Latest news with #HenryMcMaster
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Electric vehicle battery company halts construction of SC manufacturing plant
Gov. Henry McMaster, center right, and state Commerce Secretary Harry Lightsey, right, attended a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, June 7, 2023 in Florence for Japan-headquartered AESC's proposed battery cell plant. AESC is now pausing construction. (Provided by Florence County Economic Development) A battery cell maker is pausing work on its manufacturing plant under construction in the Pee Dee, delaying its pledge of 1,600 new jobs for South Carolinians. Envision Automotive Energy Supply Co. (AESC) announced the work stoppage Thursday, two years after breaking ground on the facility near Florence. 'AESC has informed the state of South Carolina and our local partners that due to policy and market uncertainty, we are pausing construction at our South Carolina facility at this time,' spokesman Brad Grantham said in a statement. 'We anticipate being able to resume construction once circumstances stabilize.' The Japanese-headquartered firm already has invested more than $1 billion into the Florence facility, Grantham said. He said the company 'fully intends to meet our commitments to invest $1.6 billion and create 1,600 jobs in the coming years,' but did not indicate what the new timeline might be. The company declined to provide further comment. Gov. Henry McMaster, while speaking to reporters, pointed to uncertainty over rising tariffs enacted by the Trump Administration, as well provisions in Republicans' massive bill on taxes and spending that could eliminate electric vehicle tax credits — both for people who purchase new or used electric vehicles and those that install EV charging stations at their homes or business. 'We hate to see that happen, but a pause is OK,' McMaster said. 'We're just urging caution. Let things play out, because all of these changes are taking place,' the governor added. 'We believe that give it some time and it'll work out.' Electric vehicle sales have continued to rise, both nationally and globally. Still, the speed of that growth has not met with early expectations. Electric vehicle battery companies in SC among the latest to hit speed bumps The lag has led to multiple setbacks for the fledgling industry, with canceled investments both nationally and in the Palmetto State, as well as automakers easing away from goals of going all-electric in favor of a mix of electric and plug-in hybrids. A repeal of consumer tax credits could further slow progress. AESC's pause comes just four months after the battery cell manufacturer pulled back on earlier plans to expand the plant beyond its original scope. BMW contracted with AESC to produce battery cells for the German auto giant's U.S. manufacturing facilities in the Upstate. The automaker has already invested $700 million dollars in its own battery plant in Woodruff, planning to place the cells it receives from AESC into the batteries it assembles there. BMW spokesman Steve Wilson said those battery assembly plans are still on schedule to begin in 2026. Between the initial announcement in 2022 and March 2024, AESC rolled out three separate rounds of investment and promises of jobs in Florence. In addition to supplying BMW's Spartanburg County assembly plant, the company made plans for a second building the was supposed to produce battery cells for a BMW plant in Mexico. But in February, AESC told the state the first factory would be enough to meet the demand for both of BMW's facilities. It pulled out of plans for a second, $1.5 billion building, along with the 1,080 jobs that came with it. In turn, South Carolina withdrew its offer of $111 million in state funding for that particular phase. The incentives claw back was a rare move for the state. But even with the pull back, AESC's remaining plant had still been on track to become the largest economic development deal in the Pee Dee region, according to the state Department of Commerce. The remaining $121 million in bonds and $135 million in grants Commerce offered as an initial incentive to lure AESC to South Carolina are so far unaffected by the shutdown, Commerce spokeswoman Alex Clark. 'South Carolina is fully and unequivocally committed to supporting existing companies, including AESC,' Clark said.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Kemp joins Florida, South Carolina request to directly manage fish populations instead of feds
Gov. Brian Kemp joined a request from Florida and South Carolina governors Ron DeSantis and Henry McMaster to move management of fish populations to the state. Specifically, the three governors sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick requesting that the states handle management of red snapper and other reef fish populations found in the Atlantic Ocean. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] "As we work with the administration to cut red tape and empower states to do what is best for our people, Governor Ron DeSantis, Governor Henry McMaster, and I are requesting state management of red snapper and other reef fishes in the Atlantic," Kemp said in a statement. 'Our fishing industry has suffered under heavy handed federal regulations imposed by bureaucrats thousands of miles away. It's time this industry is managed much closer to home!' TRENDING STORIES: Lyft driver taken hostage at Dawson County Sheriff's Office Atlanta rent prices down 1% compared to 2024, but rose month-to-month Acworth police save life of man choking on water bottle cap using LifeVac device In terms of what the states want to do, the governors said the current management of fish populations are 'driven by flawed data and regulations that threaten the economies of our coastal communities.' While the states are 'committed to helping our recreational fishing communities,' the governors said they are also working to conserve fisheries as resources for future generations. 'The first step to correcting course on federal mismanagement is to stop the harmful impacts of Amendment 59 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region,' the three officials said in their letter. The letter lays the blame on 'decades of inaction by career bureaucrats within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,' as well as actions taken at the end of the Biden Administration, which 'cut-off public access to the fishery' and have made it harder for communities to 'exercise their God-given right to fish and support their local economies and way of life.' Kemp and his fellow governors said the red snapper population is no longer being over-fished and as a result, they would like a large increase to the quota allowance for fishing the species, due to their current level of 'unprecedented abundance.' [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SC governor vetoes just $10K, plans for park reservations from state spending plan
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.'
