S.C. senators approve resolution to remove state treasurer from office

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - South Carolina senators voted 33-8 Monday night to approve a resolution to remove the state treasurer from office after an eight-hour hearing.

The resolution needed 31 votes to the resolution to oust Curtis Loftis from his position.

But he’s not out of a job, yet.

The South Carolina House would then have to take up the house where two-thirds of that body would also need to approve a resolution for Loftis to be removed.

The vote came at the end of an extraordinary hearing that a $1.8 billion ing error prompted.

The hearing started at around noon with Sen. Larry Grooms, R – Berkeley, and Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R – Georgetown, who have led the call for Loftis to be kicked out of office.

Two senators first made their case for why they argued Loftis should be removed from office: for willful neglect or other reasonable cause.

Among their claims, they argued the treasurer breached his duties, including failing to report the massive discrepancy in state funds to lawmakers threatening to publicly release the state’s sensitive financial information out of spite last year.

“The treasurer reveals a dangerous combination of recklessness, misrepresentation, and disregard for his statutory and fiduciary duties,” Goldfinch said.

Loftis and his team of three attorneys then spoke for three hours to refute the senators’ claims.

They argued there’s no evidence to removing Loftis. They attacked the Senate process for denying the treasurer due process in this hearing and they presented emails they said disprove senators’ claims.

“There’s no missing money, no stolen money, no misspent money, and no coverup,” Loftis attorney Shawn Eubanks said. “So after everything you hear today, my question for you is this: Can you, in good conscience, remove Curtis Loftis from office? Can you substitute you will above the will of the voters?”

The hearing is the culmination of over two years of investigation by the Senate that began when state ants unintentionally exaggerated money given to colleges and universities by $3.5 billion.

That led to the discovery of an ing error that started a decade ago when the state was changing from one ing system to another. If ants couldn’t balance the entries in the two sets of books as they moved thousands of s with different definitions, they kept adding it to a special year after year until it grew to $1.8 billion.

It took forensic ants, who were paid millions of dollars in fees, to finally unravel that nearly all of the $1.8 billion was not real money but just an accumulation of errors.

Grooms and Goldfinch said he can no longer be trusted to handle South Carolina’s bank s. They charged that he is incompetent and never reported the mistakes to lawmakers as required by law while refusing to take ability.

“He’s a liar that was so concerned with his public appearance that he would do and say anything to cover up his mistake,” Goldfinch said.

Senators followed the presentation with their own questions. Most of the eight senators asked Loftis directly why he didn’t take responsibility for the error and why he let others inform the Senate. Loftis said that was the responsibility of other officials.

“It’s everybody but me. And maybe that’s so, but it is so hard to defend ... in a ‘can he do the job’ (sense)?” Republican Sen. Luke Rankin told Loftis. “Help me, help us. Accept the responsibility.”

“Would you tell me what you want me to take responsibility for, because it is complicated,” Loftis replied.

Treasurer’s defense

Loftis has called the Senate investigation a witch hunt. He repeatedly said no money went missing and the errors were not made in his office, although others have testified differently. The treasurer said continuing to focus on the mistakes threatens the state’s strong credit rating.

His lawyer Deborah Barbier opened the treasurer’s case with a photo of Loftis and Republican President Donald Trump on a screen. She pointed out that he has won election four times and will face voters again in a primary in 14 months. Loftis has previously said he would not run for reelection.

“The people don’t want to be told that you are better than them,” Barbier said from a temporary lectern at the back of the state Senate chamber. “Let issues like this be decided at the ballot box.”

Fellow lawyer Johnny Gasser reminded the 34 Republicans in the 46-member Senate that nearly every vote cast for them also was a vote for Loftis.

“Do you really want to go down this path?” Gasser asked.

The vote

The Senate needed a two-thirds vote to decide Loftis committed “willful neglect of duty” and to send the matter to the House, which must also hold its own two-thirds vote to remove the treasurer.

No office holder has been removed in this way since South Carolina became a state 225 years ago.

But even with the Senate’s age of the resolution, Republican leaders in the House have given no indication whether they will take up the matter at all.

