The SC House met for the organizational session this week and, in the process, welcomed 27 new members to the chamber, one of the largest freshman classes in history.

In total, the House consists of 124 members (88 Republicans and 36 Democrats). With Republicans holding more than two-thirds of the seats, hypothetically, they can pass any legislation without Democratic support. However, that statement is solely based on mathematics – not politics. Compromise will continue to be as crucial as ever.

Speaker Murrell Smith (R-Sumter) was unanimously elected to preside over the chamber. In addition, Rep. Tommy Pope (R-York) was reelected to serve as speaker pro tempore.

Party Leadership positions were also solidified. Rep. Davey Hiott (R-Pickens) was reelected by his Republican colleagues to serve as Majority Leader, and Democrats reelected Rep. Todd Rutherford (D-Richland) to serve as Minority Leader.

Representatives Jay West (R-Anderson) and Roger Kirby (D-Florence) were elected as Assistant Majority and Minority Leaders, respectively.

The role of the Speaker is not one to be taken lightly, but it is clear that Speaker Smith is ready to get to work in the upcoming session and will be placing emphasis on the committee process. As Speaker, he is tasked with assigning House members to committees.

There was a bit of shuffling among the committee rosters, and there will be several new Chairs of key committees, including Ways & Means, Judiciary, and Education & Public Works.

Rep. Bruce Bannister (R-Greenville) was elected to chair the powerful Ways & Means Committee, which deals with all revenue issues – including the all-important state budget. Nearly half of the committee members are new to the group this year. View the roster here.

Rep. Weston Newton (R-Beaufort) was elected to chair the House Judiciary Committee. He succeeds state Rep. Chris Murphy (R-Dorchester), who was moved to the Ways and Means Committee. View the Judiciary Committee roster here.

Rep. Shannon Erickson (R-Beaufort) was elected to chair the House Education & Public Works Committee (EPW). She succeeds long-serving Chairwoman Rep. Rita Allison (R-Spartanburg), who was defeated in the June primaries.

The EPW Committee is tasked with vetting legislation dealing with education, highways, railroads, and aviation. While Chairwoman Erickson placed a lot of emphasis on education during the organizational committee meeting this week, keep in mind, she moved from Ways & Means, where she chaired the Transportation & Regulatory Budget Subcommittee. So she is very familiar with the operations and finances of the agencies under EPW’s jurisdiction. View the EPW roster here.

The Republican supermajority also flipped the only Democratic chaired Committee to Republican control. Rep. Leon Howard (D-Richland) moved from being the Chairman of the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee (3-M) to a spot on the Ways and Means Committee. The new chairwoman of 3M is Rep. Sylleste Davis (R-Berkeley).

For a list of all House committees, click here. The legislative session begins Tuesday, January 10, 2023.

SCFOR tracked 52 elections in the SC House. Of those, 40 were incumbent races. Several incumbents were defeated, and Republicans picked more seats, easily securing a supermajority in the SC House (88 Republicans/36 Democrats).

With retirements and several incumbent losses, there will be 27 new members in the SC House of Representatives in 2023.

SCFOR congratulates all who were elected and re-elected to serve in the SC House, we look forward to working with you to keep SC moving forward!

Photos sourced from campaign websites and social media pages of candidates. 

The SCDOT held their September meeting on Thursday, September 15. Among the items on the agenda were consideration of proposed updates to the state’s 10-year plan as well as the FY23-24 budget. 

Revisions to 10-Year Plan

SCDOT Commissioners approved updates to the state’s 10-Year Plan to fine-tune investments across programs to accommodate the new federal and state dollars.

Specifically, the revisions include boosts to the following programs:

• Interstate Capacity Program: Includes ARPA allocation ($453 million) and one-time FY22-23 state budget allocation for rural interstates ($133.6 million).
• Regional Mobility Program (MPO/COGs): Increase existing program funding ($138 million) by $100 million, phasing in the increase at $25 million per year.
• Transportation Alternative Program (TAP): The program grew from $11 million to $33 million annually with IIJA. (This includes state matching funds.)
• Guardrail Program: The program increased by $5 million to accommodate market conditions, bringing the total investment to $15.75 million.
• Bridge Program: The IIJA included specific money for bridges through a one-time allocation. SCDOT staff assumes a continuation of funding through FY27 for a total of $228 million annually.

FY23-24 Budget

Commissioners approved the SCDOT’s proposed FY23-24 budget, which will be submitted to the Executive Budget Office for consideration and ultimately serve as the basis for SCDOT funding/budget requests during the budget process in the 2023 legislative session.

The FY23-24 budget totals $2.685 billion, and the majority of revenues come from state sources. Approximately 89% of the funding that goes into SCDOT goes back into the system for improvements.

Regarding general fund appropriations in 2023, SCDOT will seek a continuation of the $120 million recurring allocation and an $8 million recurring allocation to address litter pickup.

Since implementation of the 10-Year Plan in 2017, there has been significant progress to address repairs and improvements across the state.

*10-year plan revision chart and budget pie charts included in the above article are sourced from the SCDOT Commission Notebook 09/15/2022.

The FY22-23 budget benefitted from the state’s unprecedented revenue growth that continues to defy expectations. Legislators had a record amount of revenue to allocate, and they chose to invest in tax reductions, reserves – and roads.

