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Changes to blue crab regulations, judge vetting panel among new SC laws that start July 1

The South Carolina Statehouse
GAVIN JACKSON
The South Carolina Statehouse

A new fiscal year started Tuesday, July 1, and that means a new round of South Carolina laws go into effect.

First, the state’s more than $14 billion general fund spending plan officially starts.

The budget includes raises to teacher and state employee pay — the state's starting salary for teachers is now $48,500 — $200 million for bridge fixes and a reduction of the top marginal income tax rate to 6%. It also includes millions to upgrade local airports, technical colleges and the state’s voting system.

The budget also includes a new one-year measure, called a proviso, that now allows the sale of lottery tickets using debit cards.

Also taking effect Tuesday included new regulations for blue crab fishing and most of the measures in the so-called "Educator Assistance Act," a new law — H. 3196 — passed this year that includes more planning time for teachers.

And, after a yearslong wait, a law that tweaks how judges in the state are vetted by the Legislature will take effect.

Included in the new changes, the Legislature’s judicial vetting panel — the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, made up of mostly legislators — will increase to 12 members and allow the governor for the first time to appoint four of them.

Commission members are now term limited, and the law now allows six judicial candidates to be advanced to the full Legislature, up from what was three, for a final vote.

South Carolina is one of two states where lawmakers elect most judges.

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.