Abortion, taxes, school choice: What to watch in 2023 as SC lawmakers return to the State House

South Carolina lawmakers on Tuesday start a new two-year session with millions of dollars to spend and a bevy of policy priorities they hope to pass.

Lawmakers, for example, may consider how much more money S.C. taxpayers can keep in their paychecks, how to respond to the S.C. Supreme Court’s decision after justices ruled the state’s six-week abortion ban violated the state Constitution, and whether families can use public dollars to send their children to private schools.

Here is what’s on legislators’ agendas in 2023:

Budget, an accelerated tax cut and slowdown concerns

South Carolina lawmakers, who passed a $13.8 billion spending plan last year, will have an extra $3.5 billion to spend in 2023.

That total includes $754 million in annual dollars, which can be spent to cover salaries, and $2.7 billion in one-time cash to spend.

Gov. Henry McMaster said last he week hopes the Legislature will accelerate a tax cut. This past year, the top rate dropped from 7% to 6.5% as the first year of a phased-in income tax cut. Lawmakers voted to eventually bring the top rate to 6% over time if revenues allow.

The maximum income tax rate is slated to go down to 6.4% from 6.5%. That reduction would keep about $87.5 million out of state coffers.

“Should revenues allow, I will recommend that the General Assembly use additional funds to speed up the income tax cut schedule, so taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money,” McMaster said in his executive budget recommendation.

Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, said Monday accelerating the tax cut is an idea worth considering.

“Anytime you can provide the tax cut sooner to our citizens is healthy, is healthy for the economy as well as for individuals to have the ability to utilize that income,” Alexander said. “Their success is the reason we’re having good revenues. and so that would provide them the opportunity to put it to good use within their budget.”

House Ways and Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, said he doesn’t anticipate further cutting income taxes this year beyond what has been planned.

“I think we want to see how that affects the economy, how it affects our revenue to have more history on the tax cut before we start accelerating,” Bannister said.

Frank Rainwater, head of the state’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, said Monday the federal stimulus money and economic growth has helped result in the state’s surplus. Rainwater, however, cautioned that an economic slow down is anticipated, which would affect money coming in.

“This excessive revenue growth needs to slow up. It’s going to get back to a normal trend,” Rainwater said.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, said in December that lawmakers need to work on preparing the state for a possible economic downturn.

“We’ve got to be focusing on the recession that everyone says we’re headed toward,” Rutherford said. “Whether it’s a soft recession or hard recession, we’ve got to make sure our budget is where it needs to be, that our teachers and educational platforms are where they need to be, and that we are where we need to be in terms of our health care.”

Response to abortion ruling

Republican lawmakers say they want to respond to the South Carolina Supreme Court’s Jan. 5 ruling that said the state’s six-week abortion ban violated the state Constitution.

What the decision will be is still being determined, state senators told reporters Monday at a pre-session workshop.

Mostly Republican lawmakers have already filed proposals ahead of session, which includes another attempt at a near-total ban.

State Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, said Monday that the state court’s decision could lead some in the General Assembly to consider judicial philosophy, rather than geography, when conducting judicial elections. Campsen called the court’s opinion “a real stretch.”

Campsen’s sentiments were echoed by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, who said he expects most people in the state would not support access to abortion up to five months.

“That’s what the Supreme Court gave us,” Massey said.

School choice

The first priority out of the Senate this year, leaders said, is expected to a bill dealing with “educational savings accounts,” which would allow parents to send their child to a private school with state money.

Educational savings accounts made it through the House and Senate last year, but the two chambers could not hash out a compromise.

Massey said on Monday that any hiccups between the House and Senate should be able to be solved.

“It’s certainly a big concern among Senate Republicans, which is why we’re going to start with it, to ensure there is more parental choice out there than what we currently have,” Massey said.

On the other side, Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, an attorney like Massey, said he isn’t sure whether the bill could pass through a court because the state Constitution currently bans public money from being spent on private school tuition.

“I think the whole thing is unconstitutional,” Hutto said.

Certificate of need

Certificate of need, a process overseen by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control and determines whether a medical facility can be built in South Carolina, is expected to be addressed again by lawmakers.

Critics of the program say major hospital chains use the process to prevent competitors from building new facilities or buy large pieces of equipment. Opponents of the repeal say providers will focus on areas with larger populations and people in rural communities will suffer.

Last year, the state Senate voted to eliminate the program, but the bill stalled in the House.

“If you represent rural areas, ... that is a big issue of having access to doctors,” Massey said.

Fentanyl

Leaders in the House and Senate expressed a serious want to address fentanyl and bond reform.

Fentanyl use has accounted for a majority of drug overdose deaths in the state. Lawmakers in both chambers have introduced measures to charge fentanyl suppliers with drug-induced homicide if they deliver a lethal dose of the drug.

“Catch and release must stop and the fentanyl needs to be addressed and I think those are things you’re going to see addressed very early in the session,” House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, said in December.