- BIG STORY: South Carolina’s top Statehouse news for 2025
- MORE NEWS: S.C. looking at higher costs, more hunger ahead
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Thank you, Judge
- BRACK: S.C. lawmakers need to find real courage to lead for all
- MYSTERY PHOTO: Where is this?
- FEEDBACK: Read this sad letter to understand need for gun reform
South Carolina’s top Statehouse news for 2025
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | With Donald Trump back in the White House and Republicans in charge of every branch of government in Washington and South Carolina, 2025 was a year of sharp right turns for Palmetto State policymakers. Here’s just some of what that looked like:
1: Taxes, spending and ‘crap’
After a nasty intraparty fight between mainstream and far-right Republicans that featured a lengthy floor debate about which side was more “full of crap,” S.C. lawmakers pulled together to pass a $14.5 billion state budget in late May.
Among the highlights: an income tax cut for high-earners, modestly bigger paychecks for teachers and a hefty pay hike for legislators — the last of which was struck down by the S.C. Supreme Court in November.
2: Better reading scores, fewer books
Having struck out twice in the state Supreme Court with private school voucher plans, Republican lawmakers passed a carefully crafted $7,500-per-child voucher law in May that they say can pass constitutional muster if challenged again.
In other 2025 education news, the state Department of Education took over two more failing rural school districts, S.C. officially took the top spot as the state with the most books banned from school libraries and reading test scores were up substantially across the state, while math scores remained flat.
3: An energy boost?
With population growth and data centers driving demand, S.C. leaders bet big on natural gas and nuclear power in 2025.
In June, Gov. Henry McMaster signed the Energy Security Act, which streamlined regulatory approvals for new power plants and approved state-owned Santee Cooper’s participation in a new natural gas facility that has already doubled in cost. And in December, Santee Cooper began the process of selling a pair of partially built mothballed nuclear reactors, abandoned at taxpayer expense in 2017, to a private company that promises to bring them online.
4: Medicaid cuts and measles
With the support of eight out of S.C.’s nine federal lawmakers, President Trump signed a budget blueprint into law in July that slashed more than $1 trillion in federal health spending. Experts say those cuts will leave hundreds of thousands of S.C. residents scrambling to deal with lost coverage and spiking insurance costs in 2026.
In other news, S.C. ended 2025 with a growing measles outbreak in and around Spartanburg County, as public health officials imposed quarantines and reminded residents that vaccines are safe, effective and widely available.
5: This, that and the other
With liquor liability costs skyrocketing for bar owners, S.C. lawmakers passed a tort reform bill that broadly limits South Carolinians right to sue and may or may not help bar owners.
In the wake of a conservative activist’s September murder in Utah, public- and private-sector employees in S.C. were fired for what many deemed inappropriate social media comments, raising First Amendment concerns on both right and left.
And at year’s end, about 300 S.C. National Guardsmen found themselves back in Washington for a second tour of duty in Trump’s effort to use military force against civilian crime on American streets.
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S.C. looking at higher costs, more hunger ahead
By Jack O’Toole | The Palmetto State is facing a potential double-whammy of higher state food aid costs and more hungry South Carolinians as federal food assistance cuts under President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Budget Bill start to kick in next month.
Budget experts say the threats arise from two cost-saving measures in the bill: punitive cost-shifting to states that run high SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) error rates and strict new eligibility requirements on recipients.
With a current SNAP error rate of 9.25%, S.C. taxpayers could be forced to pay $140 million in food assistance costs that are currently covered by the federal government.
“This is a huge shift in federal policy and really the state operations,” Connelly-Anne Ragley of the S.C. Department of Social Services (DSS) told WIS-TV this week.
DSS is asking for $34 million in next year’s budget to lower the state’s error rate and defray increased administration expenses for the program.
The second issue facing S.C. — more hungry people — is the result of new work requirements affecting as many as 40,000 formerly exempt state residents, primarily veterans, homeless individuals and young adults just out of foster care.
Children, pregnant women, mothers of young children and certain groups of students and medical patients remain exempt under the new requirements.
Officials say SNAP recipients should soon receive a letter explaining the current status of their benefits.
In other recent news
2026: Kimbrell says he’s been forced to sell his home. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, a Republican candidate for governor, says he’s been forced to sell his home amid legal challenges involving his business.
State lawmakers have pre-filed 327 bills in December. House members filed 258 bills Tuesday ahead of the 2026 session, while State senators filed 69 bills last week.
- S.C. House GOP seeks to mandate ICE partnership agreements at jails
- State senator re-introducing coercive control bill
- Lawmakers want better ‘move over’ law
- State educators want $120 million for building upgrades
- S.C. lawmakers to debate ‘chemtrails’ in 2026
Nine new data centers proposed in Colleton County. Over 850 acres of land are currently being proposed to become data centers in Colleton County, but the community is raising concerns about what this would mean to the future of their livelihood and our environment.