Specifically, the budget includes one-time and recurring allocations to accelerate projects and match federal funds.

Thanks to these investments to match federal dollars, South Carolina is poised to take advantage of every opportunity available through the federal Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA). These funds also ensure that South Carolina does not leave any federal dollars on the table.

These new federal funds (along with state match) will bolster the state’s 10-year plan by filling gaps in critical areas, including programs to address non-interstate congestion, closed and load-restricted bridges, traffic safety, and more. 

The budget also provides funding for rural interstates to help accelerate projects in the pipeline aimed at moving people and freight safely and efficiently.  In addition, the allocations to the County Transportation Committees (CTCs) will boost funding for every county to help tackle repair work.

In all, transportation infrastructure received approximately $1 billion this year through American Rescue Plan (ARPA)* and budget allocations.

*The ARPA allocation will be used to accelerate the widening of I-26 between Columbia and Charleston. This dangerous and notoriously unreliable section of interstate is among the top priorities of the state’s rural interstate freight program, and this investment will accelerate this project by six years. Learn more here. 

SCFOR tracked thirty-two (32) incumbent races in the June 14 Primary Elections for the SC House. These races covered the whole gamut this year, with long-serving members, House leadership, and newly elected members facing challengers. In all, a total of seven incumbents lost their seats:

• Rep. Rita Allison (R- Spartanburg)
• Rep. Lin Bennett (R-Charleston)
• Rep. Wendy Brawley (D-Richland)
• Rep. West Cox (R-Spartanburg)
• Rep. Vic Dabney (R-Kershaw)
• Rep. Rick Martin (R-Newberry)
• Rep. Brian White (R-Anderson)

A look at all incumbent races is illustrated below. A full tracking list for races for the SC House, Governor, US House, and US Senate can be found here. 

Joe White won the Primary run-off for House District 60.

Roger Kirby won the run-off for House District 101.

Open Seats Closer to Being Filled, Runoffs and General Elections for Some

Following retirements and redistricting, there are 15 open seats in the SC House of Representatives. Ten (10) of those seats had primary races, and a few primaries in the open seats were a winner take all event, as the winners will not face opposition in November, including two candidates who ran unopposed in the Primaries. 

• Republican Cody Mitchell ran uncontested to fill the seat held by the former Speaker, Rep. Jay Lucas. 
• Republican Brandon Cox ran uncontested to fill the seat held by Rep. Joe Daning in Berkeley County. 
• Heath Sessions won the primary to fill the York County seat (Dist.46) currently held by Rep. Gary Simrill (retiring).
• David Vaughan won the primary to fill the Greenville County seat (Dist. 27) currently held by Rep. Garry Smith (retiring). 

Official election results for all races can be found on the SC Election Commission website, click here. 

*All candidate photos were sourced from the SC legislative website, legislative caucuses, campaign websites, and/or campaign-related social media pages. Some candidates did not have websites or social media pages for photos to be included in this report.   

Talks of suspending the gas tax have circulated at the federal and state levels among candidates and incumbents up for reelection. Meanwhile, leaders on both sides of the aisle have called out the idea of a suspension for what it is – a gimmick.

We’ve said it before, and we will say it again, suspending the state’s core revenue source used to repair, maintain, and improve our state’s roads and bridges is not the way to provide relief from record inflation and increasing fuel prices.

Proposals to suspend fees garner applause, likes, and shares, but ARTBA research has shown that any relief from gas tax suspensions is minor – with no guarantee that drivers will pay less to fill up. 

Every year since the passage of Act 40 (2017), SCFOR has followed the retail price of gas at the pump on July 1. The price at the pump was consecutively lower than the previous year for five years. It wasn’t until 2021, as the nation was beginning to emerge from the pandemic that the retail price of gas was higher than the previous year.

Sure, it’s only two cents, but it is funny how even after a statutorily required increase occurs, the price at the pump didn’t budge two cents from the day or week before.

With that said, if South Carolina were to suspend the state’s total gas tax, there may be a tinge of relief, but is that relief noticeable – especially as prices continue to fluctuate on a daily/weekly basis? More importantly, is it worth setting the state back?

South Carolina waited 30 years to invest in our transportation infrastructure, and we have made great strides in tackling repairs since the passage of the road funding bill in 2017.

Everyone was thrown a curveball in 2020. South Carolina was fortunate that COVID didn’t set the state back, and the SCDOT was able to keep projects moving forward despite a decline in motor fuel revenue.

Canceling or suspending the state’s core funding mechanism for roads and bridges at such a critical time runs the risk of negating all of the progress to date – and it will bring the plans we’ve heard about for months to accelerate projects and expand upon the state’s 10-year plan to a halt.

Some politicians will use this as an opportunity to garner attention in an election year, while others sincerely want to alleviate the pain at the pump any way they can. The truth is, people still want their roads fixed, bridges repaired, and they are tired of sitting in traffic. ANY loss of revenue would have an adverse impact on the state’s ability to address these issues.

The pain at the pump is real. No one knows just how high prices will climb or how long this will last, which is why we cannot hold infrastructure hostage to factors beyond our control. 

The best way to provide relief to South Carolinians is through sound public policies in the form of tax reductions and rebates that provide direct relief and benefit citizens long-term.