South Carolina House won't try to remove Treasurer Curtis Lofits from office this year

Yahoo

30-04-2025

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD) — An effort to oust Republican state Treasurer Curtis Loftis from office has been put on hold in the South Carolina House with just days to go in the session.
House Speaker Murrell Smith (R-Sumter) said this week that the lower chamber will not take up a Senate-led resolution to remove Loftis before the session ends on May 8.
'The priority of the House for the remaining five days of session will be passing legislation,' Smith said in a statement to News 2.
The announcement comes days after senators voted 33-8 to remove Loftis for 'willful neglect' over his role in a $1.8 billion accounting error. A two-thirds vote in the House is also required to remove him.
A Senate panel called for Loftis's removal in March after a private forensic audit determined much of the 'mystery' money never existed. The audit found that $1.6 billion was the result of accounting errors during a bank conversion process that began in the mid-2010s, and the remaining $200 million was cash that belonged to the General Fund.
The error came to light after Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom resigned in March 2023 over a different accounting mistake, and his replacement reported the mystery account.
The revelation set off a flurry of hearings in which lawmakers grilled Loftis and other agency leaders about how it happened. It also opened the state up to scrutiny by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, threatening the state's credit rating.
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In a lengthy April 21 hearing, Senators Larry Grooms (R-Berkeley) and Stephen Goldfinch (R-Georgetown) asserted that Loftis knew about the problem well before it was reported to the General Assembly and made efforts to conceal his office's involvement.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Grooms urged his House colleagues to take up the resolution, pointing to the evidence presented in several subcommittee reports.
'Far be it from a senator to tell a House member what to do, but the hard work has already been done,' he said. 'All the information they need is right there.'
Loftis maintained that while his staff may have known about the mistake, he did not.
'I am grateful for the House leadership's decision today to choose the people's business over political theatre,' Loftis said in an April 29 statement. 'I feel sure that South Carolinians are thankful that they are the first priority, and political games are not.'
The resolution is currently sitting in the House Ways and Means Committee.
Rep. Heather Bauer (D-Richland), who watched the Senate hearing, argued Loftis should be held accountable.
'He should be held responsible,' Bauer told WSPA. 'I have been raising this red flag for over a year now, and my colleagues in the House have failed to act on it. So I will continue to do so until he is held accountable.'
Possibly complicating matters is the fact that Loftis, who won with nearly 80 percent of the vote in 2022, is seeking reelection next year. Defense attorneys pointed to the treasurer's overwhelming popularity, suggesting that the Senate was trying to overturn the will of voters.
'I am ready to turn my focus back to doing the people's work – to stabilize our state's financial system and put this unfortunate chapter of fighting baseless claims by a few politically-motivated senators behind us,' Loftis said.
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