March 15th Weekly Update

Sunday, March 15, 2026

Week 9 Legislative Update
Lower Taxes, Stronger Schools & Safer Communities
Last week at the State House, House Republicans delivered major results for the people of South Carolina. After several long days on the House floor, we passed significant legislation focused on one simple goal: making South Carolina more affordable for the families who live and work here. From lowering taxes to investing in our state’s future, we advanced commonsense policies that help hardworking South Carolinians keep more of their hard-earned money while strengthening our communities.

Big Wins in the State House
✅ A Responsible State Budget that invests in South Carolina’s future while putting money back into taxpayers’ pockets.

✅ A Historic Income Tax Cut that immediately lowers the income tax and puts South Carolina on a responsible path to eliminating the income tax altogether.

✅ Tax Conformity with President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill for 2025 returns, ensuring South Carolina families and workers benefit from these pro-taxpayer policies.

A Responsible State Budget
The House passed a responsible, balanced State Budget that focuses on the core responsibilities of government while returning money to taxpayers. This plan includes more than $1 billion in tax relief while continuing to invest in the critical priorities that support South Carolina, including infrastructure, education, workforce development, and public safety. This budget reflects a commonsense conservative approach: spending responsibly, investing where it matters, and keeping South Carolina moving forward without raising taxes. Why This Matters: South Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. Last year, we were by far the fastest growing, as shown in the graphic below. (Thank you to Darrell Johnson for sending this to me.) This budget ensures we are investing in the infrastructure, workforce, and public safety needed to support that growth without raising taxes or expanding government unnecessarily.

I want to share with you a big budget cut that happened because of me without fanfare or drama during our debate the other day. Last week, Rep. Jordan Pace, the leader of the Freedom Caucus invited me to attend a session they were having regarding amendments to bring to the House floor during the budget debate. He knows I have been trying all four years of my service to get both sides of our Party to work together to solve problems. Due to multiple confirmed appointments in my day job, I was not able to stay in Columbia. While driving back on Monday morning, I called Rep. Pace and asked him if he would be willing to share the top five priorities that their Caucus wanted to achieve in budget cuts. He told me about them and then texted them to me. During the Republican Caucus lunch just before our meeting, I went to Chairman Bruce Bannister with these top 5 ideas (thank you, Rep. Mark Smith for recommending handling it this way!). The top priority was to cut $46 million out of the budget by eliminating all full-time employee vacancies that had been on the books at least 18 months. Chairman Bannister really liked this idea, and actually wrote down all five of the top priorities. He went back to Rep. Pace, and it was agreed that it would be even better to cut all full-time employee vacancies that had been open at least 12 months. If agencies find that they need to add a full-time employee, they always have the option to come back to Ways & Means during the year for additional funding. The amendment was brought by Rep. Nathan Ballentine, Chairman of the Subcommittee that handles this area of the budget. The result? We voted unanimously to cut $100 million out of this year's budget that might have gone unused all year and could be returned to taxpayers or at the very least redirected to critical infrastructure needs. This is how government should work - solving problems by negotiating real solutions instead of grandstanding or political gamesmanship. I am happy to have been able to bring about such a meaningful savings in our budget just by encouraging Members to work together.

• Here is a breakdown of the budget:
  
  Infrastructure & Transportation$500 million for road improvements across South Carolina
• $200 million for bridge modernization
• $125 million to accelerate interstate construction projects
• $100 million to speed up local road improvements

What this means: safer roads, reduced traffic congestion, and faster project completion across the state.

Education & Schools

• $90 million toward teacher pay increases
• Raising the minimum teacher salary to $50,500
• $20 million for school safety improvements
• $8.7 million to provide free breakfast for all public school students

What this means: stronger schools, improved teacher recruitment and retention, and better support for students.

College & Workforce Development

• $95 million for SC WINS workforce scholarships
• $228 million for LIFE scholarships
• $61 million for Palmetto Fellows scholarships
• $80 million in need-based student grants

What this means: more affordable college and expanded job training opportunities to build South Carolina’s workforce.

Public Safety

• Funding for 30 new BPS law enforcement officers and dispatch staff
• $24.5 million for Palmetto 800 statewide emergency communications
• $28.3 million for law enforcement infrastructure upgrades

What this means: stronger law enforcement, faster emergency response, and safer communities.

Agriculture & Rural Communities

• $8.25 million invested in agribusiness programs

What this means: supporting farmers, strengthening rural communities, and protecting South Carolina’s largest industry.

