SC governor vetoes just $10K, plans for park reservations from state spending plan

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Gov. Henry McMaster announces his vetoes for the budget for 2025-2026 on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (Photo by Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Gov. Henry McMaster nixed only $10,000 of the state's $14.7 billion state spending plan for 2025-26, marking the smallest sum a governor's struck from the budget in over a quarter century.
'It's a good budget,' McMaster told reporters Wednesday. 'It's one of the best. That's why I've only got a handful of vetoes.'
Only one of McMaster's 11 vetoes involved actual dollars.
The rest struck clauses directing what agencies can — or must — do with their allocations. That includes one that would have required reservations to visit a new state park and another that would have allowed the state's poorest school districts to contract with private security in place of school-based officers employed by the local sheriff of police department.
Most of the clauses McMaster vetoed were unnecessary or duplicative, he wrote in a letter to legislators explaining his decisions.
The $10,000 he nixed would have gone toward reviewing the efficiency of certain state agencies, which McMaster wrote replicated existing programs meant to oversee agencies.
In previous years, McMaster's budget vetoes focused primarily on so-called earmarks — spending on local projects requested by legislators rather than the agencies the money's funneled through. But the chambers' chief budget writers announced a moratorium this year on earmarks.
With so little removed, it's unlikely legislators will return before the budget goes into effect July 1 to override any of the vetoes.
Instead of detailing the reasons for his few vetoes, McMaster praised legislators for including so many of his priorities in their spending plan, including raises in the minimum pay for teachers, funding an officer in every public school, another year of frozen college tuition, and workforce training programs.
All told, about 80% of McMaster's recommendations ended up in the budget, he said.
That doesn't mean legislators copied his recommended amounts. For example, he proposed a $3,000 boost in teachers' minimum pay. The Legislature approved half that.
But the Republican governor has certainly had greater success with his budget recommendations than his predecessors, largely because McMaster meets with GOP leaders as his proposal's being created.
McMaster said lawmakers in the meetings remain open-minded and communicative.
'It works,' McMaster said. 'Works every time.'
Legislative budget writers emphasized repeatedly that this year's budget includes no funding for pet projects in legislators' districts.
To be sure of that, McMaster plans to issue an executive order requiring state agencies that receive vaguely worded directions on how to spend money to seek specifics before doling it out, he said.
For years, legislators hid earmarks in vaguely worded chunks of the budget. They would then direct state agencies to send the money where legislators wanted it. Three years ago, at McMaster's request, legislators began disclosing where the money was going, including paperwork justifying the spending.
'The danger is just the secrecy,' McMaster said of earmarks. 'It's the taxpayers' money, and the taxpayers need to be able to know where it's going, why it's going, who's going to spend it, how much is going to be spent.'
If any agencies this year or in future budgets receive special instructions on how to spend money outside the norm, they must get a written request from a legislator verifying the recipient exists and is in good standing, what the money is for, why the money is needed, other funding for the project and whether the state has funded the same or similar projects in the past, McMaster wrote.
'As I have stated before, without sufficient context, description, justification and other relevant information regarding the project and how the recipient intends to spend the funds, the public cannot evaluate an appropriation's merit,' McMaster wrote. 'Clearly, no matter how meritorious an appropriation may be, the public has a right to know exactly how their money is being spent.'
Visitors to a new state park set to open this year won't have to make reservations after McMaster vetoed that rule from the state budget this year.
When a new state park on Lexington County's Pine Island opens this fall, a clause included in legislators' budget proposal would have required visitors schedule appointments.
Neighbors who live near the 27-acre park-to-be have raised concerns about increased traffic on roads built when the island was still limited to Dominion Energy workers and their families. The state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism has assured neighbors it will work with local law enforcement to control traffic.
Legislators don't yet know that traffic will be enough of an issue to require dedicated appointments, McMaster wrote in his veto letter.
'In addition, this proviso may be interpreted as an effort to limit access to the lakefront amenities available for recreation at our state's newest park,' the letter continued.
Some other state parks offer reservations for guaranteed parking spots during busy times, such as over the summer, on weekends or during holidays. Jones Gap State Park, for instance, requires online reservations for guaranteed entry during mornings on weekends and holidays, and Huntington Beach State Park offers online reservations between May and September.
One controversial provision that McMaster allowed to remain was a pay increase for legislators.
Under a clause included in the budget, a monthly stipend meant to pay for costs incurred within a legislator's district will go from $1,000 to $2,500. Because legislators aren't required to report how the money is spent, that amounts to an $18,000 annual raise for each legislator.
Legislators also receive a $10,400 annual salary and a daily stipend of $240 meant to cover the cost of food and lodging while the Legislature's in session.
With recent inflation, the $1,000 per month, put in place in 1995, was no longer enough to support the cost of traveling around the district and helping constituents, supporters of the raise said.
'I'm relying on the good faith of our Legislature,' McMaster said. 'They say it's going up that much. They are the ones that are trying to pay those expenses.'
Sen. Wes Climer, R-Rock Hill, threatened to sue if McMaster didn't veto the measure. Dick Harpootlian, a former senator and Columbia attorney, offered his legal services in that case, and Columbia attorney John Crangle said in a letter urging McMaster to veto the law that he
'If there's a legal challenge, then so be it,' McMaster said. 'We'll see if it works out.'