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The State House Gavel
The State House Gavel shares updates about the South Carolina General Assembly, including legislative actions, debates and discussions. Featuring news and interviews, so you have access to the latest developments in policy and decisions that shape South Carolina’s future.

The State House Gavel: House mulls treasurer removal over $1.8B, renews talks over tax plan

South Carolina Public Radio | By Maayan Schechter,
Russ McKinney, Gavin Jackson
Published April 23, 2025 at 6:01 AM EDT
The S.C. Statehouse in Columbia, S.C.
The S.C. Statehouse in Columbia, S.C.

Statehouse reporters Gavin Jackson, Russ McKinney and Maayan Schechter are back at the Capitol reporting what you need to know when lawmakers are in Columbia. They'll post news, important schedules, photos/videos and behind-the-scenes interviews with policymakers.

Welcome to Wednesday.

The S.C. House and Senate gavel in at 10 a.m.

There are eight more days until the South Carolina legislative session ends at 5 p.m. Thursday, May 8.

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.

The Senate on Tuesday started its debate over next fiscal year's $14 billion state general fund budget that starts July 1.

The House passed the spending plan back in March.

It includes millions of dollars for teacher pay raises, bridge improvements, and $290 million for a reduction in the state's personal income tax rate.

The upper chamber will continue its debate Wednesday.

Notebook highlights:

  • Treasurer Curtis Loftis's fate to remain in office remains up in the air, as the House Republican Caucus navigates whether to hold a removal proceeding. We spoke to the House GOP leader and where the main Republican Caucus is in the process.
  • Income tax cut, sports wagering and casinos and high school sports. The House took testimony and deliberated three closely-watched bills on Tuesday.
Russ McKinney, Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson
SCETV
Russ McKinney, Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson

Question mark for Loftis in the House after Senate vote

A day after the Senate took a historic 33-8 vote to oust state Treasurer Curtis Loftis over the $1.8 billion accounting error, it still remains in question whether the House will follow suit.

The state Constitution provides that two-thirds of both chambers must vote to remove a constitutional officer.

The Republican-controlled House would need 83 members to back Loftis's removal — a high threshold when it remains unclear whether the House even has the appetite for taking the matter up with only days left in session.

The House has largely let the Senate take the lead on the investigation.

Reporters spoke to House GOP Leader Davey Hiott Tuesday, who told reporters that the topic was set to come up in the House GOP Caucus meeting that day.

But, after that meeting, no consensus appeared to be reached.

Here's more from the Pickens Republican below:

S.C. House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, R-Pickens, speaks to reporters 4.22.25

Gov. Henry McMaster, who has said he does not support Loftis's removal, repeated that statement again in a stop Tuesday, saying the decision should be up to the voters — not lawmakers.

“That’s where this ought to be decided," McMaster told reporters in the Upstate Tuesday, WIS reported. "Let the people decide."

South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis before the hearing for the removal of Loftis from office in the South Carolina Senate on April 21, 2025.
Gavin Jackson
South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis before the hearing for the removal of Loftis from office in the South Carolina Senate on April 21, 2025.

House dives back into taxes, gambling and high school sports

Back from spring break, the South Carolina House returned to three controversial topics that had the Blatt building buzzing.

Here's how each closely watched issue fared.

Income tax

Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, told his colleagues Tuesday that the message from lawmakers and others over the original income tax plan was received loud and clear.

Recall: Republican House and Senate leaders and the governor lauded an income tax plan that would decouple the state from the feds and move to a 3.99% flat rate for all taxpayers in 2026, down from the current structure with a top rate of 6.2%. It also would have further lowered the rate to 2.49% in future years if state revenue growth remained strong. But state estimates showed that a majority of filers, almost 60%, would see their taxes increase in the first year of implementation.

And, as we reported early this month, Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, didn't say the overall topic was dead.

But that bill in particular would not move through the full Legislature this year, he said.

"We're going to work on it during the coming session," he said.

(Senate budget writers set aside some $290 million to further accelerate the drop of the top income tax rate from 6.2% down to 6%. The House had already allocated $200 million.)

Now, lawmakers are back to the drawing board over the tax bill.

"This is not an easy process," said S.C. Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Executive Director Frank Rainwater, who reminded lawmakers there's a "consequence to whatever action you take."

On Tuesday, Rainwater presented Ways and Means with four options to consider, which included the original proposal:

S.C. REVENUE AND FISCAL AFFAIRS OFFICE

You can read RFA's full analysis here.

Bannister told reporters the plan is still to get a a bill that the majority of the House can back to the floor, with plans to send it to the Senate.

"We would very much like to do that before the summer, before we end sine die May 8," Bannister said.

