In South Carolina, there are only days left in the legislative calendar this year. WFAE's Marshall Terry spoke with South Carolina Public Radio reporter Maayan Schechter about what's going on at the statehouse in Columbia.
Marshall Terry: What have lawmakers already accomplished? And what are the big, outstanding issues?
Maayan Schechter: Yeah, so this is the first of a two-year session. So, of course, any bill that does not become law this year always has a chance in the next year. One bill that has made its way to the governor's desk is legislation to consolidate three healthcare-related agencies. This is a pretty big deal. Supporters have said that South Carolinians are essentially getting left out in the cold because there's no coordination/communication between these agencies, and this has been a big ask by the governor. So this is big, this consolidation.
But there's plenty of outstanding issues that still have question marks. Questions over the treasurer, of course — tort reform, liquor liability. There's a big energy bill that's been floating around. And then school choice expansion — that'll likely be signed into law again, but it's a bill that would pay for K-12 private school vouchers using the state budget. The last try was ruled unconstitutional by our state Supreme Court, and so this is Republicans second go at it.
Terry: And the issue of the state treasurer that you briefly mentioned is one that has grabbed headlines. And it's one that still confuses me a bit, to be honest. Now I understand the state Senate voted to remove Curtis Loftis, but the House still hasn't taken that up. This all stems from a $1.8 billion accounting error, right?
Schechter: Right. And have no shame here. This is definitely one of the wonkiest of wonky topics. The short, quick way to explain it is it's an accounting error that essentially accrued over a roughly 10-year period when the state switched accounting systems.
And it was discovered after a much larger error — you might've heard about it, $3.5 billion — that resulted in the resignation of our then-comptroller general, which is the state's accountant. The treasurer comes into play here because the $1.8 billion error — the fund where it sat was housed under the treasurer's office. And lawmakers said that Curtis Loftis had a statutory duty to disclose that error to the legislature, and he never did.
Loftis told senators that he found out about the error in early 2023, but his staff knew much longer before that. Loftis and the Senate, in particular, I've had issues for years. This was glaring for a lot of them. And as you mentioned, they voted to remove him. Pretty historic.
But the House has sat on it. There's six days left in the legislative session. So between that — and, frankly, the overall lack of energy that we've seen from the House, particularly Republican leadership — has basically indicated, I think to a lot of us, [that] the arrows are pointing at them really not probably doing a whole lot about it this year.
Terry: I know there's also been a big focus on tort reform this term — changing the rules around liability and lawsuits. Where does that stand?
Schechter: The Senate passed a large expansive tort reform package that deals with victims, bars and restaurants, liquor liability, truckers, the medical field, etc. The House passed a much more narrow liquor liability bill, making the argument that this is the real need. Restaurants and bars say they will close without it. Both sides [and] the governor say that this is a big issue for them. They differ on how to get there, and right now we're in a bit of a legislative tug-of-war between the two chambers. There is no compromise as of right now.
Terry: Anything in particular that you're watching in the closing days of the South Carolina Legislature's session this year?
Schechter : Of course, what happens with a liquor liability tort reform bill. There's an energy capacity bill [and] what happens with the treasurer. The budget has really been where much of the Republican infighting has occurred, especially on the House side. And there's some bills that are floating around — we don't think that they're going to be become law this year — but that have to do with gambling and the income tax. We are still very much watching what happens to those this year.
