SC treasurer avoids being ousted this year over $1.8B accounting error

Yahoo

30-04-2025

South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis spoke to reporters ahead of the Greenville County GOP convention in Greenville on Monday April 14, 2025. The Republican appears to have survived attempts to remove him from office for his role in a $1.8 billion state accounting error.(File photo by Mark Susko/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina's treasurer will keep his job, at least for now.
That's despite the state Senate voting last week to remove state Treasurer Curtis Loftis from office for his role in a $1.8 billion accounting blunder. The error involved almost no actual money but went unreported for nearly a decade.
House Democrat calls for SC treasurer's impeachment over $1.8B accounting debacle
But as the clock runs out on the 2025 legislative session, House GOP leaders said their chamber won't take the matter up this year.
'We're going to concentrate on passing legislation now, and then we'll make a decision after session concludes on the path forward with the treasurer,' House Speaker Murrell Smith told South Carolina Public Radio in an interview that aired Wednesday.
In the House on Wednesday, Republicans shut down a last-ditch effort by a House Democrat to initiate impeachment proceedings on the state's banker.
Rep. Heather Bauer, D-Columbia, rose from her seat to ask her colleagues to take up the bill she introduced in January and start the process. The request required unanimous approval by the chamber.
But Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, quickly objected, halting the attempt without further explanation.
Just four days remain in the 2025 legislative calendar. By state law, the regular session must end at 5 p.m. May 8.
In the Public Radio interview, Smith said the House has not totally ruled out taking action, but work remains on what that process might look like.
'This is the busiest time of the legislative session and so we're going to have to get through our legislative business,' the Sumter Republican said.
Meanwhile, Loftis has said he plans to run in 2026 for a fifth term in office.
'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,' the Republican treasurer wrote in a late Tuesday statement.
SC Senate votes to remove state treasurer over $1.8B accounting error
Loftis stands accused of 'willful neglect' of his duties after he and other financial officials failed to alert the General Assembly of the accounting issues in the state's books. The Senate voted 33 to 8 for his removal.
The error in question stemmed from the changeover from the state's legacy accounting system to a new one.
During that process, a series of electronic ledger entries made it appear the state had $1.8 billion sitting untouched in a fund with no record of where it was supposed to go.
A forensic accounting firm hired by the state ultimately found the entries were made in error, and all but $200 million of the money was never real. Their work cost taxpayers $3 million.
Loftis has continuously said he did nothing wrong, as no money went missing, and has instead laid the blame for the problem outside his office.