South Carolina Legislative Update: May 5

Compiled by Ben Homeyer

We are rapidly approaching the end of session here in Columbia South Carolina. The last day of session is May 8th, and the Speaker announced the last day of committee meetings for the House will be April 29th. A reminder that we are in year one of a two-year session, all legislation will retain its place on the calendar into next session.

The Senate finished their budget the week of April 22nd and Finance Chair Harvey Peeler took the 14.4 billion dollar spending plan and cut all earmarks and made massive cuts to other portions of the budget approved by the House. In a rare joint statement issued after the Senate Finance concluded their work, Chairman of Senate Finance and Chairman of House Ways and Means, said the 2025-2026 budget will have no earmarks. Chairman Peeler went on to say that the Senate needed some of the money typically pulled out for earmarks to spend to further shrink the states income tax rate.  The Senate version set aside $290 million to further accelerate the drop of top income tax rate from 6.2% to 6%, the House had allocated $200 million. The House budget had $200 million for bridges, and it was reduced to $100 million in the Senate.  The BEA will meet late in May to update the state’s latest budget numbers, knowing that, the House plans to wait and comeback following that to finish the budget. How long that will take is up in the air, could be a week, could take a month. 

A bill to follow is H 3276 the Hands-Free bill. It passed out of the House last week and now it is in the Senate and up for debate on the floor this week. It would make all hands-on use of a phone by a driver in a moving vehicle illegal. As written now, there would be a 180-day grace period after signed into law by the Governor to issue warnings only, so that everyone had time to become aware of the new law.