Republican legislators have big plans for 2025 session

With Republican supermajorities now in complete command of both chambers of the South Carolina General Assembly, GOP leaders are facing high expectations heading into 2025 — and pressure from within their own ranks to deliver on longstanding conservative priorities.

Here are some of the top legislative items Statehouse observers say South Carolinians should expect to see moving forward when legislators convene on Jan. 14.

Tax cuts and spending

Despite some of the lowest effective income tax rates in the country thanks to generous exemptions and deductions, GOP leaders have made it clear that further income tax cuts will be job one for legislators in 2025.

“Passing historic tax reform is a top priority of the @SCHouseGOP this session,” House Speaker Murrell Smith (R-Sumter) said in a December social media post. “And I’m excited to lead the charge!”

The goal, according to a November letter from House leaders, is to get the state’s top nominal rate of 6.2% “below that of our [Southeastern] neighbors.” But with rates ranging from 5.5% in Alabama all the way down to 0% in Florida, it’s unclear where members will land. The Southeastern average is currently 3.3%.

On the spending side, state GOP leaders are promising major new investments in the state’s crumbling network of roads and bridges, as well as cuts to safety net programs like unemployment insurance and Medicaid.

Abortion and culture issues

With a six-week abortion ban already in place, GOP leaders say they expect to consider further restrictions in 2025.

“I believe you’re going to see that again,” House Majority Leader Davey Hiott (R-Pickens) told reporters in a November news conference. “We have certain groups of our caucus that led that charge, and they’re working on some things. So we’ll wait to see what they present to us.”

Chief among those groups is the hard-right S.C. Freedom Caucus, whose members will be pushing for a complete ban on the procedure, according to its caucus chair, S.C. Rep. Jordan Pace (R-Berkeley).

“We believe there’s a constitutional right to life for every innocent person,” Pace told the Charleston City Paper last month. “So we’re all on board with that.”

Also expected to be debated in 2025 are Republican-sponsored bills to limit or eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs at state colleges, along with two bipartisan initiatives with strong support in both chambers: one to enhance criminal penalties for hate crimes, and another to allow the limited use of medical marijuana.

Vouchers and teacher pay

Always a lightning rod issue, education is expected to once again be near the top of the legislative agenda in 2025, with Republicans promising private school vouchers, higher teacher pay and more.

Leading the charge on vouchers is Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree, the Horry Republican who held a hearing last month to outline his proposal to use lottery money, rather than general fund revenues, to finance the vouchers.

According to Hembree, this funding mechanism will finesse previous S.C. Supreme Court rulings that state money cannot be used to “benefit” private schools.

But S.C. Education Association President Sherry East, whose organization successfully sued last year to have a previous voucher plan struck down, says that’s a distinction without a difference.

“You can dress it up however you want,” East told The Post and Courier after the hearing. “A voucher’s a voucher, and it’s taking away from our public schools.”

Less controversial are the GOP’s other two major education pledges for 2025: raising teacher pay across the state to a minimum of $50,000 per year and further expansion of existing workforce development programs.

Adding new energy capacity

Hoping to avoid a replay of last year’s energy bill debacle, which left House members feeling burned after their legislation died without a vote in the Senate, lawmakers held a series of hearings over the fall legislative break to find a path forward.

Broad areas of agreement that emerged from the hearings included the need for additional in-state energy generation, concern about the growth of power-draining data centers and opposition to any rollback of consumer protections in the name of regulatory reform.

But the first bill to come out of the process is narrower legislation aimed at finding a private sector entity to finish building the two V.C. Summer reactors that were abandoned in 2017 at a cost of $9 billion to state ratepayers.

Supporters of the plan like Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis say it would not only boost power generation but also provide financial relief for consumers.