2 days ago
- Business
South Carolina's Republican governor keeps veto pen mostly capped for budget
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The invitation from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he was bringing reporters together Wednesday to talk about his vetoes in the state budget. But instead, it was a victory lap for both the Republican governor and the Republican-dominated General Assembly as McMaster spent his time talking about all his priorities that the legislature kept in the spending plan — not the 11 things worth $10,000 he took out of the 2025-26 fiscal year budget. It was a stark reminder after nine years in office how much different McMaster is than his previous Republican predecessors, governors who relished in fighting the General Assembly, then often ripped into them or ignored their ideas on how to spend the state's billions of dollars. 'Back in the old days, nobody was talking to anybody,' McMaster said, repeating his favorite tagline of 'communication, collaboration and cooperation.' McMaster issued 11 vetoes from the state's $14.5 billion spending plan that starts July 1. Just one struck money from the budget — $10,000 for what McMaster said was a duplicative effort to review a state agency. Ten years ago, Gov. Nikki Haley struck 87 items from the $7 billion budget totaling more than $18 million. And in 2005, Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed 163 items worth $96 million from the $5.8 billion spending plan. A year later, an exasperated Sanford vetoed the entire budget and lawmakers quickly overrode him by wide margins. Instead of spending, McMaster's handful of vetoes were on rules like getting rid of a requirement that visitors to the new Pine Island State Park make reservations or striking out of the budget a provision allowing some school districts to use private companies for security. There are so few vetoes that lawmakers don't expect to return to the Statehouse to try to override them. McMaster kept what is effectively an $18,000 per year raise for the General Assembly in the budget. Lawmakers will see their 'in-district compensation' — money set aside for legislative duties that has few limits on how it can be spent — increase from $1,000 a month to $2,500 a month for all 46 senators and 124 House members. The monthly stipend for lawmakers has not been increased in about 30 years. Their in-district compensation would increase from $12,000 a year to $30,000. Lawmakers also get an annual salary of $10,400 that has not changed since 1990. In addition, they get money for meals, mileage to drive to Columbia and hotel rooms while in session. The rest of the spending plan was much less controversial. There are pay raises for teachers, and the state's highest income tax rate will be cut from 6.2% to 6%. There is $200 million to fix bridges, $35 million to pay for cleanup from Hurricane Helene last year and $50 million for a program to let parents use tax money to pay private school tuition that will undergo court scrutiny. About 80% of the more than $14 billion the state will spend next year is what the governor asked for back in January when he suggested a spending plan to lawmakers, a relationship he has carefully cultivated since 2017. "Many of us are like a family. We go back a long way," McMaster said. 'You try to understand the other fellow's point of view. sometimes he's right and I'm wrong. sometimes it's the other way. Sometimes we're talking about the same things but using different words.'
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
South Carolina's Republican governor keeps veto pen mostly capped for budget
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The invitation from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he was bringing reporters together Wednesday to talk about his vetoes in the state budget. But instead, it was a victory lap for both the Republican governor and the Republican-dominated General Assembly as McMaster spent his time talking about all his priorities that the legislature kept in the spending plan — not the 11 things worth $10,000 he took out of the 2025-26 fiscal year budget. It was a stark reminder after nine years in office how much different McMaster is than his previous Republican predecessors, governors who relished in fighting the General Assembly, then often ripped into them or ignored their ideas on how to spend the state's billions of dollars. 'Back in the old days, nobody was talking to anybody,' McMaster said, repeating his favorite tagline of 'communication, collaboration and cooperation.' McMaster issued 11 vetoes from the state's $14.5 billion spending plan that starts July 1. Just one struck money from the budget — $10,000 for what McMaster said was a duplicative effort to review a state agency. Ten years ago, Gov. Nikki Haley struck 87 items from the $7 billion budget totaling more than $18 million. And in 2005, Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed 163 items worth $96 million from the $5.8 billion spending plan. A year later, an exasperated Sanford vetoed the entire budget and lawmakers quickly overrode him by wide margins. Instead of spending, McMaster's handful of vetoes were on rules like getting rid of a requirement that visitors to the new Pine Island State Park make reservations or striking out of the budget a provision allowing some school districts to use private companies for security. There are so few vetoes that lawmakers don't expect to return to the Statehouse to try to override them. McMaster kept what is effectively an $18,000 per year raise for the General Assembly in the budget. Lawmakers will see their 'in-district compensation' — money set aside for legislative duties that has few limits on how it can be spent — increase from $1,000 a month to $2,500 a month for all 46 senators and 124 House members. The monthly stipend for lawmakers has not been increased in about 30 years. Their in-district compensation would increase from $12,000 a year to $30,000. Lawmakers also get an annual salary of $10,400 that has not changed since 1990. In addition, they get money for meals, mileage to drive to Columbia and hotel rooms while in session. The rest of the spending plan was much less controversial. There are pay raises for teachers, and the state's highest income tax rate will be cut from 6.2% to 6%. There is $200 million to fix bridges, $35 million to pay for cleanup from Hurricane Helene last year and $50 million for a program to let parents use tax money to pay private school tuition that will undergo court scrutiny. About 80% of the more than $14 billion the state will spend next year is what the governor asked for back in January when he suggested a spending plan to lawmakers, a relationship he has carefully cultivated since 2017. "Many of us are like a family. We go back a long way," McMaster said. 'You try to understand the other fellow's point of view. sometimes he's right and I'm wrong. sometimes it's the other way. Sometimes we're talking about the same things but using different words.'