More arguments

The books still haven’t been fully straightened out, and ants continue to struggle with Loftis’ office and how they handle the state’s bank s, Grooms said.

The treasurer is trying anything to protect his 14 years in office and reputation as a competent conservative steward who is always looking out for taxpayers, Grooms said.

“Because of his failures, the self-proclaimed best friend of the taxpayer is costing the taxpayers tens of millions in legal, auditing and oversight fees,” Grooms said. “With friends like this, who needs tax-and-spend liberals.”

Lofits, without going into details, said he knew his actions fell short of expectations at times. He promised to do a better job in the future as he spoke for about 10 minutes Monday from a temporary lectern in the back of their chamber

He said the times he misspoke or slammed papers or accused senators of a witch hunt were just his ion for fighting an injustice.

“I hope all of us in this room agree that we should rise above the moment and return our focus to what matters — serving the people of South Carolina with honor, respect and purpose,” Loftis said.

$1.8 billion ing error blamed on computer system switch

A 49-page report released last month on the ing error said South Carolina’s books have been inaccurate for 10 years and continue to not be corrected. The state paid millions of dollars to forensic ants who eventually determined the missing money was not cash the state never spent, but instead was a series of errors in balancing books and shifting s from one system to another that were never reconciled.

The problems started as the state changed computer systems in the 2010s. When the process was finished, workers couldn’t figure out why the books were more than $1 billion out of whack.

Two of the state’s three key financial officers who were involved and aware of the error, former Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and former state Auditor George Kennedy, have since resigned. The error came to light after Eckstrom resigned in March 2023 over a different ing mistake and his replacement reported the mystery .

The report claimed Loftis not only ignored or failed to find mistakes made by his office but also rejected or slowed down attempts to independently investigate the problem.

A Senate subcommittee has held hearings to question Loftis under oath. They have been contentious. Loftis has slammed papers, accused senators of a witch hunt and threatened to get up and leave.

State Supreme Court denies request to rule on hearing

In the state’s 237-year history, no statewide elected official has ever been kicked out of office. But state senators introduced a resolution earlier this month to do just that on the basis of what they called “willful neglect of his duty.”

Loftis asked the South Carolina Supreme Court to stop the hearing, pointing out that the only way for him to be removed from office is through impeachment, which would begin in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

But the state’s high court dismissed Loftis’ challenge saying the matter was “not yet ripe” for the court’s consideration, paving the way for Monday’s hearing to go forward.

In response to the ruling, Loftis said in a statement in part, “We know this process will be more political theatrics than the formal trial one would expect to overturn a statewide election. We stand ready to show the citizens of South Carolina that the State Treasurer’s Office has faithfully fulfilled our statutory duties to provide core financial management services to state government.”

The Senate’s Republican leadership says have said before that both methods of removing someone from office — the impeachment method Loftis pointed to or requiring a two-thirds vote in both houses of the General Assembly, which the Senate is attempting with this hearing as the first step — are valid or they wouldn’t be in the constitution.

If at least two-thirds of the Senate votes to remove Loftis later this month, then the process moves on to the House, where a two-thirds vote would also be needed.

Time could become an issue, whether the hearing is delayed or not. The General Assembly’s 2025 session ends on May 8 and no arrangements have been made to let lawmakers come back and hear the matter. Also no Republican leaders in the House have come out to forcefully call for the treasurer’s removal.

Loftis has consistently maintained that the Senate’s actions are politically motivated and lack merit.

Even if senators vote to remove Loftis, House are not obligated to hold a vote on the removal resolution as well.

At least one state leader does not believe Loftis should lose his job: Gov. Henry McMaster.

“I don’t see any benefit in removing the treasurer or asking him — I mean, somebody could ask him, but I’m not going to ask him because I don’t think it’d do any good at this point,” McMaster told reporters just before the release of the final report from Grooms’ subcommittee.

But the governor has no role in removal-from-office proceedings for constitutional officers, which are entirely up to the General Assembly.

As this is going on, South Carolina remains under a federal investigation because of these financial discrepancies. State lawmakers have said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation has been going on for more than a year, and the state could face more consequences from it.

Loftis has already said he plans to seek reelection for his job next year.

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