Copper Dome Chronicle: 2023 Session Week 7

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 February 20-24, 2023, is 1,204 words or a 5 minute read. Thanks for reading; we welcome your feedback and commentary!

1. House Ways and Means Committee Adopts FY 2023-2024 Budget

On February 23 the House Ways and Means Committee adopted the FY 2023-2024 appropriations bill and the capital reserve fund bill by a unanimous vote. Advocatus posted a review of the big ticket items in the budget and the first post in a series on interesting initiatives in the budget that may fly under the radar. The FY 2023-2024 appropriations bill clocks in at $13.6B in recurring and nonrecurring state funds, not including $209M in nonrecurring funds dedicated to the capital reserve fund bill. Combine all state and federal funds, and the total funds allocated in this version of the budget is $38.9B.

After the House adopts a budget during the week of March 13, the Senate Finance Committee will work the budget and produce its version. According to the published Senate Finance Committee schedule, a version will be adopted during the week of April 3. That same week the Bureau of Economic Advisors (BEA) meets on April 5 to approve its final revenue forecast for budget bill purposes. This means the Senate will get the first opportunity to appropriate any new revenue recognized by the BEA.

But the House gets a second crack at the budget before the bill heads to a conference committee. When the budget is returned to the House, presumably April 25, the House can amend the bill one additional time. This has been the practice for many years, commonly called “H2,” and allows the House to take positions on various budget items with any additional revenue recognized by the BEA.

2. Senate Passes Fentanyl Trafficking, Death Penalty Bills

The Senate spent its floor sessions for the week on fentanyl trafficking bills and a “shield law” related to the administration of the death penalty. The Senate passed S.1, a bill creating a new felony called fentanyl-induced homicide, which was passed on a 43-0 vote. S.153, a bill to address fentanyl trafficking, passed on second reading 44-0 and on third reading 45-0.

Also, the Senate passed S.120, a bill to create a “shield law” regarding the administration of lethal injection to carry out a death penalty sentence. The Department of Corrections does not currently possess nor can it source the pharmaceuticals necessary to carry out lethal injection, but the agency testified with this shield law it might be able to source them and restore lethal injection as an option for death row inmates to choose. Currently there are only two options for death row inmates: death by the electric chair or death by a firing squad.

3. House Approves Gun Rights Bill

The House spent nearly all of its floor time debating H.3594, a bill to amend the state’s concealed weapons permit laws. According to the fiscal impact statement, some provisions in the bill include:

• Removes the requirement that a person must possess a concealed weapon permit in order to carry or store a firearm in certain locations;

• Enables law enforcement to retain or dispose of a firearm that has been found and turned in;

• Repeals certain unlawful carry offenses;

• Expands the penalty schedule for unlawful possession of a firearm or ammunition by a person convicted of a crime punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of more than one year;

• Enables certain persons convicted of a first offense for unlawful possession of a firearm or weapon to apply for expungement of their records.

After nearly 5 hours of debate on February 22, the House approved the bill on second reading on a 90-30 vote. The bill received a third reading the following day on a 87-26 vote.

One under the dome item of note. First was the return of the “clinch” maneuver. This is a parliamentary tactic to lock-in, or “clinch,” a vote. Example: an amendment is adopted but under the House rules a member having voted on the prevailing side may make a motion to reconsider the vote - a mulligan. But in the clinch maneuver, the member voting on the prevailing side moves to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was adopted, and because they have the floor, then immediately makes a second motion to table the motion to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was adopted. If that motion to table succeeds, then the original vote is essentially “clinched” and cannot be undone, though we are told there is a parliamentary tactic that could be used but it would be extremely rare and difficult to accomplish. Expect to see more “clinch” motions in the House and Senate in the weeks ahead.

4. Bill Introductions

S.552 - Introduced by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, Sen. Tom Young, and Sen. Michael Johnson, the bill extends six weeks of paid parental leave to public school teachers. This is an expansion of the paid parental leave for state employees, which became law with the enactment of Act 149 in 2022. Public school teachers, with a few exceptions employed by state agencies, are employees of their school district or public charter school. In the current bill text, public school teachers would not include school administrators such as assistant principals and principals, whose employment contracts are typically longer (220 days for an assistant principal; 260 days for a principal) than a teacher (190 days).

S.566 - Introduced by Sen. Sean Bennett and many others, “South Carolina Craft Beer Economic Development Act” would permit breweries to sell up to 2,000 barrels of beer annually directly to licensed retailers and bypassing beer wholesalers. This bill, from one perspective, is a small effort to chip away at the state’s three-tiered alcohol distribution system, which involves producers, wholesalers, and retailers. The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where a subcommittee will hold a hearing on two other alcohol related bills on February 28. One of those bills, S.425, would extend COVID-era provisions allowing curbside pickup and third party delivery services, but only for beer and wine for beer, wine, and alcoholic liquors. And deliveries to college residence halls would be prohibited (sorry kids).

H.4002 - A bill by House Speaker Murrell Smith and many others, this bill is straightforward by creating a felony for an inmate to possess telecommunications devices while incarcerated unless otherwise authorized. Bryan Stirling, Director of the Department of Corrections, for years has sounded the alarm about how devices, like cell phones, lead to more crime inside and outside of a prison’s walls.

H.4023 - Introduced by House Education and Public Works Early Childhood Subcommittee Chair Stewart Jones, House Education and Public Works Chair Shannon Erickson, and many others, this bill permanently reauthorizes South Carolina First Steps, as well as amends some of the initiative’s governance and structure. The original intent of First Steps was to serve as the promoter and a regulator, of sorts, for private sector four-year-old kindergarten programs. The South Carolina Department of Education continues to regulate public sector four-year-old kindergarten programs operated by school districts. Additionally, First Steps’s budget is currently within Section 1 of the South Carolina Department of Education, though they operate independently. This has been a sore spot in the past for the two organizations, but the FY 2023-2024 budget is being prepared as if First Steps will become a stand-alone agency.