SC Legislative Update

By Ben Homeyer

Legislative and Funding Updates

The House and Senate officially wrapped up session on June 28th with several budget vetoes from the Governor.  The new State Budget went into effect July 1.  As part of the budget is a new division for motor carriers at the SCDMV.  Brian Carlson has been named by director Shwedo as that new director.  It will take them a bit to get everything up and running but we can begin directing questions to Brian and the new team he is forming.  

The GA has left themselves one out to come back over the interim and that is to deal with the change in federal law for Roe V Wade.  Should any of you have questions about what the General Assembly plans to do on this subject please don’t hesitate to reach out.  

One piece of legislation was passed in the final week of note for the industry.  S 233 a local user fee bill removes the requirement that the fee benefits the payer differently from the general public. It also includes provisions to ensure counties that immediately repealed fees and increased taxes do not automatically re-impose fees.  This bill was needed after Greenville County and several other counties in the state had lawsuits filed against them for improper implementation of a fee.  

The interim is going to be filled with a large number of road projects as the widening of I-26 has been accelerated with a new allocation and the widening of I-95 is also being pushed up. We are working with the SCDOT to set up a time to sit down and meet with them about ACI Field level training.  As soon as that is accomplished we will report back to the membership.