SC’s 2024 legislative session starts Tuesday. Here are five issues to watch

State lawmakers return to Columbia on Tuesday to kickoff the second year of the two-year session.

Here are some of the issues they may take up over the next several months:

Budget with less new money

Lawmakers writing a state spending plan for the 2024-25 fiscal year will have less new money to work with. The state’s economy continues to grow, but the recent years of multiple billions of dollars being available is over.

Revenue Fiscal Affairs Executive Director Frank Rainwater said the state’s revenue patterns are returning to normal after years with COVID stimulus and tax cuts.

“From our standpoint, we’ll get back to normal growth,” Rainwater said.

State agencies requested about $2.9 billion in capital and other one-time costs, but state economists projected only $897 million in one-time dollars would be available.

State agencies made about $1.4 billion in new “recurring” requests, usually money spent on programming and salaries. Only $673 million in new annual money is expected to be available, and the amount could be spent on teacher pay raises, state employee pay raises, Medicaid spending and state employee health insurance.

Judicial reform

Lawmakers have signaled that judicial reform will be a hot topic this legislative session, as a special House committee continues to explore how to best select judges in South Carolina.

State Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, told reporters Monday there’s a lot of discussion on the matter in the Republican Caucus, and while the issue is at a “tipping point,” he’s unsure whether a judicial reform will happen this year.

“I want to see it pass,” Hembreee said. “But I’m not just not sure whether the Senate or House is there yet.” He added that though there are a number of “good ideas” on the table, the task now is determining which would offer the best solution to improving the state’s judicial election process.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, on the other hand, said in light of the public’s outcry, a bill could likely pass this year.

“We’re going to have to do something,” Massey said. “There’s enough of the public that is engaged on the issue, and there are enough legislators ... that will tell you there’s a problem that needs to be addressed.”

Several lawmakers have filed several bills ahead of the 2024 session relating to judicial reform, including state Senators Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland, Mia Mcleod, I-Richland, Chip Campson, R-Charleston, and Wes Climer, R-York.

A panel of House lawmakers have examined the way state judges are selected and reappointed. Currently, the Legislature controls the process, which critics say gives legislators, many of whom are also lawyers, an advantage in the courtroom. A judge who fears his job may be on the line in upsetting a lawyer-legislator may be swayed to rule in the lawmaker’s favor.

“I think there’s an opportunity to pass something (on judicial reform),” Massey said. “The question is what it’ll look like.”

Critical race theory

Legislation on the instruction of critical race theory in K-12 public classrooms is another topic lawmakers are hoping to resolve this year.

Last year, the proposed H. 3728, barring the instruction of certain concepts centered around race in public K-12 classrooms, cleared both legislative bodies in the General Assembly over challenges from teachers and Senate Democrats, whose pleas to pass hate crime legislation went unanswered.

While the bill is currently in a conference committee — the final step in ironing out differences between House and Senate versions of the bill — there are two sticking points lawmakers hope to work through.

One snag between the chambers involves the right for anyone in the U.S. to bring a cause of action under the proposal in South Carolina.

Hembree said there’s no other law in South Carolina jurisprudence that allows someone to bring an action that otherwise doesn’t have standing in the state.

Another discrepancy concerns a requirement for teachers to post their lesson plans multiple days in advance and then not being able to alter them.

“That would have prevented teachers from talking about the Chinese spy balloon that flew over state,” Massey said.

A medical marijuana vote?

State Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, who has championed legalizing medical marijuana in South Carolina for nine years, will again try to move the legislation forward.

In 2022, the Senate passed a medical marijuana bill, but it was thrown out of the House on a procedural issue. Last year, the Senate refused to give the bill priority to debate and it didn’t move.

“A lot of times the opponents conflate it with other states that have recreational cannibas. That’s not what this bill is about,” Davis said. “This bill is about providing what South Carolinians want what they want is to empower doctors and to give patients access to medical treatments that the American Journal of Medicine right now has conclusively said this is a benefit to people who have neurological disorders, pain management, (and) helps them get off opioids.”

Massey said he believes a debate will take place this year and possibly in January.

“I think it’ll be fairly close, (but) my gut tells that it would pass,” Massey said.

But it still would have to get through the House. In 2022, state Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, planned to put up 1,000 amendments to slow down the bill before the legislation was killed.

Money for aging bridges

Gov. Henry McMaster has said he wants to spend $500 million from a property tax relief account to improve crumbling bridges in the state. It would be an influx into the South Carolina Department of Transportation road and bridge program.

The governor’s office estimates the money could fix 150 to 200 bridges.

More than 9,000 bridges in the state and many are more than 60 years old and have load restrictions, which forces firefighters, school buses and trucks to take longer routes.

At any time 65 bridges around the state are closed.

The governor’s office said the $500 million influx wouldn’t mean bridges are fixed over night. Spending that amount of money and complete projects would take four to five years.

But convincing lawmakers to spend that surplus money may be a heavy lift.

“To give $500 million all at once makes as much sense as giving $500 million to Hunter Biden and saying ‘here, spend it wisely,’ ” Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler told reporters Tuesday. “Putting that much money into DOT to fix bridges all at once, we’re going to have to talk about that a little bit.”