S.C. Closes Legislative Session with Work Left Undone

Jessica Holdman/S.C. Daily Gazette

COLUMBIA — An expansion of a law originally passed to keep Confederate monuments in place marked the final hours of South Carolina’s 2026 legislative session. Still, legislators will return for a special session as they try to hammer out compromises on some of leadership’s remaining priorities.

GOP legislators accomplished or have come close to tackling many of their top issues for the year, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey told reporters.

He pointed to the bills strengthening laws about driving under the influence and regulating hemp beverages as two examples.

Both are among about a dozen or so bills waiting for negotiations between the two chambers.

Other legislation on that list includes truth in advertising requirements for South Carolina shrimp, a bill setting buffer zones around first responders on duty and a Koch Brothers-backed revamp of how the state approves and maintains regulations that may impact small business owners.

“I think it could be a very successful year by the time we finally wrap up,” said Massey, R-Edgefield.

Two other major priorities for GOP leaders in both chambers did make it past the finish line in the final week.

One is intended to speed up the process of road construction by allowing the Department of Transportation to operate optional toll lanes on highways. The other is meant to create more oversight for the state’s growing charter school system.

Plus, the House and Senate brokered a last-day deal Thursday to expand the protections under a portion of state law commonly called the Heritage Act to all memorials on public property in South Carolina. The bill also would stop the use of digital codes or informational plaques placed near some monuments in recent years offering broader context on the bad parts of history.

The budget

Legislators are expected to return in the coming weeks to take up those remaining bills and finalize the state budget that takes effect July 1.

That special session may not be scheduled until after the July 9 primaries, according to GOP leadership.

A special session ordered by the governor begins Friday. Legislators could spend the next couple of weeks debating a push to redraw South Carolina’s congressional lines.

The House and Senate so far agree on increasing pay for public school educators and state employees, as well as legislators themselves.

The state’s lowest-paid teachers will get a raise this year after the House and Senate agreed to the increase. Base pay for first-year teachers will reach $50,500, exceeding Gov. Henry McMaster’s goal of $50,000 by the end of his term. That’s up from $30,113 when he took office in January 2017.

Budget writers agreed on a 2 percent pay increase for state employees, locking that into the final spending plan.

Legislators will get a raise, too, after both chambers voted to up their monthly allowances from $1,000 to $2,500.

A bill meant to close a loophole the Department of Education used to give state money to certain homeschooled students despite legislators saying they never intended to do so failed to reach the full Senate. Budget negotiators could still include restrictions on the program in the state’s spending plan.

Still up for discussion is a proposed clause that would suspend a state law requiring minimum insurance coverage for bars and restaurants, with the intention of forcing a broader conversation on the issue in the coming year.

And a Senate-proposed change to property tax breaks for seniors could become a sticking point during negotiations.

The chambers must also iron out differences on a proposal backed by the governor to offer free breakfast to all K-12 children in public schools. The House followed the governor’s recommendation, but the Senate did not, leaving that up in the air.

Laws signed

Already signed into law is a change to the state’s income tax system, which is expected to give nearly 43 percent of taxpayers a break when they file in April 2027.

Senators are hopeful an expansion of property tax breaks for seniors the chamber passed will remain in the state budget after negotiations, he said.

That law also puts the state’s tax code into legislators’ hands, instead of relying on the federal system.

The House, however, wanted one last year of following federal rules and passed a bill to adopt the tax breaks included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for taxes due April 15. The Senate rejected that plan.

Senators included a proposal to expand property tax breaks for seniors in their version of the state spending plan, once it became clear the bill wouldn’t get a hearing in the House.

That means the plan still has a chance when legislators return to negotiate a final spending package.

The governor also signed into law in March a tax break for South Carolina boat owners. That law combined taxes that had previously been levied separately on boats and motors and knocked the effective rate down to 6% from the 10.5% rate under state law.

Another bill, passed Thursday, will reduce property taxes on equipment and furniture for small businesses.

“We cut a bunch of taxes,” Massey said.

Beyond taxes, the governor also signed legislation aimed at cutting down on children’s access to illegal vapes. The law creates a registry of vapes and e-cigarettes that are allowed to be sold in the state based on those that have approval or pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

The legislature overrode the governor’s veto of a law allowing South Carolina’s public colleges to keep secret what they pay student athletes.

What passed?

Among other proposals sent to the governor’s desk in the waning days of the session were several education-related bills.

That includes one banning minimum grades for public school students and a bill standardizing policies for the commission overseeing high school sports.

There’s also a measure that adds public colleges to an existing state law requiring K-12 public school students to use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their biological sex at birth.

And there’s a bill that mandates colleges provide safety training to incoming students each semester. That’s an effort to improve campus safety in the wake of the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a September event at Utah Valley University, as well as a hoax report of a campus shooter that spread fear across the University of South Carolina campus during the first week of fall classes.

Law enforcement related bills passed included increased prison time for anyone who creates or shares images of children being sexually abused, enhanced punishments for people who hurt police dogs and horses, and a ban on drones flying over the state’s prisons and military bases.

What failed?

As the second year of a two-year session, any legislation not sent to the governor’s desk already or headed for a negotiating committee to hash out differences in bills that passed both chambers is dead for the year.

That includes a bevy of gambling bills that sought to legalize online sports betting, wagering on horse racing through an app and an effort to allow a casino near the southern shore of Lake Marion.

Strong opposition from gambling-averse members of the Senate and the governor ultimately stalled the proposals. But hearings on the bills also signaled a new willingness by Republicans to consider legalized gaming in a state that has historically resisted any change to anti-gambling laws.

Efforts to regulate energy-intensive data centers that are driving the need for more power generation in the Palmetto State also fizzled out.

And two bills meant to recruit and keep teachers in classrooms failed to pass either chamber. The House deferred votes on bills that would bolster protections for teachers against violent students and allow educators from certain other states to go straight into the classroom without first getting a South Carolina teaching license.

Plus, several contentious social bills failed to make headway this year.

The Senate took no action on a bill that would require every school classroom to display a copy of the Ten Commandments, which mirrored a Louisiana law facing a court challenge.

A House bill that would have given parents more control over their children’s education and medical care also got no traction in the Senate. Neither did a bill that would have required every local law enforcement agency to sign an agreement with federal immigration enforcement offices.

Abortion came back as a major issue when a Senate committee advanced a bill that would have banned abortions from the onset of pregnancy and sent women who sought them to prison, but the full Senate never took it up.

Nor did the Senate take up a bill meant to strengthen an existing ban on mailing drugs that cause an abortion.

SC Daily Gazette reporter Skylar Laird contributed to this article.