By Andy Brack
The most regressive legislative session in a century just ended.
On one hand, thank goodness. The amount of damage that state lawmakers can keep doing is now limited. All they’ve got left to do is deal with the $13 billion state budget in a conference committee plus some other matters.
But on the other hand, they proved this year they are hellbent on pushing us back to times when things were not too great for everyone in South Carolina.
With a supermajority in the S.C. House and almost the same in the state Senate, the Republican Party is firmly in control. And when its factions want to work together, they hurt South Carolinians. In this session, for example, they legislated discrimination in schools against LGBTQ+ students. They made the state less safe by allowing people to carry guns without permits. And by adopting an over-the-top abortion ban, they sent a clear message to the state’s women that they are second-class citizens.
“Most days it felt like we were racing to undo things we’d done less than a year ago,” observed state Rep. Spencer Wetmore, D-Charleston. “For example, undoing the open carry law we’d passed last year to race to permitless carry.
“Or undoing a limited income-based school voucher to move to an unlimited voucher system – which thankfully didn’t pass the Senate. All so we could prove to the 7% of South Carolinians who vote in Republican primaries how ‘conservative’ we are.”
If there’s one good outcome of the session, it’s something that lawmakers did not do yet – pass a controversial energy production bill pushed by House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter.
The bill, which faced withering criticism for its breadth and the speed that House members pushed it through without thorough consideration, would have had hugely negative impacts on South Carolina’s energy policy. Yes, it would have allowed much-needed energy production in the Palmetto State, but at the cost of a new large-scale natural gas plant and gas pipeline to Colleton County that would destroy too much land and open it to pollution. It would have created oversight issues at the state Public Service Commission. It would have allowed energy insiders to get their way without much public scrutiny. And it would have put barriers on some renewable energy projects.
But while that kind of dysfunctional karma had a good policy impact in this instance, the dark side won too much. Not only did state lawmakers fail again to pass a hate crimes law, but they again failed to show a little empathy for people suffering from pain by passing a long-proposed measure to allow medical marijuana.
Lawmakers also failed to pass a bill to allow liquor stores to open on Sunday. And as the clock wound down Thursday, one frustrated Republican lawmaker angry at being mocked by colleagues even blocked a bill to consolidate six health agencies into one.
That’s the kind of year it was. Legislators seemed to keep their eyes more on themselves than the people of the state and their general welfare.
Remember at the polls in November. But also remember to pick non-yahoo candidates.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com.
