Happy Tuesday.
Welcome to Week 15 of the South Carolina legislative session.
The House gavels in at noon, and the Senate is in at 11 a.m.
You're reading The State House Gavel, a daily reporter notebook by reporters Gavin Jackson, Russ McKinney and Maayan Schechter that previews and captures what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse this year while lawmakers are in session.
Notebook highlights:
- The state Senate in a special Monday hearing voted to oust Treasurer Curtis Loftis.
- A breakdown of what we're watching in Week 15 of the legislative session that includes sports wagering in the House and the Senate's $14 billion state general fund debate.
Senate votes to remove Loftis. What's next?
In a historic step, the South Carolina Senate voted late Monday to remove Republican Treasurer Curtis Loftis from office.
The vote to remove — 33 to 8 — followed a roughly eight-hour hearing that capped months of legislative hearings over questions of a $1.8 billion state government accounting error.
"I am not surprised by today’s (Monday's) outcome. We knew this process would be more political in nature than the serious legal hearing one would expect to overturn a statewide election," Loftis said in a statement after the vote. "But today is just one step in this process, and we will now weigh our options on next steps.
All eyes are now on the House, where it remains unclear whether the lower chamber will take up the matter at all.
We get into that more below, but first a refresher.
As background: The error, part of a larger $3.5 billion error that led to the 2023 resignation of then-Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, was a result of the state switching to a new accounting system (SCEIS) in the early 2000s. An outside audit by AlixPartners found that most of the $1.8 billion error — roughly $1.6 billion of it — was in fact not real money. That same audit rooted the responsibility in three offices: the comptroller (the state accountant), the state auditor and the treasurer (the state banker). Eckstrom resigned over fallout from the $3.5 billion error and former state Auditor George Kennedy resigned earlier this year.
"The $1.8 billion represents the net cash balance of thousands of journal entries, the ultimate intent of which were to allow the state treasurer's office ("STO") to balance the bank general ledger accounts in the SCEIS system to the cash balances maintained in individual banks," the AlixPartners audit said.
Monday's hearing was not an impeachment proceeding, but a different process allowed by the state Constitution that provides for removal from office any executive officer for "willful neglect of duty."
Presenting for the Senate was Sen. Larry Grooms, the Berkeley Republican whose special committee led the chamber's investigation, and Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown.
Hear Grooms's introductory remarks below:
Loftis, Goldfinch said, "cannot absolve himself simply by pointing the finger at somebody else."
Loftis — his testimony Monday was sandwiched in between attorneys, who, in one presentation slide showed a photo of Loftis standing with President Donald Trump — has denied wrongdoing, likened the proceedings to a "witch hunt" and pointed that none of the money was ever missing.
Loftis said he is running for reelection for his fifth term.
Listen to his introductory remarks below:
"I want to reaffirm to the citizens of South Carolina that I as your state treasurer and the members of my office have faithfully fulfilled our statutory duties to provide core financial management services to state government," Loftis said in part of a statement after the vote. "... I believe it’s time to put this political gamesmanship behind us and work together to reassure everyone of the strength of our financial system moving forward."
As part of the hearing, senators got the unique opportunity to question Loftis up to 10 minutes each in a back-and-forth question-and-answer.
Senators focused their questions on one main area: When did Loftis know about the $1.8 billion error, or why, if he didn't know, did his staff not disclose the error's existence.
Loftis told senators he became aware of the error in early 2023, though his staff knew years earlier.
"It's on your watch," Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, told Loftis.
Listen more to that back-and-forth below:
What happens next?
The House, which has largely let the Senate handle most of the investigation, has not publicly disclosed whether it plans to hold similar proceedings.
State Rep. Micah Caskey, a Lexington Republican who sits on the House Ways and Means subcommittee that examined the error, was in attendance Monday.
He told reporters he plans to take the information laid out Monday and share it with the House Republican Caucus Tuesday.
"I'm not in a position to say what the House should do or shouldn't do," Caskey said. "We're going to have a discussion about it, and see where the members are."
As far as impeachment, Caskey said, that is a "non-starter."
Here's more from Caskey:
Gov. Henry McMaster, meanwhile, has said he does not believe that Loftis should be removed and said it's time the parties move on.
Speaking to reporters after the vote, Grooms and Goldfinch called on the House to judge the Senate's hearing by the evidence, not by politics.
