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The time for political bloviating is over; the time for action has arrived. Two months have passed since the votes in November’s general election were counted. Now it’s showtime… both in the District of Columbia and in Columbia, South Carolina.
Here in the Palmetto State, lawmakers are still dealing with the aftereffects of last year’s bloody, bruising primary. If anything, fresh bruises are being created.
The ruling uniparty/GOP establishment did its best to take down conservatives in the upstart S.C. Freedom Caucus during the 2024 election cycle. Not only was that badly bungled effort an epic fail, but the legislative firebrands actually picked up a few seats. Much in the same way Donald Trump‘s reelection was a stinging rebuke of Woke ideology nationally, the Freedom Caucus’ success at the ballot box in South Carolina was a decisive rejection of the failed status quo in Columbia.

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But as so often happens in politics, the dynamic shifted in an instant.
At the moment the Freedom Caucus was at its zenith, federal agents conducted a raid on the West Columbia, S.C. home of state representative R.J. May III – the former vice chairman of the organization and the political strategist who led many of the group’s victorious campaigns.
May’s proximity to a reported child exploitation investigation has blunted much of the Caucus’ momentum heading into 2025 – and there’s no word yet on when the feds will get the ball rolling by issuing indictments in connection with the case.
Last we heard (earlier this week), federal agents were still poring through evidence…
Legislative battles notwithstanding, across the Palmetto political landscape the post-election climate is fraught with peril for those pushing the levers of power – or aspiring to do so.
Where should you invest your political capital during these uncertain times? To the index…
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S.C. LEGISLATURE
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STOCK: HOLDING
The curtain rises today (January 14, 2025) on the 126th regular session of the S.C. General Assembly. Longtime State House observers know the drill by rote… and are equally familiar that not much follows from the pomp and circumstance.
There’s much drama and speechifying on opening day. There are news conferences aplenty and discussions about legislative agendas. We will hear a great deal in the coming days about the bevy of pressing problems facing the Palmetto State: The urgent need for tax relief (more on that in a moment), school choice, judicial reform, road and infrastructure repair, and… you get the idea.
We know these issues by heart because the same litany of problems is repeated year after year (which, frankly, ought to tell you something).
Hundreds of bills will be introduced and assigned to dozens of subcommittees. After that, legislators go into a kind of cozy hibernation. The committees perform the grunt work while the salons huddle and lobbyists speculate/pass along political gossip. Everyone’s stomach is filled with eatables and drinkables (many carrying a kick) at a seemingly endless array of breakfasts, business lunches and after-hours receptions sponsored by those eager to receive preferential treatment.
The mood changes by the time the grass grows green and the leaves start to return. Like college kids who suddenly realize the end of the semester is upon them, lawmakers shift into overdrive. A frenzied legislative game of beat-the-clock gets played right up until the gavel bangs in May, at which point everyone goes home pending a brief return to address the state’s budget (and any vetoes issued by the governor).
Will 2025 be the year lawmakers’ predictable process produces something resembling real change? Will the people’s representatives finally get serious about attending to the people’s business? Or will they continue making themselves and their cronies fat and happy at our expense?
We have four months to find out, leaving the legislature’s stock in a holding pattern…
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TAX CUTS
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STOCK: RISING
Top leaders in the House and Senate say they want it. The governor says he’s behind it. And the people sure as hell are demanding it. Oh, and there’s an extra $1.8 billion sitting in the state kitty that could finance it, too.
Will South Carolinians finally see meaningful tax relief? We’re about to find out.
This news outlet has reported extensively on how the Palmetto State’s high marginal income tax rate – combined with substantially lower rates in neighboring states – has economically hindered South Carolina. For years. So there’s no need to recover that ground here.
The difference this year? Lawmakers are actually admitting as much…
“Now is the time for historic tax reform,” speaker Murrell Smith recently noted. If he’s willing to put political muscle behind those words, they could be a clarion call for change.
Yet sincerity is subject to proof. If there is a notable drop in tax rates, a lot of special interests — including some with serious clout — will wind up empty-handed at the session’s end. And you can bet they’ll go down swinging.
