Latest news with #MurrellSmith
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SC's 2025 legislative session marked by late-hour deals on liquor insurance, energy
The South Carolina Statehouse pictured on Friday, March 28, 2025. (Photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette) COLUMBIA — South Carolina legislators wrapped up a pair of bills in the final days of the legislative session that, a week before, seemed doubtful of becoming law this year. Without agreements reached on liquor insurance relief for restaurants and a sweeping energy package that paves the way for a new gas-fired power plant in the Lowcountry, accomplishments for the 2025 could have been short. Instead, the chambers' ruling Republicans touted Thursday getting most of their goals accomplished, when including this week's deals with last week's compromise on state aid for private K-12 tuition, and stiffer penalties for professional shoplifters, which passed in March. 'You measure your success on the substance of bills that pass, and we really concentrated on big-ticket items,' House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Smith, told reporters. 'There are certain things that we had to get done, and we addressed those things,' said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield. Meanwhile, a House GOP priority to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs across state government and private contractors passed that chamber but got nowhere in the Senate. And a Senate initiative to remove State Treasurer Curtis Loftis from office for his role in a $1.8 billion accounting error was never addressed by the House. Senators give final OK to bill that aims to keep restaurants open, reduce business costs While mainstream GOP leadership took a victory lap at the session's conclusion, Democratic leadership and members of the ultra-right House Freedom Caucus referred to the 2025 session as 'uneventful.' 'In the big picture, we did not do any momentous legislation that's going to be remembered long after this year,' said Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto. That is, unless the voucher bill survives an expected court challenge, which the Orangeburg Democrat told reporters he doesn't believe will happen. 'We don't think that that should be in the future in this state, and certainly don't believe the bill is constitutional,' he said. Massey, however, said 'I feel much better this time' about the new scholarship program's chances before the state Supreme Court. 'I think we corrected those things' that led to the high court's ruling last fall that ended private tuition payments as unconstitutional. Gov. Henry McMaster signed the latest private school choice program into law Wednesday. A lawsuit is considered imminent. Rep. Jordan Pace, R-Goose Creek, who leads the Freedom Caucus, said he thought the Legislature didn't go far enough to address conservative priorities. Legislators must still return in the coming weeks to finalize the state budget that takes effect July 1. The House and Senate so far agree on raises for teachers and funding for more police officers in schools. Plus, state employees won't be asked to pay more for health insurance. Differences the chambers must sort out include the use of debit cards for the purchase of lottery tickets, whether or not to allow colleges to raise tuition on an incremental basis, and a possible pay raise for legislators. One big change from previous state budgets: This year's package won't include any spending requested by legislators for local projects, or what's called earmarks. The decision comes two years after total earmarks soared to $713 million. While last year's tally was smaller, at $435 million, Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler called for a one-year hiatus in an effort to reign in the unvetted spending. Some pushed back, arguing the freeze leaves small and rural districts behind. Peeler said the process could be different: It could become a competitive grant process. Hutto said he's fine with that, as long as there is a process to fund community needs. Massey, who helped lead the charge for transparency in the earmark process, called the lack of such local funding 'a huge win.' 'Is this pork?' SC Democrat highlights what won't get aid due to earmark refusal Among legislation that McMaster's already signed into law is a bill merging three health agencies that provide services for people with mental health issues, disabilities, and drug and alcohol addictions. Passage comes a year after a larger merger attempt, which involved those three additional agencies, was successfully blocked by the Freedom Caucus in a chaotic close to the 2024 session. Other signed bills include legislation upping the number of family court judges in the state, stiffer penalties for professional shoplifters, and an educator-endorsed bill pledging increased teacher pay transparency, job stability as well as more planning time. Bills passed in the waning days of session that await the governor's signature include a hands-free driving law to deter scrolling behind the wheel. Without passage of some kind of hands-free law, South Carolina risked losing $40 million to $80 million in annual federal highway funding. Without a hands-free driving law, SC could lose upwards of $40M in federal road funding Legislators also passed bills setting rules for South Carolinians who rent out their personal cars to earn extra cash, requiring labeling of lab-grown meat, and a final-day compromise on a measure to criminalize the use of technology to morph children's photos into pornographic images. And in a flurry of last-day confirmations, the Senate appointed a new head for the state's child welfare agency. Tony Catone, acting director of the state Department of Social Services, will now move into the role permanently. 'I have full confidence that (Catone) is the right person to build on the agency's critical work to strengthen families and protect our most vulnerable children and adults,' McMaster said in a statement following the confirmation. Still, senators have refused to confirm McMaster's pick to head the state Department of Public Health. However, Dr. Edward Simmer remains the agency's acting head indefinitely, unless the governor nominates a replacement. When it comes to legislation, the governor has no plans to veto any bills passed at this time, according to spokesman Brandon Charochak. He did send a warning, however, ahead of the chambers' budget negotiations about where he would use his line-item veto powers. If they send him a budget with the House's proposal loosening strings attached to additional state funding for universities that freeze in-state tuition rates, the governor will strike that, Charochak said. McMaster has said he will not support any measure that raises tuition for South Carolina college students who choose to attend one of the state's public higher education institutions. House GOP advances new plan that initially cuts SC income taxes by $400M As the first year of a two-year session, any legislation that did not pass both chambers can still be taken up in the new year. The 2026 session will likely start with work on a GOP plan to restructure state income taxes. Following major pushback on an initial plan that would have actually raised taxes for nearly 60% of tax filers, House leaders advanced a revamped plan, which would cut taxes for more filers than would see an increase. The House sent that over to the Senate this week. Come January, Massey hopes to take up stiffer penalties for drunken driving. 