S.C. measles outbreak grows to 135 cases. South Carolina health officials confirmed 42 new measles cases in one week, bringing the total outbreak to 135 cases as the holiday travel season begins.
S.C. settles lawsuit with DOJ over claims of warehousing people with mental illness. South Carolina agreed to bolster programs that help people with severe mental illness live on their own as part of a settlement agreement with the federal Department of Justice.
New SC250 film seeks to incite Revolutionary enthusiasm. South Carolina is getting fired up about the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence next year with The Battle of Sullivan’s Island. It’s a new film production by Wide Awake Films commemorating Charleston’s role in the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, and you’ll feel right at home.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Thank you, judge
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he’s got something to say about a legal muzzle being put on U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.
- Love this week’s cartoon or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
S.C. lawmakers need to find real courage to lead for all
Commentary by Andy Brack | Our annual pitch at this time of year for the last 16 years has been for South Carolina lawmakers to start making significant progress to help ordinary residents.
It mostly falls on deaf ears, year after year. Which kind of makes sense since the red South Carolina General Assembly is not progressive. But, as Winston Churchill might say, we never give up.
While the 2026 version of Palmetto Priorities is listed below, let’s focus on just two initiatives to make life safer and fairer for everyday South Carolinians. All it takes in the legislature is for elected officials to muster courage and listen to their hearts, not political nonsense and partisan politics.
First is a two-parter: It’s time to make the state safer from nuts. The legislature has abrogated its moral responsibility since 2015 when a racist gunned down nine worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, including a Senate colleague, Clementa Pinckney. It’s time for the legislature to pass meaningful reform for a real waiting period to buy a gun by closing the so-called Charleston loophole.
Along these lines, South Carolina is one of only two states without a hate crimes law. It needs to pass a state law to send a clear message that hate is not tolerated.
The second policy area where state lawmakers need to make real progress is in tax reform. Effort after effort to restructure the state’s antiquated tax system has failed. In the years since a blue ribbon commission by former Gov. Mark Sanford, the tax structure has actually gotten worse – with more reliance on regressive sales taxes and fees, a reduction in the use of property taxes and a diminution of income taxes by putting more burden on the middle class and poor.
As we’ve written for years: Overhaul the state’s antiquated tax structure. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if South Carolina modernized its tax structure so sales taxes could go down, use taxes could be broader and the state could recover hundreds of millions of dollars in lost taxes due to special-interest sales tax exemptions? Lawmakers should stop being scared of broadening the base and lowering rates.
Other Palmetto Priorities for 2026
EDUCATION. Spend $1 billion in new money by 2030 to build more schools and offer more college scholarships. It’s hard to succeed in facilities that are not up to snuff, particularly in rural areas where the tax base is stacked against local officials.
CLIMATE. Require state economic development investments to be linked to reducing carbon emissions. If a business wants to move into South Carolina and receive special tax breaks or any government help, it should have a low-carbon footprint. The state needs to develop significant climate strategies, from planting more trees and boosting alternative energy sources to limiting new infrastructure for businesses to concentrated areas.
POLITICS. Innovate away from structures that encourage political gamesmanship. We’ve got to get rid of gerrymandering and one-party rule, both of which are continuing recipes for disaster.
JOBS. Approve a Cabinet-level post to add and retain 10,000 small business jobs per year. Politicians talk about helping small businesses. This would force them to.
HEALTH CARE. Ensure affordable and accessible health care that optimizes preventive care for every South Carolinian by 2030. Expand Medicaid. More people need to be on health insurance, not less.
CORRECTIONS. Cut the prison population by 25% through creative alternative sentencing programs for non-violent offenders.
ROADS. Develop and implement a plan that creatively taps several sources to generate more millions of dollars every year for investment in the state’s crumbling system of roads and bridges, and start pigeon-holing money for significant investments in public transit.
Happy New Year.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Where is this?
What is this and why is it interesting this week? Where was the photo taken? Send your best guess – plus hometown and name – to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Meanwhile, last week’s mystery – “Through a fence” – showed BMW vehicles offloading from rail cars at the Port of Charleston.
Few people correctly identified the picture, making it all the sweeter for Jay Altman of Columbia; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; and George Graf of Palmyra, Va.
- SHARE: If you have a Mystery Photo to share, please send it to us – and make sure you tell us what it is!
Read this sad letter to understand need for gun reform
To the editor:
My stepson took his life this past May. We had no guns in our house. He was able to go to a store less than two miles from our home and purchase the gun and brought it home that day and took his life.
Where are the checks before purchasing a firearm? He has a background of two hospitalizations and was treated by a mental health professional but nothing was checked.
It is too easy to purchase a gun. If a background check was done, my stepson might still be around.
– Name withheld upon request, Johns Island, S.C.
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Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.
- Editor and publisher: Andy Brack, 843.670.3996
- Statehouse bureau chief: Jack O’Toole
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