The House was busy with legislation even before it moved onto the state budget. Here are some bills that I want to highlight.
Balanced budget amendment
If you have read previous updates, you know that I often talk about South Carolina’s balanced budget amendment. Our state every year only spends what we take in and never borrows money to pay our bills. Sadly, Washington D.C., does not work this way. Both political parties seem to have no problem continuing to add debt to future generations of Americans.
The House passed a resolution calling for a convention of states for the sole purpose of passing a federal balanced budget amendment like South Carolina has.
It takes 34 states to pass this resolution before a convention is called and then 38 states would have to approve the amendment. This is a tall order, but, in my opinion, our nation’s debt is so large we must use all the tools our founding fathers gave us to fix this problem. I proudly voted YES!
Advancing health care
The House passed a large-scale overhaul of our state’s health care system. This bill, which I support, creates an Executive Office of Health and Policy.
Last year, we commissioned a study and found out that South Carolina has one of the worst health care delivery systems in the nation. The main driver of this is that our state has six different health care agencies, which don’t work well together and often duplicate services.
This bill is designed to put one person in charge of this agency answerable to the governor instead of multiple obscure boards, who are not responsible to the executive of the state. This was a bipartisan change in state government that is our largest state government restructuring since the days of Gov. Carroll Campbell.
Supporting veterans
A couple of weeks ago, I proudly voted for a bill that extends property tax exemptions to permanently and totally disabled veterans and was thoughtfully amended by the Senate, to their surviving spouses.
This bill, now headed to the desk of the governor, is a great way for us to honor our veterans and their families who sacrificed so much for us. Never forget to thank the veterans in your life every chance you get.
Name image and likeness (NIL)
If you know me, you will know that college sports are a passion of mine. It is a pastime that I enjoy following, attending and watching with family and friends. Recent court decisions in the last couple of years have changed college athletics forever by allowing college athletes to receive compensation. It is commonly referred to as NIL.
It was brought to the Legislature by our universities that our law was now more restrictive than most states in the nation. On a very rare occasion in our state, all three head football coaches from South Carolina, Clemson and Coastal Carolina all testified to the need for change in our state’s laws.
Under current law, state universities and coaches are not allowed to be involved at all in the process. The coaches asked that we change this as most of the nation already has.
Coaches talked about how they are the ones who are in the living rooms with these young people and their families, but they are barred from the process.
It’s a rare moment when you can get Gamecocks, Tigers and Chanticleers all to agree on something, but when that happens, it’s important to pay attention to their message.
I supported the bill to make sure our universities are on the same playing field as the rest of the nation.
Closing
If you have any questions, please reach out. Thank you for the opportunity to represent you in the State House.
