use of state dollars for gender transitions, broad expansion of the right to carry a handgun without a permit, new limits on bail for repeat violent offenders and minor changes to the state’s judicial selection system.
On the other side of the ledger, the state Senate allowed a House-passed hate crimes bill to die without a vote for the second session in a row. At the time, critics noted Senate leaders opted to allow a single member’s hold on the bill to stand rather than forcing an override vote to bring it to the floor. As a result, South Carolina remains one of only two states in the nation without a hate crimes law.
Other major failures in 2024 included liquor liability reform, limited medical marijuana legalization, health agency consolidation and a utility-friendly energy bill that would have incentivized increased fossil fuel production.
With more than 800 bills already prefiled in advance of the 2025 session, members will return for new business in January.
The return of the death penalty
For the first time in more than a decade, the state of South Carolina took a human life in 2024. In fact, it took two.
On Sept. 20, Freddie Owens was executed by lethal injection for the 1997 murder of Greenville convenience store clerk Irene Graves. And on Nov. 1, Richard Moore was put to death in the same manner for the murder of Spartanburg gas station employee James Mahoney in 2001.
The long suspension of Palmetto State executions began in 2011, after drug companies refused to continue providing the drugs required for lethal injection. Ultimately, the state overcame this barrier by passing laws to add firing squads and electric chairs as legal means of execution and guaranteeing the confidentiality of companies providing the needed drugs.
There are currently 30 men on S.C.’s death row, with four already scheduled to die in 2025.
Another major accounting scandal
State taxpayers could be forgiven for thinking S.C.’s accounting problems were over in 2023 after former Comptroller Richard Eckstrom resigned for falsely inflating the state’s cash reserves by $3.5 billion for more than a decade.
But as it turned out, Palmetto State numbers crunchers had more bad news to reveal in 2024 — namely, the discovery of a state bank account that appeared to contain $1.8 billion in unidentified and unallocated funds. What’s worse, no one could even say for sure whether the mystery money really existed.
Fireworks ensued at an April Senate Finance Committee hearing, as a visibly angry state Treasurer Curtis Loftis snapped at panel members and tried to pin blame on the already-disgraced Eckstrom. A later committee report found no criminal wrongdoing, but held Loftis personally responsible for the mess.
A forensic accounting firm is currently working with state officials to confirm the funds and determine where they belong. Loftis has said he won’t seek reelection in 2026.
Vouchers, book bans and charges of indoctrination
Under the avowedly conservative leadership of state Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver, the S.C. Department of Education spent most of 2024 in the headlines.
A strong supporter of what advocates call “school choice,” Weaver lobbied hard to get private school vouchers passed in the Statehouse and fought to protect them in the S.C. Supreme Court. But in the end, the justices struck down the law anyway, sending voucher proponents back to the legislative drawing board.
More successful were Weaver’s efforts to impose state control over local school materials, which opponents called a book ban, and her unilateral move to push conservative videos from PragerU into public school classrooms.
In brief
The devastating Upstate impacts of Hurricane Helene left state officials scrambling to reopen roads, deliver emergency services and get the lights back on for more than 1.2 million residents who lost power.
Katrina Shealy, Sandy Senn and Penry Gustafson — the three Republican “sister senators” who opposed their party’s efforts to impose a total abortion ban and shared a “Profile in Courage” award — lost their reelection primaries in June.
Democrats and Republicans came together to support a Robert Smalls monument — the first such tribute to a Black man on the Statehouse grounds.
Cell phones were banned in S.C. schools.
And finally, as the year drew to a close, two Democratic icons from what many call a more civilized era passed from the scene.
Civil rights pioneer Kay Patterson, who served for more than 30 years in the state legislature he once cleaned as a janitor, died at 93 on Dec. 13.
And John Spratt, an Upstate congressman for 28 years and a leader on national defense and budget issues, died on Dec. 14. He was 82.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Bald eagle finally is official bird
The iconic bald eagle has for centuries been the emblem of the United States, serving as a symbol of freedom across the globe. The majestic raptor, however, has only just this week been made the official national bird, thanks to an act of Congress signed by President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
The bald eagle, long diminished last century by post-war pesticides, started recovering after a ban on DDT in 1972. The birds were, in fact, considered an endangered species in the U.S. until 1995, and it was later removed from the threatened species list in 2007.
Today, South Carolina’s ACE Basin is a hotspot for nesting eagles, who live where they like to hunt — near slow-moving water filled with fish and smaller waterfowl.
“You’ve got huge development in Charleston and in Beaufort County, and then there’s a stretch between,” David Bishop, The Nature Conservancy’s ACE Basin project director said in a June 2024 article. “The ACE Basin is that space between the people. Eagles need that.”
