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South Carolina “Republican” lawmakers voted themselves a massive pay raise in the latest version of the Palmetto State’s upcoming budget – which is set to take effect on July 1, 2025 and run through the end of next June.
News of the $18,000 a year annual pay hike – first reported by FITSNews – has sparked extensive debate over how lawmakers are compensated for their “service.” Many voters oppose a legislative pay hike on principle, while others argue lawmakers are not paid enough and that these modest salaries prevent “normal” people from participating in the political process.
Our view? Eight years ago, we proposed an inflation-adjusted $80,000 annual salary for lawmakers – albeit one which would have been accompanied by “the most draconian anti-corruption measures South Carolina state government has ever seen.”
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Basically, lawmakers would have received a larger base salary – but their ability to profit from their positions would have been completely neutered. Contained within this draconian ban would have been constitutional restrictions on legislative meddling in other branches of government – including getting rid of the current legislatively controlled judicial selection racket.
Sadly, as is their modus operandi, status quo “Republicans” just wanted the money… not reform of their wasteful, self-serving ways.
“Lawmakers have shown zero interest in reforming their corrupt ways… meaning there is no universe in which this self-serving pay raise should be approved,” I noted earlier this year. “Absent long-overdue ethics reform, lawmakers should not expect us to shell out another dime to subsidize their ‘service.’”
Broad swaths of the GOP nonetheless voted to approve yet another bloated budget this week containing this legislative pay raise – although 25 House members (most of them members of the fiscally conservative S.C. Freedom Caucus) voted against the spending plan.
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Who approved another unsustainable "blue state budget?" Who awarded themselves massive pay raises within that budget? Each name in green did. Astoundingly, this is a so-called "Republican" supermajority in a bright red state. Paging @OfficialDOGESC: Here is your list of ???? pic.twitter.com/Xv5c28XebX
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) May 28, 2025
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Five state senators also refused to support the budget containing these pay raises.
Needless to say, voting for a pay raise like this could be tremendously damaging to GOP incumbents during the upcoming partisan primary elections… which is why embattled S.C. House speaker Murrell Smith attempted to give his rank-and-file “Republicans” a way out of the box.
According to a letter obtained by this media outlet, state representatives will have until 9:00 a.m. EDT on June 9, 2025 to notify the clerk of the House of their intention to “waive receipt” of this $18,000 pay raise. Such a waiver would last for the duration of their current terms in office (which end on November 9, 2026).
Any lawmaker waiving receipt of the raise would be returning approximately $25,500 to the state’s general fund budget over the next seventeen months – meaning if all 170 members of the S.C. General Assembly sent the money back it would amount to roughly $4.34 million over that time frame.
Unfortunately, this money would not be returned to taxpayers – it would go back into the coffers of the state to be spent elsewhere. That’s because “Republicans” have steadfastly refused to establish a dedicated, inviolable taxpayer rebate fund – an account which would automatically route savings and surpluses back to citizens.
Also concerning? Because the S.C. House and State Senate are exempt from the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), there’s no way of knowing which lawmakers actually waive the pay increase.
Funny how that works, right?
Anyway, count on FITSNews to keep close tabs on this issue moving forward… and to report back to our audience on which lawmakers took more of your money (without reforming their anemic ethics laws) and which ones didn’t.
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THE LETTER…
(S.C. House of Representatives)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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8 comments
A) Generally agree with Fits position on this. Mr. Smith is able to go to Washington, but certainly cannot afford to go to Columbia. So much for citizen legislators.
B) The need for draconian reforms tied to a the pay increase indirectly acknowledges one of the issues with the unchanged salary since the 90’s – it encourages (does not excuse) corruption.
C) Why not make it a ballot measure? Employers decide on and offer salaries. The people are the employer. The people, not the politicians (employees), should decide the salary.
Individual legislators may not be subject to FOIA (as stated above), but how about the Clerk of the House? He serves as a ‘public servant’, does he not? I’ll let everybody know what becomes of my FOIA request …..
The members of the legislature are immune to any lawsuit for defamation or slander, and exempted from FOIA. Furthermore they may not be even placed under oath and forced to provide a deposition about their activities as a legislator under subpoena – even when they are not a defendant party in a civil lawsuit, but a mere witness. That prevents them from even being confronted under oath and forced to tell the truth about underhanded dirty deeds done behind the scenes. In essence, it means they have total legal immunity to lie with impunity about anything against a private citizen or member of the executive or judicial branch unless it involves a crime or activity that has no relevance whatsoever to their legislative actions. The very narrow exception to that is bribery and campaign finance violations. A Senator could accuse the Governor, the Attorney General, the Treasurer, any cabinet agency head of outrageously false conduct, with zero consequences. But in the reverse scenario, the Senator could go after all of them with civil suits and FOIA requests. This is but one aspect of the Legislature’s great disproportionate power. We do not have 3 co-equal branches of government; even the Supreme Court acknowledges that.
The constitution of South Carolina intentionally makes the legislature the only branch with power, there was never any intent to make co- equal branches. It was to keep northern carpet baggers and blacks who got elected as republicans from having any power. A new constitution, which will never happen, is the only way to solve many of this states issues. The 1868 constitution, the only SC constitution voted on by the people, was much different as it a gave the governor and courts co equal power. Senator Ben Tillman changed all that in 1894 and his ilks main motivation was to keep blacks from getting any power. To quote him”we can trust white men to do right by the inferior race, but we cannot trust the inferior race with power over the white man” in response to a question the papers asked him about calling for a constitutional convention
All BS. Every legislator and public official has to file a Statement of Economic Interest with the state ethics commission annually. Those pay numbers will be in each report. No FOIA needed.
Again the SC legislature needs another Lost Trust operation. The corruption is blatant.
Anonymous, you are so right about that! We need another Operation Lost Trust, yesterday!
The Legislature this year has passed more dumb, stupid, unnecessary, shit than I can remember in decades. I hope we see a huge turnover in the House AND Senate in the next two elections.