A Historic Income Tax Cut

The House also passed H.4216, delivering one of the most significant income tax reductions in state history. For years, South Carolina has had the highest income tax rate in the Southeast. This reform begins correcting that by moving our state toward a simpler, more competitive tax system that encourages job creation, strengthens our economy, and helps families keep more of their hard-earned money. There has been a lot of noise and misinformation spread through social media and emails about this bill, causing great confusion and concern for our citizens. Early last year in this process, I supported the idea of a substantial tax cut for South Carolina taxpayers, one that would involve moving off of the Federal Adjusted Gross Income system so that we would have a more consistent, rational plan now and in the future without fear of who was in the White House or in control of Congress down the road. Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, had participated in the design process and came to the State House for the initial announcement. He repeatedly said that the state needed to get off of the Federal AGI system. Because taxpayers have extremely varied returns depending on whether they use the standard deduction or itemize, moving off the Federal AGI was going to be a challenging transition. As mentioned in my emails last year, I went to Chairman Bannister and Speaker Smith with two alternative plans for how to improve the metrics so that far fewer taxpayers would experience any increase (mainly those who pay $0 now but receive all the same benefits as everyone else). Both of these ideas were rejected at first, but ultimately, some of what I recommended was incorporated into the final bill (maintaining the standard deduction at $15,000 rather than reducing it to $6000). With 41 years of experience in budgeting as a Financial Advisor, an actively practicing CFP® Professional, and having a Master of Science in Finance, I thought they might listen more, but alas, as I have learned repeatedly, seniority trumps credentials and experience in Columbia. Believe me when I say, it is not a meritocracy the way it would be if we had to please shareholders and customers instead of taxpayers. I hope to bring about more change in this policy over time. Although I am not enamored of the final bill, it is a good starting place to at least get our state off the Federal AGI rollercoaster, and we now have a much more certain path forward to a substantially lower flat tax. The only way it will make sense to go to 0% tax is if we can do so through growth and spending cuts, not by increasing other taxes such as property or sales tax rates. Bottom line, no taxpayers should face an increase that is burdensome. Most taxpayers will see a cut in taxes or no change at all. Those that will see an increase (about 22% versus 78% of those that will not) are either paying 0% now and will have a very small change, or are earning $1 million or more but benefitting from substantial Federal write-offs and therefore paying no taxes. Everyone benefits from the services South Carolina provides, and having a very small amount of "skin in the game" was made famous by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher regarding tax policy many years ago.

Please feel free to email me with any detailed questions you have regarding the Budget or the new Tax Bill. If I don't know the answer immediately, I will do my best to get the answers for you.

Tax Conformity with the One Big Beautiful Bill
The House also passed H.3368 to ensure South Carolina taxpayers can fully benefit from several pro-worker tax provisions included in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. By updating South Carolina’s tax code for 2025, we are ensuring that hardworking families, workers, and small businesses can take advantage of policies that allow them to keep more of the money they earn. This is about putting American workers first right here in South Carolina and making sure our state remains competitive for jobs, investment, and economic growth. ACTION ITEM - We have been told during their earlier debate that the Senate is not inclined to take up this bill and pass it. It needs to pass asap so that it is signed by the Governor in time for people to file their income tax returns for 2025. Please call and email your Senators to strongly encourage them to hear this bill and pass H.3368 so your tax returns for 2025 will reflect the One Big Beautiful Bill tax cuts! For 2026, we will be on the whole new system, so this will not apply, but that is no reason to leave millions of dollars of tax savings on the table for South Carolinians now.

The Bottom Line
Last week’s work in the House represents a major step forward for South Carolina families. House Republicans delivered responsible budgeting, historic tax relief, and pro-worker policies that help people keep more of their hard-earned money. By keeping government focused on its core responsibilities while lowering taxes and investing wisely, we are continuing to build a stronger and more affordable South Carolina.

Around the District and the Lowcountry
In my email on March 1st, I described a meeting with the Charleston County Engineers who were bringing a number of us who represent the area up-to-date on where we are in the project. As mentioned in that email, I had asked repeatedly for a picture or depiction of any kind of the intersection of Highway 41 and the proposed Laurel Hill Parkway. The reason I pursued this is because the intersection of Bessemer/Joe Rouse/41 is the supposed fail point once we have 10,000 more cars coming over the bridge from Cainhoy. A follow-up virtual meeting was held on Friday, March 6th with myself, Councilman Herb Sass, TOMP Engineering Director Brad Morrison, and the Charleston County Engineers. They showed me the proposed intersection for 41 and LHP, which you can see here. This intersection will be 0.8 miles south of Bessemer/Joe Rouse/41, which will still have a traffic light. The new intersection will also have a traffic light. I asked how they can believe that adding another traffic stop less than a mile down the road will keep traffic moving and congestion at bay? They are resolute that this is the only way to solve the problem of the massive amount of cars headed our way from Berkeley County (Cainhoy) in the future. I asked them repeatedly whether they could simply proceed with the 4-3-4 pattern, which would likely work beautifully for many years until this other projected traffic materializes, and then they can always add the LHP later. They said this is not possible because with the regional traffic models showing that the plan fails in 2045 without the LHP, they simply cannot build the interim 4-3-4 and see if their projections prove correct. Ultimately, Chairman Joe Boykin has already said what the Charleston County Council believes, that we must accept this plan or nothing. We all know 41 has to be widened, but this ultimatum is very disturbing for those of us who drive these roads every day. Once the 10+ acres of trees are mowed down and asphalt applied all along the edge of Laurel Hill Park, there will be no going backwards if we discover that the cars using this road are the exact same ones as Bessemer, and the addition of another traffic light on 41 actually slows rather than helps traffic. It will simply be too late. As a side note, the County Engineers comfirmed that they will be adding a traffic light at the main gate of Dunes West. Also, after hearing from the Phillips Community about how hard it has been to turn left off of Highway 41 South onto Bessemer/Joe Rouse Road, I shared these concerns repeatedly with Councilman Sass, Town Administrator Eric DeMoura, and Engineering Director Brad Morrison. In case you haven't seen it yet, I am happy to report that the installation of a left-turn green arrow at that intersection is now complete. Thank goodness it didn't take a terrible accident happening before this serious design flaw was addressed!

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to represent you and to keep you informed about the work we are doing in Columbia. Please feel free to provide feedback and reach out if you have any questions or would like more information on these or other issues before the General Assembly.