The bird has long been a cultural symbol, emblazoned on U.S. currency, depicted on stamps and representing sports teams and American clothing brands. The spacecraft that landed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission was even identified with the bird when Neil Armstong said, “The Eagle has landed.”
The eagle now joins the same ranks as the American bison, which became the national mammal in 2016, and the oak, which has been the national tree since 2004. – Skyler Baldwin
State offers recycling tips for new year
If reducing food waste and recycling the right way are among your New Year’s resolutions, the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) says it has tips that can help.
And the first tip they suggest is also the easiest — downloading their free Recycle Here SC app, which puts everything you need to know about Palmetto State recycling in the palm of your hand. The app was launched in November in conjunction with Palmetto Pride and the S.C. Beverage Association.
“While our web-based tool that provides recycling information has been extremely successful, this new app – which is one of the first of its kind nationwide – will make access to recycling information more convenient, reduce confusion, and lessen contamination of recyclable materials,” said Myra Reece, SCDES Interim Director. “This app will also support South Carolina’s efforts to achieve a goal of recycling 50% of the state’s municipal solid waste by 2030.”
According to SCDES, these additional tips will have the biggest impact on the success of your recycling:
- Make sure you’re recycling right. When items that can’t be recycled turn up in bins, the whole load has to be thrown away. To make that doesn’t happen, learn what goes in which bin by using the new app.
- Make special arrangements for hard-to-handle items. While certain kinds of hazardous waste like lithium-ion batteries can be recycled, they cannot be placed in bins. For assistance with these items, visit SCDES’s webpage about hard-to-manage items or call 1-800-768-7348.
- Keep things clean. Items for recycling should be empty and reasonably clean. No liquids, food or residue belong in the recycling bin.
- Reduce the volume. To support local recycling efforts, take proactive steps to reduce household waste and reuse items when possible.
“We can all take steps to reduce the amount of household waste that’s created,” said SCDES’s Richard Chesley. “Proper recycling and food waste reduction also supports SCDES in its everyday mission of protecting and preserving our state’s air, land water, and coastal resources now and for future generations.”
For more information on local recycling programs, proper recycling tips and food waste reduction, visit des.sc.gov/recycling. – Jack O’Toole
In other recent news
S.C. lawmakers want tougher domestic violence law. South Carolina lawmakers are less than a month away from the new legislative session and some are already looking to strengthen protections for domestic violence victims. One proposed bill would allow courts to place ankle monitors on abusers, alerting victims if their abuser comes within a certain distance of them.
S.C. lawmakers discuss bill that could convict drug dealers for homicide. South Carolina lawmakers are targeting drug dealers in a new bill that could put dealers in prison for homicide, aiming to stop the use and dealing of fentanyl.
S.C. virtual charter school board reaches resolution, lawsuit continues. S.C. Virtual Charter School board members reached an agreement on who would govern the 2,200-student online school, ending a board split that brought accusations of a coup and stretched into the state court system.
Biden commutes sentences of 37 of 40 on death row, but not Roof These three South Carolinians received commutations from President Joe Biden of their death sentences, but will remain in prison for life without the possibility of parole: Brandon Leon Basham and Chadrick Evan Fulks, co-defendants in a 2004 kidnapping and killing; and Brandon Michael Council, sentenced in 2019 in the killing of two bank employees. Not commuted: Dylann Roof, the S.C. man sentenced for killing nine at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015.
Biden signs anti-hazing law with expanded reporting requirements for SC universities. On Dec. 24, Biden signed a new federal law that expands hazing reporting requirements for South Carolina colleges and universities — including the state’s private schools.
A holiday return
Nationally award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail always has an interesting take. This week, he takes on U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, the South Carolina Republican who just doesn’t seem to hush. What do you think about this cartoon attempt to return her like a bad holiday package? Love it or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Lawmakers need to rethink S.C. priorities
Commentary by Andy Brack | About this time every year since 2009, we implore state lawmakers to look at South Carolina’s big picture and do the work that will make life better for most people – those whose taxes pay the government’s bills.
We’ve suggested 10 or 12 annual policy initiatives, or Palmetto Priorities. We urge elected officials to use them as a basis to do more than pass an annual budget and make bureaucratic changes that seem little more than moving the deck chairs of state government. Through the years, we’ve cut two priorities after legislators boosted the state’s cigarette tax to curb smoking and after they made changes to boost voter registration.
But too often, they failed to develop and pass common-sense policies on everything from improving education to making the taxing system fairer. Rather, they played culture wars. They spouted conservative talking points. They squabbled over abortion, guns, vouchers and the interests of special interests.
