Latest news with #BrandonGuffey
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SC legislators pass $14.7B spending plan despite concerns over legislators' pay raise
Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill, and Sen. Wes Climer, R-Rock Hill, speak on the South Carolina House floor during a joint session of the General Assembly Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. Guffey and Climer both opposed an increase in legislator pay included in the state budget. (Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette) COLUMBIA — South Carolina legislators sent their final budget plan to Gov. Henry McMaster on Wednesday despite complaints from some legislators about their $18,000 raises. This year's $14.7 billion spending plan, which the Senate approved 37-5 and the House 88-25, includes a clause that would raise the amount legislators receive for in-district expenses from $1,000 to $2,500 per month. In a budget with no earmarks, pay raises for teachers and employees, and more than $500 million for higher education projects, the pay raise became the biggest point of contention when legislators returned Wednesday — three weeks after the session officially ended — specifically to pass the budget deal that negotiators agreed to last week. McMaster will have until midnight Tuesday to decide how — or whether — he'll use his line-item veto powers. But he told reporters he won't strike the legislative pay raise from the budget. Between inflation and a growing population in the state, it's likely legislators are incurring greater costs to be accessible to the people they serve and stay informed on issues impacting their districts, he said. 'I think it's justified,' said the Republican governor. SC legislators advance $14.7B spending plan that includes pay raise for themselves The money is meant to go toward expenses that come from legislating. However, since the payment comes with no actual rules, legislators will effectively receive an additional $18,000 per year to spend however they wish. That's an additional $3 million total for the 170-member Legislature. House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister had some advice for colleagues squeamish about voting 'yes' to a budget that provided themselves a raise: Spend the money for its intended purpose. 'If you don't spend the money on your constituents, that is on you,' the Greenville Republican said. It's the first raise for in-district compensation since 1995. The new in-district sum of $30,000 annually comes on top of an annual salary of $10,400 — unchanged since 1990 — plus a daily stipend of $240 meant to cover the cost of food and lodging while the Legislature's in session (which is a set amount no matter how far they have to travel to the Statehouse). They also get mileage reimbursement for a weekly roundtrip to Columbia. House Speaker Murrell Smith gave legislators the option to turn down the extra money, an offer some legislators said they would take. They included Rep. Kathy Landing, R-Mount Pleasant, who said the process was of more concern than the raise itself. 'I believe that there's a very good chance that this body deserves a raise at some point, because 30 years is a heck of a long time to stay at the same money,' Landing said. 'Thirty years ago, the dollar stretched a lot, lot further.' But any potential raise should've gone through the full committee process, including public hearings and votes in both chambers, she said. 'When you go to give yourself a pay raise, it shouldn't be a last-minute situation, and it shouldn't be one that didn't have any kind of public hearing or any kind of input from the public,' Landing said. She noted the chamber has previously rejected proposals that give themselves a raise. Senators added it during their floor debate, and the three budget negotiators from each chamber agreed unanimously last week to include it in the final plan. Some legislators said they would donate their raise to charities. Rep. Brandon Guffey said he would use the money to support Hungry Heroes, which feeds first responders and military personnel; Palmetto Women's Center, a pregnancy resource center; and the National Center on Sexual Online Exploitation, a cause particularly close to Guffey's heart since his son died by suicide following a sexual extortion scheme. The Rock Hill Republican's plan is to consider what charities in his area are hurting the most financially each month and fund them likewise, he said. The money 'gives me the ability to make those decisions,' Guffey told the Daily Gazette, adding that he took a significant cut in pay so he could spend part of the year at the Statehouse. $500M for colleges, a bigger share for traditional public schools: How SC budget funds education Despite Guffey's reluctance to accept the pay increase, he voted in favor of the full spending plan, joining several others who expressed concern over the raise but supported the spending as a whole. After all, the $3 million it will cost to increase legislators' pay is a small portion of a $14.7 billion spending plan with which legislators were otherwise pleased, Guffey said. This year's budget included a $1,500 increase in the minimum salary for teachers, pay bumps of at least 2% for state employees, a guarantee that college tuition remains frozen for in-state students a sixth year and $200 million for the Department of Transportation to repair aging bridges. 'Would we walk away without all the good that's in the budget?' Guffey said. For others, the pay increase was too glaring of a problem to approve the overall package. Freshman Rep. James Teeple, R-Johns Island, said he already donates his salary to two charities: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital — which he credits with saving his daughter's life — and Camp Firefly, a weeklong retreat outside Atlanta for terminally and seriously ill children. Teeple, who voted against the budget, said he intends to split his $18,000 raise between those two charities. The raise was 'a horrible wart on an otherwise great piece of fiscal policy,' said Sen. Wes Climer, a Rock Hill Republican who voted against the budget. Climer called the implementation of a raise in a year other than an election year unconstitutional and threatened to sue the state if it remains in the final version of the budget. Dick Harpootlian, a former senator and Columbia attorney, has offered to represent Climer in that case for no charge, he confirmed. Senior reporter Jessica Holdman contributed to this report.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US bill with backing from SC legislator heads to president's desk
Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill, testifying at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. A bill for which Guffey advocated strengthening protections for children online passed the U.S. House of Representatives Monday, April 28, 2025. (Screenshot courtesy of C-Span) A federal bill that would require social media platforms to remove falsified intimate images and so-called 'revenge porn,' which a South Carolina state legislator has been pushing for, advanced to the president's desk Monday. State Rep. Brandon Guffey has repeatedly called on Congress to pass legislation protecting children online after his 17-year-old son, Gavin Guffey, died by suicide three years ago while being extorted with intimate photos he had shared by direct message on Instagram. Guffey, R-Rock Hill, recounted the story of his son's suicide to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year during a general discussion about protections for children online. The bill passed the House with a vote of 409-2 on Monday. SC House passes bill requiring parental consent for social media Every South Carolina representative in Congress voted for the bill, which will go to President Donald Trump for his signature. 'I think that's a big first step,' Guffey told the SC Daily Gazette. The bill, dubbed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, is among several for which Guffey has been advocating. Another federal proposal that would make social media platforms legally responsible for protecting children on their apps and websites from sexual exploitation has yet to get a vote in either chamber. The passage of the first proposal could lead to others, Guffey said. 'Hopefully it'll begin that snowball,' Guffey said. In recent years, the state has put in place some of its own protections for children online. Gavin's Law, named after Guffey's son, passed in 2023, banning sexual extortion, also known as 'sextortion.' Several other proposals have advanced but not reached the finish line, including a bill requiring children to get permission from their parents before creating social media profiles that passed the House earlier this year. A Senate committee Tuesday advanced a proposal to ban intimate photos circulated without a person's consent, dubbed revenge porn, as well as fake nude photos. The bill, which passed the House unanimously, will go to the Senate floor.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
South Carolina GOP group pushes to end state's Republican primaries
YORK COUNTY, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A push from a small South Carolina GOP group, the 'America First Movement,' is working to change how Republican voters make their voices heard in elections. York County Republican and Representative for the 48th district Brandon Guffey says the group wants to end the state's Republican primaries. 'It's trying to say that we don't have conservative enough legislators in office. Essentially what they're saying is the local party is saying if y'all don't do what we tell you to do, then we're going to get you out of office,' Guffey said. He says the group wants to make the party elect candidates by convention. 'So the people that are elected to the local party get together and then they decide. They can just say, no, you can't run as a Republican because you don't agree with us. It doesn't matter how long you've been in there,' he said. Guffey believes it takes the voice of the people away. The group would need 3/4 of the delegates at a party convention to get the process moving in that direction; allowing them to have the final say in candidates for local and state offices. Carol Herring is active in several York County Republican organizations. 'It is my right as a citizen to be able to speak. So I don't want that taken away. And I know that we have the national convention, I understand that, but it still comes from people going to the polls in their individual states and making decisions. And we all see what happens and Iowa, they do a caucus. And so it takes them hours and hours and hours,' she said. The York County Republican Party will hold a meeting Saturday morning to continue the discussion. 'I think the reason this came up is primarily because of the closed versus open primaries. And most of the people I know are actually in favor of a closed primary for only a registered Republican would vote in a republican primary. Only a registered Democrat would vote in a democrat primary,' Herring said. We texted, emailed, and called York County GOP chair Larry Barnett for further clarification and comment on the initiative on Wednesday. He did not respond. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SC House passes bill requiring parental consent for social media
Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill, testifying at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Screenshot courtesy of C-Span) COLUMBIA — A bill requiring children to get permission from their parents before signing up for social media profiles passed the House on Wednesday. As the state House debated, Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill, testified in front of a U.S. Senate committee about his son's suicide over a sextortion scam. Under the proposal representatives passed 90-17, parents would have to give consent for their children to create a social media account. And social media companies would have to put safeguards in place for children using their platforms, such as limiting who can message them and what they can see. A similar bill passed the House 113-1 last year. This time around, legislators raised concerns over parental rights, privacy concerns and a requirement that the state create educational programs about social media. Another perfunctory vote, expected Thursday, will send the bill to the Senate, which did not take up last year's similar version. Representatives agreed that overuse of social media can be a problem for children's mental health. The question became whether it should be up to legislators to control how people use social media. 'Why does the government need to do what any parent can already do, given the evils of social media?' said House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia. 'We agree they're evil, but if they're evil and you're a parent, why don't you do it?' As technology rapidly develops, parents who didn't grow up with the same challenges are overwhelmed trying to protect their children, said Rep. Travis Moore, a sponsor on the bill. 'These are not issues parents individually can handle, in my opinion,' the Roebuck Republican replied. The proposal would affect more than just parents, said Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg. SC teens would need parent permission for social media under House bill Social media sites would be required to verify the ages of everyone making an account in order to prevent people under the age of 18 from signing up. Bamberg, the only 'no' vote last year, said that lead to adults needing to provide personal information to social media companies. 'I ain't giving my Social Security number to anybody to have a damn Facebook,' Bamberg said. 'I don't believe in that.' But Moore said there's nothing in the bill requiring that. Verification won't go that far, he said. 'Acceptable methods' listed in the bill for obtaining consent include providing a toll-free number for the parent to call, allowing the adult to respond to an email, coordinating a video conferencing call, or collecting information from a 'government-issued identification of the minor's parent,' then deleting it. Bamberg proposed requiring companies create a separate platform for children to use, similar to YouTube Kids, a version of the video site designed for children. The child-friendly sites would require parental consent and put in place the safeguards required in the bill without requiring proof from adults, Bamberg said. His proposed amendment failed 73-30. Some of the representatives who changed their minds to oppose the bill included members of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, who pointed to a section that would require the state Department of Education to develop programs teaching students how to safely use social media. Rep. Jordan Pace, a Goose Creek Republican who leads the Freedom Caucus, attempted to remove that part of the bill, claiming that the educators involved in developing the curriculum might attempt to add liberal viewpoints. That won't happen with GOP Superintendent Ellen Weaver at the helm of the agency overseeing public K-12 schools, said Rep. John McCravy, a leader in the Legislature's Family Caucus. Before her 2022 election, Weaver led the conservative think tank Palmetto Promise Institute and before that, worked for former GOP U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint. If the education department did create programs with which the Statehouse's ruling Republicans disagreed, they have the power to intervene, said McCravy, R-Greenwood. 'I think it's worth it to educate our children of the dangers that are on the internet, of the dangers that are on social media,' he said. Legislators threw out Pace's amendment 91-15. At the same time as his colleagues were debating the bill, Guffey gave an emotional recounting of his son's suicide to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during a general discussion on protections for children online. Guffey's 17-year-old son, Gavin Guffey, died by suicide July 27, 2022. Guffey had sent explicit photos to an Instagram account he believed to be a young woman. The person running the account threatened to leak those photos unless Guffey continued to send him money. A 24-year-old Nigerian man was brought to the U.S. last month to face federal charges of child exploitation resulting in death, child pornography distribution, coercion and enticement of a minor, cyberstalking resulting in death, and interstate threats with the intent to extort. Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, removed the profile with which Guffey had been interacting but didn't erase others believed to be connected, Rep. Guffey told the committee Wednesday. Nigerian man faces life in a US prison for sextortion that led to death of SC legislator's son Those accounts attempted to extort Gavin Guffey's 16-year-old brother and 14-year-old cousin, the legislator said. At one point, he received a message reading, 'Did I tell you your son begged for his life?' the Rock Hill Republican told the committee. 'I vowed at that moment I would make it my life's mission to protect children online and would not stop,' Guffey told the committee. Since his son's death, Brandon Guffey has done advocacy work relating to children's internet safety. In his two years of advocacy, he's worked with families of about 40 teens who died by suicide after being sexually exploited on the internet. He called online safety 'the greatest threat to the next generation' and criticized Congress for not doing more to thwart it. 'Right now, we have too many politicians making decisions based on their next election and not enough leaders making decisions based on the next generation,' Guffey said. SC Daily Gazette reporter Shaun Chornobroff contributed to this article.