You can listen to more of that interview below:
What we're watching in Week 15
The House and Senate are both back this week.
And, as we wrote above, it's really crunch time at the Capitol.
There are nine days left to get legislation passed. If both chambers don't approve a bill by 5 p.m. Thursday, May 8 — the budget being the exception — it will have to wait until next year.
Here is what the Legislature is working through this week.
Starting with the Senate.
The Senate, now past its special hearing over the removal of the state treasurer, will move its focus to the $14.5 billion state general fund budget.
There are a number of key differences with the House plan passed last month, including the levels of funding for bridges and tuition mitigation.
One area of agreement?
There will be no earmarks — pet projects or pork — whatever you call it.
As we reported April 10, Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, and House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, agreed to hit pause this year on doling out thousands and millions of dollars to lawmakers' individual district projects.
"As the chairmen of the chambers’ budget writing committees, our top priority is to ensure the responsible expenditure of the taxpayers’ dollars. Over the last few years, we’ve been able to provide for a great deal of community investments and we’ve made significant strides in the transparency of those investments," they said in a rare joint letter. "However, in this appropriations bill, we’ve agreed instead to focus on what should be every member’s top priority — tax reform."
Also on tap this week in the upper chamber:
- A Senate Labor, Commerce, Industry Ad Hoc Committee will take up S. 256 at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The bill, filed by LCI Chairman Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, authorizes local governments to start "commercial property assessed clean energy and resiliency programs" by ordinance.
Meanwhile, in the House, here are a few key hearings we're watching this week:
- At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the full House Ways and Means Committee will meet to discuss H. 4216, the income tax plan (filed by House budget Chairman Bannister) that, in its original form, would in the first year of implementation raise the tax liability for nearly 60% of filers. Per the agenda, the committee will only hear testimony and will not take a vote.
- An hour after the House adjourns on Tuesday, a Ways and Means Licenses, Fees and Other Taxes Legislative Subcommittee will meet on two bills, including H. 3115 (filed by Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg) that would waive fees for homeless people to get their birth certificates.
- About 1.5 hours after the House adjourns on Tuesday, the House Education and Public Works K-12 Subcommittee will discuss three bills, one of which (H. 4163, filed by Committee Chairwoman Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort) would disband the High School Sports League and create a brand new association, whose board members would be chosen by the superintendent, members of the Legislature and the governor. The full committee will take up these bills Wednesday morning, if the bills are advanced by the panel.
- On Tuesday, about 1.5 hours after the House adjourns, the House Ways and Means Revenue Policy Legislative Subcommittee will take up three bills that, in part, deal with opening the door for a potential casino and sports wagering.
Editor's Note: This is not an exhaustive list of important hearings. Schedules also are updated on a daily basis.
Daily planner (4/22)
SC House
- 9 a.m. — Blatt 427 — 3M-LCI Pharmacy Benefit Managers Ad Hoc Committee
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 9 a.m. — Blatt 110 — Education and Cultural Affairs Subcommittee of the Legislative Oversight Committee
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 10 a.m. — Blatt 521 — House Ways and Means Full Committee
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - Noon — House in session
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 1 hour after House adjourns — Blatt 317 — Ways and Means Licenses, Fees and Other Taxes Legislative Subcommittee Meeting on H.4137
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 1.5 hours after House adjourns — Blatt 403 — Labor, Commerce and Industry Business and Commerce Subcommittee
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 1.5 hours after the House adjourns — Blatt 427 — 3M Municipal and Public Affairs on H.3861 and H.4050
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 1.5 hours after House adjourns — Blatt 110 — Education and Public Works K-12 Subcommittee
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 1.5 hours after the House adjourns — Blatt 521 — Ways and Means Revenue Policy Subcommittee on H.3625, H.4129 and H.4176
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only
SC Senate
- 11 a.m. — Senate in session
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only
SC governor
- 9:30 a.m. — Gov. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette will attend the grand opening of Milo’s Tea Company's manufacturing and distribution facility in Moore
Clips from around the state
- South Carolina soybean crush plant's closing has left town 'in shock,' mayor says (SC Public Radio)
- Potential SC governor hopefuls pounce on border politics after hit-and-run death (The State)
- Rep. Nancy Mace's beauty store cursing episode with constituent in Mount Pleasant goes viral (Post and Courier)
- SC-owned hospital system set to double debt with 2 new hospitals (SC Daily Gazette)
