STATEHOUSE REPORT |  ISSUE 25.08  |  Feb. 20, 2026
  • BIG STORY: Growth drives $15.4 billion House budget plan
  • MORE NEWS: Senators grill Weaver over vouchers
  • ISSUE TRACKER: S.C. Senate hits brakes on FOIA exemption
  • LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail:  Forever chemicals
  • BRACK: S.C.’s Jesse Jackson made a real difference
  • MYSTERY PHOTO: Pretty bridge
  • FEEDBACK: Send us a letter
BIG STORY

Growth drives $15.4 billion House budget plan

Jack O’Toole, Statehouse bureau  |  Flush with tax revenue from a booming South Carolina economy, the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday approved a $15.4 billion state spending plan for 2026 that includes tax cuts, new money for transportation and school vouchers, and pay raises for teachers and state employees.

But as committee Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, noted prior to the vote, the same growth that’s filling state coffers is putting unprecedented strains on state infrastructure. 

South Carolina was the nation’s fastest-growing state in 2025 and has ranked among the top five every year since 2020.

“Our population is growing, our economy is expanding and opportunity is reaching communities across our state,” Bannister said. “Still, growth requires structure and prosperity requires discipline, [and] that principle has guided the work of this committee.”

Of particular concern to budgeters, he said, was the condition of state roads and bridges.

“This budget strengthens the backbone of our economy with over half a billion dollars dedicated to roads and transportation improvements, because congestion and capacity challenges are real in every region of our state,” he said. “And as congestion is bipartisan, it frustrates both Republicans and Democrats.”

The new transportation spending was about half of the $1.1 billion Gov. Henry McMaster requested in his January State of the State address. It includes $250 million for bridge improvements, $125 million for road projects and $25 million to incentivize counties to take ownership of state roads — and the maintenance bills that come with them.

Teacher pay, vouchers and new schools

To complete a five-year plan to raise minimum teacher salaries above the Southeastern average, the proposed budget would fund $2,000 raises in every pay band, bringing starting teacher pay to $50,500 statewide.

S.C. Education Association President Dena Crews lauded the move, saying it would help with the recruitment and retention of quality teachers, but said it was “just the beginning” of addressing low pay in state public schools.

“We look forward to our legislators also looking at ways to increase salaries for our education support professionals,” she said, name-checking school jobs ranging from classroom assistants to custodians to bus drivers.

Other major education proposals include $75 million to support rural and charter school construction projects, and more controversially, $23 million to expand the state’s private school voucher program.

That last item prompted a pointed exchange between Orangeburg Democratic Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter and education subcommittee chairman Rep. Bill Whitmire, R-Oconee, when Cobb-Hunter noted that a required report on the program’s effectiveness hadn’t been provided to members.

“I’m just wondering if it’s prudent for us to be adding money to a program when we don’t really know the efficacy of the program,” Cobb-Hunter said.

“Well, I understand you’re not really in favor of this,” Whitmire replied. “So I’m just going to say yes, I think it is prudent and we probably need to expand it in the future if we have the money.”

Health and human services

As Statehouse Report reported last year, President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Budget Bill,” passed in July 2025, imposed significant new costs on S.C. state government.

Those increased expenses were reflected in committee budget documents, with Medicaid-related spending rising to $156 million, and new SNAP nutrition outlays of about $60 million for rising administrative and technology costs.

Also included were $8 million for the University of South Carolina’s neurological hospital and $175 million for the Medical University of South Carolina’s planned new cancer center. That was half of the $350 million MUSC requested for the $1.1 billion project, which school officials say will carry the National Cancer Institute’s highest patient-care designation when complete. MUSC did not respond to a request for comment on the allocation before deadline, citing an internal approval process that can take up to two weeks.

Economic incentives and tax cuts

With more than $110 million in subsidies for agribusiness, tourism promotion and other job creation initiatives, the proposed budget maintains the state’s longtime commitment to investing directly in commerce and development. 

But garnering the most attention was an item the committee chose not to fund — a state Commerce Department request for an additional $150 million to offset construction cost overruns at Scout Motors’ Blythewood manufacturing plant, which has already cost state taxpayers $1.3 billion.

Nevertheless, Bannister suggested the committee might be open to revisiting the question later in the budget process.

“The caucus still has a lot of questions,” he told reporters. “We didn’t believe now was the time to start trying to add additional money to Commerce until we get more of those answers.”

Also raising red flags for at least some GOP members was funding for a tax plan that some call a cut and others say is an increase. Passed last year in the House and now pending in the Senate, the bill would lower the state’s top income tax rate from 6% to 5.39%. But due to changes in allowed deductions and credits, it lowers some people’s taxes while raising others.

“Yeah, sorry, but it’s a tax hike,” Berkeley Republican Rep. Jordan Pace told Statehouse Report in a Feb. 19 interview. “It raises taxes on 24% of the population and that’s a tax increase.”

Pace, who chairs the hard right Freedom Caucus, said he expects to oppose the budget when it reaches the House floor, arguing that it needs to pair deep spending cuts and across-the-board tax reductions. 

