S.C. lawmakers begin new session with GOP supermajorities

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina lawmakers are now back at work in Columbia, gaveling into their new legislative session Tuesday at noon.

This year, Republicans hold supermajorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate following last November’s election.

During the first year of a two-year session, as 2025 is, all bills must be refiled and reintroduced, typically leading to slower starts in the General Assembly as every piece of legislation starts from the beginning of the lawmaking process.

However, the first major debate at the State House this year was set to begin Wednesday, just the second day of the session, as senators will take up a bill that would reinstate South Carolina’s private school voucher program.

Senators will debate a bill that would reinstate the program but with funding for it coming from lottery revenues instead of taxpayer dollars in the general fund, which some Republicans believe will make it legal.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield.

House Republicans are also prioritizing this school voucher program but told reporters Tuesday that they are not totally sold on the lottery funding idea yet.

Their priorities for this year include tax reform, the details of which they say are still being worked out but would include income tax cuts.

“This is obviously a very complex and complicated issue,” Speaker of the House Murrell Smith, R – Sumter, said. “I think everybody has a goal in mind that we have got to be competitive with our neighbors, and that’s what we’re concentrating on now.”

Both chambers are also looking to reforms to increase South Carolina’s energy generation, legislation that ed the House but ran out of time in the Senate last year.

Cutting taxes

Tax cuts are going to be another big topic of discussion.

In his budget proposal released Monday, Gov. Henry McMaster suggested not waiting an additional year to 2026 to cut the top rate of the state income tax to 6%. The state has been gradually cutting its top tax rate from 7% to 6%.

House and Senate leaders have all warmed to an idea of a bigger tax cut, but haven’t released details. McMaster said he will go where they lead.

“We don’t need to stop at 6% — we should continue cutting or eliminating the personal income tax rate as much as we can, and as fast as we can,” the governor said in a letter to lawmakers.

Cutting taxes is the easy path. There is a harder path, avoided for decades, that would involve tax reform — getting rid of sales tax exemptions and some income tax deductions, or even revamping the entire tax code. Republican leaders have hinted something big might be on the table.

A House divided?

Once again in 2025, there appears to be factions forming among Republicans in the South Carolina House.

The Freedom Caucus, made up of the chamber’s most conservative , have about 17 . That isn’t enough to stop their fellow Republicans from doing anything if they vote in a block.

But since any member can suggest changes to bills, the Freedom Caucus’ tactics have been to make amendments that mirror their agenda, then force mainstream Republicans to vote against them and publicize the results.

Freedom Caucus and other Republicans have spent the off-session sniping at each other on social media, and the arguments are more frequent than those between Democrats and Republicans.

So much money

South Carolina’s booming economy and nation-leading growth have left the state with hefty surpluses of cash. The state expects to collect an extra $650 million in taxes this fiscal year and has more than $1 billion in other surpluses to spend. In all, lawmakers will decide how to spend more than $14 billion.

McMaster wants to spend $200 million to again raise minimum salaries for teachers and give every teacher a $3,000 raise.

About $240 million of the extra revenue is needed for disaster relief from Hurricanes Helene and Debbie. The money goes toward federal matches for disaster aid for farmers and others, helps repairs to roads and other infrastructure damaged in the storms, and even pays overtime costs for police, highway workers and other emergency needs, McMaster said.

The governor wants to pay $100 million for what would be the state’s first neurological hospital in Columbia, noting South Carolina ranks among the highest in the nation for stroke and dementia-related deaths.

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