Gambling expansion

South Carolina lawmakers are considering bills that would expand opportunities to gamble in the Palmetto State.

The House Ways and Means Committee took testimony on three different bills Tuesday:

  • H. 4176, filed by Rep. Chris Murphy, R-Dorchester, that would open the door for legal casino gambling in South Carolina. It also creates a commission to oversee the program and implements guidelines.
  • H. 3265, also filed by Murphy, that would allow legalized online and mobile sports betting.
  • H. 4129, filed by Rep. Gary Brewer, R-Charleston, that would clarify the distinction between games, events or activities with payouts that require skill and those that involve chance or luck, which would be defined as gambling. Supporters argued that this bill was needed to correct a court ruling that put professional sports events held in the state at risk, such as fishing tournaments and NASCAR races.

None of the bills received a vote Tuesday.

But the discussion was a test of how far the South Carolina Legislature has come to the debate over gambling — a topic that has recently started to bubble up in both chambers.

In the Senate, a bill to legalize pari-mutuel horse race betting — S. 344, filed by Sen. Michael Johnson, R-York — has slowly crawled through a committee two years after a similar proposal passed through the House.

The casino bill received the most attention Tuesday.

Casino developer Wallace Cheves is hoping to build a casino in Santee off of Interstate 95 — what Orangeburg Chamber of Commerce President James McQuilla said the business community strongly supports.

But it's not a plan celebrated by all.

Representatives of the religious community asked lawmakers to oppose any gambling legislation.

This is "not harmless entertainment," Steve Pettit, president of the Palmetto Family Council, told lawmakers. "It is a calculated enterprise that exploits the vulnerable."

So did representatives of the Catawba Nation, like Chief Brian Harris, who called the bill a "Trojan horse."

Harris told lawmakers that the bill was a carve out, when it could have been written to include the Catawba Nation, which, 30 years ago, wanted to build a casino in South Carolina.

The Catawba's run the King's Mountain Casino in North Carolina despite being based in South Carolina.

"We live here. We work here, and we've done it for thousands of years," Harris said. "We're not looking for a handout. ... We are here today to control our own economic destiny."

Bannister said a stack of amendments have been proposed to the bills that he and others plan to run through before moving the legislation to the full committee.

There's not currently a next meeting scheduled.

High school sports league changes

There’s an old Statehouse adage that lawmakers tinkering with high school athletics, and its powerful governing body — the South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) — run the risk of encountering “a third-rail” of state legislative politics.

The full House Education and Public Works Committee, however, is expected to wade into that territory Wednesday, when they consider a package of bills dealing with the highly contentious issue of high school athletic governance.

One bill — H.4163, filed by Chairwoman Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort — calls for a wholesale replacement of the SCHSL with a new South Carolina Athletic Association.

Erickson has long been a critic of the SCHSL.

As background: The SCHSL has been around since 1913. But, in recent years, the organization has encountered growing criticism from some legislators for being too slow in allowing home school students and charter and magnet school students the ability to participate on public school teams, and for charter schools to be eligible to participate in public school league championships.

Two other bills, H. 3208 and H. 3245, would provide more opportunities for student athletes attending the non-traditional schools and home school students to participate on public school teams in their area.

MAAYAN SCHECHTER

Daily planner (4/23)

SC House

SC Senate

SC governor

  • 8:30 a.m. — Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette speaks at the EMS Legislative Breakfast in Columbia
  • 10 a.m. — Gov. Henry McMaster and first lady Peggy McMaster attend the College of Arts and Sciences Naming Ceremony at the University of South Carolina
  • 12:30 p.m. — McMaster to participate in the SC STEM Signing Day at the Statehouse
  • 2 p.m. — Evette to join the Consul General of Israel to the Southeast and lawmakers for a press conference at the Statehouse

Clips from around the state
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Maayan Schechter
Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter) is a news reporter with South Carolina Public Radio and ETV. She worked at South Carolina newspapers for a decade, previously working as a reporter and then editor of The State’s S.C. State House and politics team, and as a reporter at the Aiken Standard and the Greenville News. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2013.
See stories by Maayan Schechter
Russ McKinney
Russ McKinney has 30 years of experience in radio news and public affairs. He is a former broadcast news reporter in Spartanburg, Columbia and Atlanta. He served as Press Secretary to former S.C. Governor Dick Riley for two terms, and for 20 years was the chief public affairs officer for the University of South Carolina.
See stories by Russ McKinney
Gavin Jackson
Gavin Jackson graduated with a visual journalism degree from Kent State University in 2008 and has been in the news industry ever since. He has worked at newspapers in Ohio, Louisiana and most recently in South Carolina at the Florence Morning News and Charleston Post and Courier.
See stories by Gavin Jackson