“We’re not prioritizing the things I believe should be priorities,” he said. “And we certainly aren’t cutting taxes in a way I think is needed.”

The House is expected to begin debate on the budget March 9.

MORE NEWS

Senators grill Weaver over vouchers

By Jack O’Toole, Statehouse bureau  | Members of the S.C. Senate called state Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver on the carpet Thursday over what they say was an unauthorized program that allowed parents of home-schooled children to receive money meant for private school vouchers.

At issue are about 1,200 families who are teaching their children at home, but not participating in one of the three home-school programs recognized by the voucher law. Under Weaver’s interpretation of the statute, they are eligible for funds because the statute only explicitly excludes students in the recognized programs.

Unsplash

Senators, including powerful Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, told Weaver she’d broken trust with the body — an act that would have inevitable consequences. 

“If this is the position that the department is going to take, I don’t think we can change it,” Massey said. “But I don’t think it’s a faithful implementation of the law, and I think this is going to affect everything else that happens from here forward.”

For her part, Weaver said she’d done her best to “execute the law faithfully.”

“What the law excludes we must exclude,” she said. “What the law requires we must provide.”

A bill to close the loophole is being sponsored by Sen. Education Committee Chair Greg Hembree, R-Horry. At the often charged hearing, he told Weaver she’d “made [him] a liar” when he told colleagues his original voucher bill didn’t include home-schoolers. It is awaiting action in committee.

In other recent news

2026: S.C. gubernatorial candidates appear together in Spartanburg. For the first time since launching campaigns, all five of South Carolina’s Republican candidates for governor gathered in the same room Monday night to court prospective voters in the deep-red Upstate.

S.C. Senate considers options for keeping pregnant criminals out of prison. South Carolina judges could allow a pregnant woman convicted of a crime to stay in her home until and after the baby is born under proposed legislation making its way through the Statehouse.

S.C. native and civil rights leader Jackson dies at 84. The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate, died Tuesday at age 84. A Greenville, S.C., native, he served as a key leader for decades in the nation’s civil rights movement following King’s assassination.

State measles outbreak seems to be slowing down. South Carolina’s measles outbreak now sits at 962 cases as of Tuesday afternoon. The South Carolina Department of Public Health still recommends that those without the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination sequence to seek it out.

Yale researchers find high levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in S.C. farmland. Yale University researchers have discovered elevated levels of hazardous forever chemicals in the soil of seven agricultural fields in Darlington County, where a nearby factory spread waste sludge more than 30 years ago to fertilize land for farmers.

ISSUE TRACKER

S.C. Senate hits brakes on FOIA sports exemption

By Jack O’Toole, Statehouse bureau | The S.C. Senate reversed field this week on a bill that would exempt state universities’ payments to football players and other student athletes from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

After passing the bill 30-13 in a recorded vote on Tuesday, senators balked at giving it third and final reading in a Wednesday voice vote. The action, or lack thereof, was in response to a report in The Post and Courier that Clemson transferred school funds, as opposed to third-party dollars, into the account from which its athletes are paid, leading some senators to feel misled by school officials.

“I don’t like being lied to,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey told his colleagues. “I’ve either got an incorrect article here, or I’ve got universities giving us wrong information.”

Bills that are on the move

Tax cuts: An income tax cut bill passed last year in the S.C. House is being considered by the S.C. Senate. The bill would set rates at 5.39% and 1.99% based on income — lower than the current rates, but taxing more people due to changes in income exemptions and exclusions. LATEST: A property tax cut for residents 65 and older that was introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, passed the Senate 44-0 on Feb. 18.

Immigration: Currently in the House Judiciary Committee, H. 4764 would require all S.C. sheriffs to partner with the federal government to enforce national immigration laws. LATEST: A House subcommittee heard testimony on the bill Feb. 17 but took no action.

Judicial selection: A bill with the support of leaders in both chambers would give the governor more power in selecting state judges. LATEST: S.C. House members passed the bill 86-25 on Feb. 11, sending it to the Senate for further consideration.

Juvenile justice: A special committee created by House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, is meeting throughout the session to advance reforms to the state’s juvenile justice system. LATEST: The committee’s first bipartisan bill, H. 5117, is pending before the House Judiciary Committee.

Concurrency: A bill by Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis that would allow local governments to limit development in areas with insufficient infrastructure received its first subcommittee hearing on Feb. 11.

Highway reform: Members of the House Ad Hoc SCDOT Modernization Committee introduced sweeping legislation on Jan. 29 aimed at shaking up the state’s transportation system, including stronger SCDOT executive oversight, increased county responsibility for some state roads and higher taxes on electric vehicles. A bill with similar goals has also been introduced in the S.C. Senate.

DOGE SC: Multiple bills promising to cut the state workforce and the regulations they enforce have been introduced for consideration in 2026. In particular, House GOP leaders have pledged to get their “Small Business Regulatory Freedom Act” passed through the S.C. Senate this session. LATEST: Senate leaders say the bill could come up for consideration in late February or March.

