- BIG STORY: 10 Statehouse issues to watch in 2026
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Incoming
- BRACK: On chemistry sets, fire trucks, bicycles and family love
- MYSTERY PHOTO: Modern structure
- FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
10 Statehouse issues to watch in 2026
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | With the S.C. House and Senate set to reconvene Jan. 13, Republican and Democratic lawmakers say they expect these 10 issues to be prominent in 2026:
1. Income tax cuts
With one of the highest nominal, or official, income tax rates in the Southeast, S.C. House GOP leaders are under increasing pressure from their conservative base to cut dramatically, or even eliminate, the state income tax. The challenge: basic math.
Under current law, most S.C. residents pay far less than the official 6% top rate thanks to generous deductions, credits and exemptions. In fact, the average resident now pays only 2.9% — one of the lowest actual rates in the country. And cutting the state’s top rate with a flatter tax almost inevitably increases most people’s taxes — a fact that Republican leaders learned the hard way last year when voters rebelled against a highly touted flat-tax bill after learning it would lead to higher tax bills for 60% of state residents.
Nevertheless, Statehouse leaders say they’ll try again in 2026, with the ultimate goal of following Florida and Texas down the path of full income tax elimination.
2. Rolling back affirmative action and DEI
With the Trump administration threatening to eliminate federal grants for state and local governments that don’t end their affirmative action and diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order on Dec. 3 directing agencies to ignore state laws that set goals for minority contracting opportunities. GOP leaders in the state legislature have pledged to follow up in 2026 with a full repeal of the goals.
Also up for consideration in 2026 are bills ending all “quotas” in state agencies and universities and adding new reporting requirements to ensure that college admissions are “merit based.”
3. Juvenile justice
Despite a recent pledge by S.C. House GOP leaders to “crack down” on juvenile crime in 2026, members of the House committee appointed to address the problem say they’re taking a measured look at the issue.
“We want to love these children — all our children,” Chairman Brandon Cox, R-Berkeley, said in November 2025, when describing the committee’s goals.
Among the reforms they’re considering: changes to the way children are tried in adult courts, expansion of community programs aimed at reducing teen violence and an end to “status offenses” — that is, acts that are only illegal when committed by minors, such as truancy.
4. Highway reform
According to members of the House Ad Hoc Transportation Modernization Committee, everything is on the table in current efforts to get traffic moving in S.C. — except an increase in the state’s $0.28-per-gallon gas tax.
Instead, they say they’re focused on potential changes such as increasing electric vehicle registration fees, adding tolls to roads in congested areas and asking county governments to take on more maintenance responsibilities for state roads.
“Local governments … could do it more efficiently, [but] they’re afraid they just wouldn’t be able to afford it,” Committee Chairwoman Shannon Erickson told Statehouse Report in October. “It’s up to us to make sure we figure out a way to make that work.”
5. Fix the pay raise
As the 2025 legislative session began last January, lawmakers’ pay had been frozen since the mid-1990s — $10,400 a year in salary plus an additional $1,000 a month for undefined “in-district expenses.” But when they voted in June to raise their in-district expense checks to $2,500 — essentially, an $18,000 raise — critics cried foul.
What’s more, when the S.C. Supreme Court struck down the raise in November 2025, ruling that it violated the state constitution’s ban on any legislative pay increase without an intervening election, members lost not just the additional $18,000, but the $12,000 they were getting before. Expect quick action on that issue in 2026.
6. Judicial selection
Unlike in the federal government where judges are appointed by the president and approved by the U.S. Senate, S.C. judicial candidates are nominated by a committee controlled by the legislature, which then votes to decide which ones are appointed.
Critics have long called that process an affront to separation of powers, and a source of corruption among lawyer-legislators who practice before judges whose appointment and reappointment they control.
This year, GOP leaders, backed by a billionaire Isle of Palms businessman whose sea wall has been tied up in S.C. courts since 2024, are promising reform with a bill that would give the governor appointment power over all 12 members of the nominating committee.
7. Abortion
After enacting a six-week abortion ban with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother in 2023, GOP members of a Senate committee stood aside and allowed their Democratic colleagues to kill a near-total ban in November of last year.
But that doesn’t mean abortion won’t be back on the agenda in 2026, with powerful House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, backing a bill to outlaw the use of abortion-inducing pills such as mifepristone and misoprostol to end a pregnancy.
8. Concurrency
With S.C. among the five fastest-growing states in each of the past four years, local residents from the Upstate to the Lowcountry say their roads, schools, and water and sewer systems are buckling under the strain.
One response lawmakers will look at in 2026: concurrency. Under bills sponsored by Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis in the Senate and Charleston Democratic Rep. Spencer Wetmore in the House, local governments would be given the authority to ensure that development and infrastructure stay in sync.
“It’s not that people hate new housing,” Wetmore told Statehouse Report in August. “It’s that they get upset about the overcrowding that comes with it when we don’t control the timing.”
9. DOGE SC
Though not precisely defined at this point, GOP leaders continue to say they plan to “DOGE” South Carolina in 2026, with a particular eye on rolling back business regulations and eliminating government waste.
That’s a fight S.C. Democrats say they look forward to, openly mocking GOP legislators for hunting waste, fraud and abuse in a state they’ve run for a generation.
