Copper Dome Chronicle: 2023 Session Week 15
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Copper Dome Chronicle, sponsored by Advocatus. We strive for substantive writing with brevity, inspired by the book Smart Brevity; one of the best books about communications and writing we’ve read in years.
This week’s edition, covering April 17-21, 2023, is 878 words or a 3.5 minute read. There are 9 legislative days remaining in the 2023 regular session.
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1. Senate Adopts FY 2023-2024 Budget
The Senate spent April 18 and 19 debating the FY 2023-2024 General Appropriations Act, H.4300, and the Capital Reserve Fund, H.4301. There were approximately 25 amendments offered, though some were withdrawn. The debate was fairly tempered this year and the Senate heaped praise on Senate Finance Committee Chair Harvey Peeler and the professional committee staff for their work.
The amendment drawing the most debate had quite a journey: it was adopted on a voice vote, a motion made to reconsider its adoption, a vote to table the amendment was rejected, the amendment was proposed again, and a point of order raised under Rule 24 was sustained. Therefore the amendment was not included in the budget.
Amendment 16 by Sen. Sandy Senn attempted to permit short-term rentals (i.e. Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) within political subdivisions (i.e. municipalities and counties) with populations between 1,800 and 4,400 people according to the latest U.S. Census. The municipalities would have Local Government Fund allocations withheld if an ordinance was enacted prohibiting short-term rentals affiliated with property assessed at the 6% property tax rate (i.e. second homes and rental properties). The municipality alleged to have lit the fire for this proviso is Folly Beach, which capped short-term rental licenses after a citizen-initiative was approved by 78 votes at a special election.
The Senate held a perfunctory session on April 20 and after consuming 7 hours, 35 minutes of floor time, the Senate calendar stood at 25 pages (+3) at the end of the week composed of 32 Senate bills and 10 House bills.
2. House Passes Lethal Injection Shield Law
The House returned from its second furlough week and held many subcommittee and full committee meetings while spending an efficient 6 hours, 41 minutes on the House floor. The two significant bills debated last week were S.120 (lethal injection shield law) and S.604 (ARPA funds authorization). By the end of the week, with many committee reports filed, the House calendar grew by 4 pages to a total of 9 pages with 16 bills (11 House, 5 Senate).
A priority for Governor McMaster and the Department of Corrections (DOC), S.120 would prohibit the public release of most information related to the administration of the death penalty by lethal injection. According to the DOC approximately fourteen states have “shield laws.” The argument in favor of shield laws is if lethal injection is to remain an option, the drugs and medical supplies used during the administration must be procured. Currently the DOC, and many other state DOCs, have not been able to procure them because that information is public and has led to advocacy campaigns such as boycotts and negative publicity. While the DOC supports the bill, DOC Director Bryan Stirling has made clear this bill may not be enough to procure the drugs and resume the death penalty by lethal injection. The House amended the bill so the Senate will have a decision to make to insist on its version or concur with the House.
S.604 authorizes the remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the Rural Infrastructure Authority (RIA), which total $586.6M, in a manner consistent with Act 244 of 2022. Only existing grant applications, as of January 1, 2023, may be considered. Of the $586.6M, $100M is available for projects designated by the Secretary of Commerce as being “significant to economic development” and may be funded up to $20M per project with no local match requirement. Lastly, the bill authorizes the Office of Resilience to use ARPA funds to mitigate the potential release of contaminants that remain onboard the USS Yorktown, a priority of Governor McMaster.
3. Bill Introductions
H.4321/H.4322 - Introduced by Rep. Wendell Gilliard, these bills concern school safety. H.4321 would mandate weapons detector systems at every public school entrance, and H.4322 creates a study committee to examine the use of weapons detector systems.
H.4348 - Introduced by Rep. Mike Burns and Rep. Bill Chumley, this bill would ban the use of the state marketing designation “Certified SC Grown” from any food or food product containing messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA). This naturally-occurring molecule was discovered in 1961 and every living cell in every living organism contains mRNA. Science FTW.
S.739 - Introduced by a powerful trio consisting of Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Nikki Setzler, Senate President Thomas Alexander, and Senate Finance Committee Chair Harvey Peeler, this joint resolution concerns workforce housing tax credits created in 2020 by Act 137 and modified in 2022 by Act 202. The legislative text requires the State Housing Finance and Development Authority to develop a plan to allocate nearly $55M in housing credits for qualified projects. Those who follow housing issues under the copper dome are aware that since late 2022 there have been concerns about the Housing Authority and its implementation of these tax credits.
S.743 - Introduced by Sen. Josh Kimbrell, this bill establishes the Parental Bill of Rights in the state code. The enumerated rights are applicable to education and health care decisions. Additionally the bill increases the age of consent from sixteen to eighteen for a minor’s consent to health services unless that service is an operation/surgery.