Bills in less of a hurry

Rolling back affirmative action and DEI: Several bills are still currently awaiting consideration, including one to codify Gov. Henry McMaster’s executive order ending affirmative action in state contracting.

Pay raise:  When the S.C. Supreme Court last year struck down an increase in lawmakers’ “in-district expenses” stipend, the decision also incidentally killed the $1,000 a month that legislators were already receiving.  LATEST: A bill restoring the $1,000 stipend retroactive to July 1, 2025, is headed to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk after clearing the Senate Jan. 21 and the House Jan. 29.

Abortion: A House Judiciary subcommittee on Jan. 14 killed one bill to treat abortion as homicide and advanced another to reclassify abortion pills as Schedule IV drugs. LATEST: The S.C. House on Feb. 4 voted 81-31 to advance the abortion pill rescheduling bill to the S.C. Senate.

ROBERT ARIAIL’S LOWCOUNTRY

Forever chemicals

Credit: Robert Ariail

Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way.  This week, Ariail makes a point about how PFAS “forever” chemicals are poisoning state waters.

COMMENTARY

S.C.’s Jesse Jackson made a real difference

Commentary by Andy Brack  |  With everything that’s going on in the world, thoughts keep returning to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Greenville native who bridged the worlds of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and former President Barack Obama.

Jackson, who passed away at age 84 this week in Chicago, grew up in segregated South Carolina.  He was a star quarterback and student body president at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, N.C., from which he graduated in 1964.  The next year, he started to work for King, who was assassinated in 1968 on the second-floor walkway of a Memphis hotel while talking to Jackson in the parking lot below.

Jackson quickly matured into an inspirational civil rights organizer and political leader known across the world as a mentor who evangelized hope before it became Obama’s presidential mantra.  

In 1984, Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination for president and did so well that his candidacy spurred party rule changes that later benefited Obama.  He ran again in 1988, winning South Carolina and about a dozen other primaries and state caucuses, only to lose the nomination to former Mass. Gov. Michael Dukakis.

But his powerful 1984 convention speech continues to set a standard for progressives who want unity, fairness and real change in a broken American political system:  

“America is not like a blanket—one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. 

“The white, the Hispanic, the Black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt.”

Jesse Jackson with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2019. (Wikipedia) Credit: via Wikimedia

America was, for Jesse Jackson, a Rainbow Coalition, which was the name he gave his movement to inspire social justice and help the disenchanted, the disenfranchised, the disgusted.

Across the country, people have spent the week telling stories about Jackson’s patient leadership and charismatic energy.  

What I most remember about Jackson were his large quarterback hands, soft and powerful at the same time.  He also had an uncommon patient grace and ability to concentrate his listening.

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker of Camden recalled encountering Jackson last about 30 years ago at a United Nations dinner.  

“He was gracious, humble and seemed grateful,” she wrote this week. “My sadness [now] isn’t only for Jackson but also for the end of an era that, for all its fraught moments, aimed for a more just society and an elevated purpose that called upon our better angels.”

Michelle Singletary, another Washington Post columnist, remembered hearing Jackson loudly say, “I am somebody,” when she was in elementary school in a poor Baltimore neighborhood in 1970.  

She said he “spoke life into me, eventually inspiring me to go to college.  His words pushed me to overcome the feeling of being unwanted.”

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Jackson were students at rival S.C. high schools and colleges.  But the rivalry forged a friendship, he recalled, that was a constant.

“A life lived defying odds, Reverend Jackson showed us that if we all work together, we can bend the arc of the moral universe and change history. Operation Breadbasket, anti-apartheid activism, voter registration and corporate diversity were among just a few of his initiatives that advanced opportunity and equality for Black Americans.”

One former South Carolina reporter who ran into Jackson periodically remembered him this way:  “Watching him speak during the 1988 primaries was a life-changing event.  His message wasn’t primarily about race, but about the things that could unite us.  It was a secular message delivered with the tone and cadence of a sermon.

“He was a rare man of courage, conviction, principle and charisma.  We could use a few million more like him.”

Yes, we can.  Rest in peace, Jesse Louis Jackson (1941-2026).

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report.  Have a comment?  Send to: feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com

MYSTERY PHOTO

Pretty bridge

Where is this pretty South Carolina bridge?  Bonus points:  Tell us a little about it. Send your best guess – plus hometown and name – to: feedback@statehousereport.com.  

Meanwhile, last week’s mystery – “Impressive old building” – is from the Library of Congress and shows  the City Hall Opera House and Columbia Theatre on Main Street at Gervais Street in Columbia.

Columbia resident Jay Altman writes that the structure, built around 1900, served as the city’s third city hall and also housed the Columbia Theatre.  The building featured Renaissance architecture, including distinctive twin towers.   But it was demolished in the late 1930s to make way for a new hotel, which was demolished five decades later.

Congratulations to those who correctly identified the painting: George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; and Frank Bouknight of Summerville.

  • SHARE: If you have a Mystery Photo to share, please send it to us – and make sure you tell us what it is!
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