'Our DUI walls are really weak,' he said after session ended. 'There are a lot of people being hurt and killed because of them. And an effort remains to allow a casino near the southern shore of Lake Marion. While the proposal is likely to face fierce opposition, both in the Senate and from the governor, its advancement to the House floor shows a new willingness by Republicans to consider legalized gaming in a state that has historically resisted any change to anti-gambling laws. Also, as part of compromises on energy and liquor insurance, legislators agreed to continue work in the off-season to develop new, stand-alone legislation to address those provisions excluded from the bills passed this week. That includes how South Carolina plans to address energy-intensive data centers that are driving the need for more power generation in the Palmetto State.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State lawmakers should not cut taxes and here's why
House Speaker Murrell Smith during a press conference about income tax legislation at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Photo by Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA/Special to the SC Daily Gazette) A camel, it has been said, is a horse designed by a committee. A committee of state GOP leaders recently designed a 'historic' income tax-cut plan. But what they delivered was a camel: lopsided, ungainly, and reeking of a bad attitude. Worse, they put the cart before the camel, announcing the tax-cut plan with much ballyhoo and bunkum before realizing that it doesn't cut taxes for most South Carolinians. It actually raises taxes for 60% of South Carolinians (or nearly 1.7 million tax filers) for tax year 2026, as per estimates released by the state Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office a week after the big announcement. The bill includes huge tax cuts for some, but those cuts overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy. Roughly 9,900 tax filers with more than $1 million in income would see their taxes cut by an average of $31,000, according to reporting by S.C. Daily Gazette Editor Seanna Adcox. Many others would get little or nothing. The bill was supposed to be fast-tracked for approval, but now House leaders have postponed debate while they explore other options. No, I'm not making this up. This was a hugely embarrassing episode of DOGE-level ineptitude by the people who are supposed to be leading our state. At least the bill was shelved for the moment. But Rep. Brandon Newton, chairman of Ways and Means' tax policy subcommittee, said Republicans remain 'committed to passing income tax reform this year.' That means another tax-cut camel may soon be galumphing along the dusty road to the Statehouse. Whatever rough beast emerges out of ongoing discussions, the General Assembly should reject it. State lawmakers should not cut taxes. The postponed bill slashed taxes by more than $200 million, with a provision to cut $200 million in taxes every year when revenue projections rise by 5%. A revised bill might cut taxes by that amount as well. We simply can't afford that. Our state has too many critical needs that should be addressed right now, including infrastructure, education, health care, crime and public safety. We should remember that the General Assembly just cut taxes over the past few years by a whopping $1 billion, on top of sending $1 billion back as rebates in 2022, limiting the ability of lawmakers to deal effectively with the state's top needs, such as fixing our notoriously awful roads. A bold new plan called Momentum 2025 offers great hope for upgrading our roads, but it carries a price tag of $1 billion a year. There's no plan, however, to fund Momentum 2025, as Adcox pointed out in an excellent commentary tracing the history of our road woes. The state faces other critical concerns, such as the teacher shortage that results in potentially thousands of South Carolina students beginning each school year without a fully qualified teacher in the classroom. We've got dire healthcare challenges in South Carolina as well. An estimated 521,660 South Carolinians under age 65 lack health insurance, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. We should follow the lead of 40 other states in expanding Medicaid, drawing down billions in federal funds and investing some state money to provide health care coverage for an additional 360,000 low-income South Carolinians. In addition, with Medicaid threatened by cuts on the federal level, state lawmakers may need to step in to protect South Carolina's most vulnerable citizens. South Carolina also needs to invest more in children, especially in the areas of prenatal care and childcare. South Carolina ranks near the bottom of the nation for child care affordability. Overall, our state ranks among the worst in the nation for the well-being of children, according to the annual Kids Count. The S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice, meanwhile, has been plagued by overcrowding and other unsafe conditions. South Carolina desperately needs to invest more in law enforcement as well. Our state has one of the highest murder rates in the nation and one of the highest rates of fatalities on the road, which includes one of the highest rates of drunken driving deaths. One study called South Carolina 'the most dangerous state for drunk driving in America.' A tax cut doesn't solve those problems. And state lawmakers have made big new promises to South Carolinians this year, including plans to spend $60 million that we can't afford on school vouchers. You can bet Republicans will want to spend a lot more on that in the future as well. Lawmakers who support a big tax cut argue that it's needed to keep South Carolina growing, but that's not a problem. We're already one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. Finally, it would be irresponsible to cut state taxes with the U.S. economy in a tailspin as the stock market and consumer confidence plummet. With Washington in chaos, we need sober heads in Columbia to address our state's most pressing needs, and that doesn't include a big annual tax cut. State leaders have to be the adults in the room.