One thing is certain: if lawmakers deliver on tax cuts, it must be more than political window dressing. Folks rightfully complain about how they’re paying an extra $0.12 cents a gallon every time they fill up their car, truck, or SUV for the 2017 gas tax hike that was supposed to improve South Carolina’s roads and highways. (Spoiler alert: it didn’t.) Dangling the prospect of tax relief before citizens and then approving a measure that only gives them an extra quarter in their paycheck every two weeks won’t cut it.
This time, legislators run the risk of ignoring vox populi at their peril…
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HENRY McMASTER
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STOCK: HOLDING
To hear “Foghorn Governor” put it, president-elect Trump’s D.O.G.E. (Department of Government Efficiency) is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Henry McMaster has made it abundantly clear he’s a fanboy of the work Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are undertaking at Trump’s behest – and he wants the head honchos in the U.S. House and Senate to know it, too.
McMaster chairs the Republican Governors Association (RGA), and over the weekend, he forwarded a pass-around letter bearing the signatures of 26 GOP state chiefs executive to speaker Mike Johnson and majority leader John Thune.
“It is past time for Washington to live within its means,” the letter noted. “We support President Trump … (and agree) that the federal government needs to be cut down to size. We stand ready to help.”
All that’s good and fine. But it begs an interesting question: If Trump’s approach is so good, why not institute a D.O.G.E. for South Carolina’s government? It’s being done elsewhere. For instance, New Hampshire’s newly inaugurated governor Kelly Ayotte had barely taken her hand off the Bible last week when she announced the creation of C.O.G.E (Commission on Government Efficiency) for the Granite State.
Why not a S.C.O.G.E approach for the Palmetto State?
McMaster has a golden opportunity to unveil such an entity during his State of the State address later this month. We’ll see if he takes it…
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RETIRED JUDGES
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STOCK: FALLING
South Carolina has a serious problem with its judges. And no, we’re not just talking about the ethically impaired manner in which they are selected – we’re also referring to former judges who won’t go gently into that good night.
Consider “retired” former S.C. supreme court chief justice Jean Toal, whose questionable rulings in the case of convicted killer Alex Murdaugh have raised some serious concerns about the soundness of her judgment.
Toal’s dubious decisions on asbestos litigation also recently landed South Carolina in the embarrassing No. 3 spot on Americans for Tort Reform’s annual list of “judicial hellholes” — a rogue’s gallery of the country’s worst of the worst courts and jurisdictions.
It would be one thing if former judges still actively participating in the administration of justice were properly reviewed by a duly elected screening panel. But in Toal’s case, she is a decade past her retirement and completely unbound by any accountability whatsoever.
We’re hearing rumblings that lawmakers are interested in taking a closer look at judicial retirees who are still actively involved in the courts. Let’s hope those rumblings are for real… otherwise, South Carolina will remain a “judicial hellhole” for a long time to come.
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GREG HEMBREE
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STOCK: FALLING
The state senator from Myrtle Beach finds himself on a lonely island these days as it relates to the issue of school choice. Everyone involved in this battle, it seems, is pissed off at him for one reason or another.
Four months after South Carolina’s supreme court struck down a big chunk of the state’s fledgling Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF), legislators are scrambling to come up with Plan B. In the S.C. Senate, that effort is being led by senator Greg Hembree.
Any form of school choice is anathema to Democrats (most vocally House minority leader Brad Hutto). These status quo politicians – and far too many of their GOP allies – remain as determined as ever to cram increasing amounts of taxpayer cash into the perpetually failing government-run school system. Naturally, they’re unhappy with Hembree for trying to find another way to provide a modicum of parental choice.
But the mood’s not any better on the other side of the aisle. Conservatives believe the court’s new majority – led by chief justice John Kittredge – stands ready to undo the ruling promulgated last year by the court of über-liberal justice Donald Beatty.
They want to push the old bill back to the fore – and perhaps even expand it. Still others believe a scholarship-granting organization is the way to go.
Hembree, however, wants to use S.C. Education Lottery money to pay for a sliver of choice – an idea that has proven unpopular at points all along the ideological spectrum. That’s earned him the the displeasure of Republicans as well as disgruntled Democrats – and a falling rating heading into the 2025-2026 legislative session.
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