Month: February 2020

After much of the work of the House in the first few weeks focused upon gearing up for work on the state Budget, the House began working on other legislation this past week, working to move new legislation to the Senate for their action while considering bills the Senate passed last year. In addition to committee meetings, we had a lot of visitors at the State House this week, all of them talking about education:

Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster led South Carolina into the roaring 20’s with his State of the State speech which outlined a bold agenda. The Governor laid out his plan to move SC forward and build on the state’s robust economy where the unemployment rate just dropped again to an historic low of 2.3% compared to the national unemployment rate of 3.5%.

So here’s what Governor McMaster discussed in his speech:Governor McMaster’s agenda called for additional funding for public education and law enforcement, as well as enacting tax reform that would slash the state’s income tax.

January 2020 Update
Last week, the General Assembly began the second part of its two-year session. We’ll be in session through the spring, working until May. We’ll be working to address legislation that didn’t pass last year, new issues that come up as well as the annual state budget.

Last week, Governor McMaster released an overview of his budget priorities. While the General Assembly is responsible for controlling the state’s finances, it’s important to consider what our state’s Chief Executive believes to be top financial priorities for operating state government. The Governor will go into greater detail during the State of the State address next week (January 22), where he is to speak about continued education reforms, cutting taxes and our state’s economic growth.  His plan will also include his ideas on using a portion of this year’s budget surplus to send back to hardworking taxpayers. I am confident that the House and the Governor will work together on moving South Carolina forward.