So for 2025, let’s update our annual Palmetto Priorities with a few new thoughts, particularly on education, climate and taxes.
EDUCATION: Spend $1 billion in new money by 2030 to build more schools and offer more scholarships. This year, the state is looking to make starting salaries for public school teachers to be $50,000. That’s solid, but is it enough to fix education? Are there enough scholarships to make sure there are a sufficient number of new teachers in the pipeline? Are there facilities where teachers can do what they’re trained for and get the most out of their students?
CLIMATE: Require state economic development investments to be linked to reducing carbon emissions. If a business wants to move into South Carolina and receive special tax breaks or any government help, it should have a low-carbon footprint. The state needs to develop significant climate strategies, from planting more trees and boosting alternative energy sources to limiting new infrastructure for businesses to concentrated areas.
GUN REFORM: Close the “Charleston loophole.” South Carolinians continue to wait for legislators to do their job to make reasonable gun reform after the 2015 massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. They must extend the waiting period for purchasing a gun to at least five days to allow federal examiners more time for background checks. Failure to act has been just plain embarrassing. It’s time to get this job done to help reduce gun violence that is killing almost 1,000 South Carolinians a year. Lax gun laws are one reason why the state has the sixth-highest rate of gun violence in the nation.
POVERTY: Develop a broad anti-poverty agenda. Legislators should use budgets in new ways to fund reduction of endemic poverty in South Carolina, with strategies that include developing more jobs, applying more workforce training, improving education and making health care more accessible. One in five South Carolinians lives in poverty. We can do better by them.
TAX REFORM: Overhaul the state’s antiquated tax structure. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if South Carolina modernized its tax structure so sales taxes could go down, use taxes could be broader and the state could recover hundreds of millions of dollars in lost taxes due to special-interest sales tax exemptions? Lawmakers should stop being scared of broadening the base and lowering rates.
POLITICS: Innovate away from structures that encourage political gamesmanship. We’ve got to get rid of gerrymandering and one-party rule, both of which are continuing recipes for disaster.
There’s so much more that state lawmakers can do – from expanding Medicaid to offer access to health care to tens of thousands to focusing more on small businesses instead of trying to land big whales for jobs.
Maybe we can celebrate next year if state legislators think broader and act bigger in 2025.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com.
S.C. Institute for Independent Journalism
Statehouse Report is brought to you for free thanks to underwriters like the South Carolina Institute for Independent Journalism, which supports the development and production of independent and nonprofit news in South Carolina to promote democratic ideals.
SCIIJ achieves its mission by providing financial and organizational support to community publications; operating civic engagement initiatives; training promising journalists; and producing bold independent journalism.
Jefferson’s warning on undermining public education
By Will McCorkle | This Christmas season, we are focused on the good of children throughout our nation. Central to their well-being is a strong education system. However, the vitality of our public education system is in great danger due to political malfeasance and individuals who do not believe in the concept of public education.
In November, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Linda McMahon, the former head of the WWE and someone without any teaching experience, to be head of the U.S. Department of Education. This was not surprising as it is just part of a larger trend to discredit, belittle and dismantle public education in the United States.
Trump’s prior Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, also had no teaching experience and was completely unqualified for the position. But I at least understood that pick a little more given Devos’s background with charter schools and the Republican agenda of privatization. McMahon probably does not differ much from Devos on this front, but it seems like this pick is even less serious. It is just a way of putting a loyalist into office, and in the end, the attitude seems to be more of disregarding and ultimately dismantling public education anyways.
What many in our nation are failing to realize is that the most important aspect of keeping our republic functioning is our education system. Founding father Thomas Jefferson in his appeal to create a public education system in Virginia told us exactly why it was so important. As he stated,
“Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth, that, possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes.”
In the end, a strong education system is not primarily about obtaining job skills or for individual growth or insights. Though all those aspects are important, as Jefferson stated, it is ultimately about preserving the republic from those who would want to subvert it and lead us to tyranny.
We are living in such a moment right now. It is no accident that Trump won some of the largest margins among those with the least education and now vows to end the U.S. Department of Education. In a truly educated populace, someone like Trump would never be given consideration much less win two terms as president.
It is time for us to recommit ourselves to public education and realize that a lack of strong social studies education and the weakening of public education has been one of the central factors that has led us to this point in our country. It allowed us to elect someone who tried to overthrow the government back into office – something that leaders like Jefferson would not have been able to comprehend.
If we survive this moment as a republic, we must ensure that our next generation is properly educated so they can help resist the movement towards tyranny in their own time.
Summerville resident Will McCorkle teaches educational foundations and social studies education at an area college.
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