“The Republicans have held the House, Senate and Governor’s Mansion for twenty-plus years,” Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton told Statehouse Report in 2025. “If there’s any waste in the state, it’s because they put it there.”
10. Immigration
With President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration continuing, S.C. GOP House leaders are pledging their support.
One item with broad Republican support in both bodies: a bill that would require all local law enforcement agencies with jails to enter into what are called 287(g) agreements with the federal government, which effectively deputize local officials to act as immigration agents in their jurisdictions.
Bonus: Issues lawmakers likely won’t be tackling
With conservative GOP supermajorities in both chambers, some popular measures with strong Democratic support aren’t expected to make it to the floor in 2026. Those include bills to expand Medicaid and to close the Charleston loophole that allowed racist killer Dylann Roof to buy the gun he used to murder nine parishioners at Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E church in 2015.
The remaining question mark? A hate crimes bill, which has passed the S.C. House overwhelmingly in each of the last two sessions, only to die in the Senate both times without a vote. Advocates say they’ll push to break that logjam in the upper chamber before the 2026 session ends in May.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Incoming
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he makes a comic stab at all of the people moving to South Carolina.
- Love this week’s cartoon or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
On chemistry sets, fire trucks, bicycles and family love
Commentary by Andy Brack | Seeing kids open Christmas gifts makes one recall favorite presents received in years gone by.
In the days before everything electronic, one holiday brought a Hot Wheels race track. Another year, Santa apparently sent a BB gun first to a grandfather to do something that made it impossible to shoot actual BBs. Then there was the chemistry set used unsuccessfully to concoct a special formula to blow up things.
Thinking back to all sorts of gifts (including ugly sweaters) brings a series of chuckles and fond memories.
S.C. House Speaker Pro Tem Tommy Pope, R-York, particularly recalls getting Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, which he says were a lot sturdier than the ones offered now: “You could take out your aggression on your siblings and ‘knock their block off’ without getting a beating from your parents,” he said. “Considering this was the era of Jarts (lawn darts) and BB-gun and bottle rocket fights, my parents were probably relieved we were playing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots – even though we were in the house making noise. At least no one had to go to the emergency room!”
Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Hutto, has a vivid Southern holiday favorite: “Mine was getting a shotgun at Christmas when I was 12 and killing a deer that afternoon.”
Former state Rep. Jimmy Bailey of Charleston said his favorite Christmas memory was of providing presents to youths who might not otherwise have gotten gifts. “Several years ago, my son was approached by a lady who told him she and her children experienced holiday cheer because of our gifts,” Bailey said. “So my favorite gift is seeing the joy of these families.”
Charleston philanthropist Linda Ketner says she loved the red bike with training wheels she got when she was about 5: “I lost my mind! It represented that I was a ‘big girl,’ and it represented freedom and adventure,” she said. “We lived in a very small town at that point, with lots of dirt roads, few drivers and no predators. Once those wheels were off, I probably clocked 20,000 miles on that bike in the first year!”
Easley pundit Chip Felkel remembers a drum set he received as a boy in Kingstree. For former Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, the magic gift was a harmonica he got in first grade that he says “led to my musical ‘career.’”
For Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie, holiday memories are filled with love and joy from his grandmother’s home in Belton: “One year, Christmas Day was very cold, and that night as I lay under a big warm quilt trying to get to sleep in a house full of family and joy, I heard a train whistle echoing through the rolling hills of the Piedmont. I told myself at that moment as a child that my grandmother’s house was the absolute most magical place for Christmas. That was more than half a century ago, and I still feel that way today.”
Incoming Charleston City Council member Leslie Skardon cherishes the memory of a pink-and-white bean bag chair she got when she was 11: “To this day, it serves as a reminder of how engaged my grandparents were in my life, how I have always enjoyed a book and nature, and the joy of being a 13-year old girl dancing with friends.”
Former Greenwood editor Richard Whiting also recalled a family treasure: “One of the greatest gifts was in 1966 when my dad returned from his tour of duty in Thailand.”
Fair elections advocate Lynn Teague of Columbia remembers a special Madam Alexander doll she got when 4. “I only learned later that my mother had to save money for quite a while to buy her. After years of doll tea parties and a lot of quality time together, Suzie retired, but she sits even now in my bedroom, a reminder of the best of my childhood and my mother’s love.”
Former Lancaster County Administrator Steve Willis apparently had an itch to be a volunteer firefighter when he was about the same age: “My grandmother got me a toy red fire truck that connected to a garden hose and squirted water from the hoses on the truck,” he recalled. “Obviously having such a neat toy meant my friends and I needed things to extinguish.
“For a while, my grandmother’s backyard consisted of small burnt areas where we extinguished countless grass fires, toy soldiers, old plastic cars and other miscellaneous items that were sacrificed to the fire gods.”
Here’s to a happy holiday season – and a better 2026.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Modern structure
What is this structure and what is its importance? Where was the photo taken? Send your best guess – plus hometown and name – to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Meanwhile, last week’s mystery – “Where is this?” – shows a controversial 1947 marker for the Robert E. Lee Memorial Highway that was relocated to Marion Square in Charleston. Photo by Andy Brack.
Congrats to this week’s super sleuths: Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Steve Willis of Lancaster; Robert Ariail of Camden; Jay Altman and Robert Feinstein, both of Columbia; and Bill Segars of Hartsville.
- 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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