Forbes
25-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
South Carolina Goes From Tax Cut Laggard To Leader Under New Proposal
The South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. COLUMBIA, S.C. — 2025 is a big year for tax reform and the work now being done on Capitol Hill to extend the tax relief enacted in 2017 as part of the Tax Cuts And Jobs Act is not the only reason that's the case. With one week until the end of the first quarter, legislation to cut income taxes has been enacted in nine states and Michigan is poised to become number 10 with a bill reducing the state's flat income tax from 4.05% from 4.25%. That tax cut, which would retroactively take effect January 1, 2025, passed out of the Michigan House of Representatives on March 18 by a vote of 65-43 and will soon be taken up by the state senate. Of all the income tax cuts that have been introduced in state capitals so far this year, one that might make the most significant improvement to a state tax climate is the one introduced today by South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith (R-Sumter) and his statehouse colleagues. Under the tax plan announced at a press conference at the state capitol, South Carolina would go from having the highest personal income tax rate in the region to the lowest outside of the no-income-tax states. The tax plan unveiled by Speaker Smith, filed as House Bill 4216, would move South Carolina from a progressive income tax code with a top rate of 6.2% to a 3.99% flat rate next year. H. 4216 also schedules further rate reductions for the next few years contingent upon revenue triggers. So long as revenue collections meet specified targets, South Carolina's income tax rate could fall further, dropping as low as 2.49%. With Speaker Smith's proposal, South Carolina would leapfrog neighboring Georgia and North Carolina in the tax rankings to boast a lower rate than the two neighboring states, which many see as South Carolina's top competitors for job-creating investment. In fact, if H. 4216 is enacted and revenue triggers are met, South Carolina would go from having the highest income tax rate in the Southeast, to the lowest rate in the nation, besting Arizona's 2.5% flat tax. Enactment of H. 4216 would have South Carolina matching or exceeding the rate reduction enacted in many other Republican-run states in recent months and years. Unlike many of those income tax rate-reducing plans, however, Speaker Smith, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bruce Bannister (R-Greenville), and their colleagues are facilitating income tax rate reduction without applying the sales tax to previously untaxed services. Instead, H. 4216 brings the income tax rate down using nearly a third of the ongoing budget surplus, along with new revenue derived from changing the way in which South Carolina's tax code conforms to the federal tax code. South Carolina is currently one of only five states that use federal taxable income as the basis for state taxation. H. 4216 broadens the tax base by switching to federal adjustable gross income (AGI), which is the basis used by 32 other states, including Georgia and North Carolina. Under H. 4216, all additional revenue collected on that broader tax base is plowed into rate reduction for all taxpayers. 'State income taxes are best applied to a broad base with a low, flat rate (at least until it's zeroed out)," said Ryan Ellis, an IRS enrolled agent who runs a tax preparation business and is president of the Center for a Free Economy. 'AGI's broader definition of income is used by most states for a reason—it's a more accurate definition of income, and it gets the states out of the deductions business.' 'The Speaker's plan is a dream come true for us,' said Palmetto Promise Institute Senior Fellow Dr. Oran Smith. 'His bill is consistent with recommendations our scholars have been making since 2014. Low. Flat. AGI. It has all the elements of sound, pro-growth tax policy.' Joining Speaker Smith at this morning's press conference announcing the new tax plan were Senate President Thomas Alexander (R), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler (R), and Governor Henry McMaster (R). During his press conference remarks, Governor McMaster called on legislators to get a bill cutting the state income tax to his desk before adjourning the current session, which is scheduled to end May 8. 'I'm so proud of us to continue working together both House and Senate, Finance and Ways and Means to make this happen, and not just end this today on income tax, but also address sales tax and property tax, we need to lower both too,' Senator Peeler said at the press conference, during which he indicated that the Senate may have additional tax-cutting ideas to contribute to the final product. 'There's nothing this team can't do working together,' Peeler added. The tax plan announced at the South Carolina statehouse today — aside from making the Palmetto State an even more attractive place to live, do business, and invest — is the latest example demonstrating how South Carolina, though it has long been considered a deep red state, has only recently begun to implement major conservative reforms. Not only is South Carolina now catching up to other red states, it is even surpassing them in some areas. The plan is for the House to pass H. 4216 in the coming weeks, at which time it will be up for Senate consideration and likely modification. If H. 4216, or something like it, is enacted this year, South Carolina will go into the second half of the 2020s with a far more competitive tax climate.
