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The State House Gavel: Senate starts $15B budget debate, McMaster reacts to Scout overruns

South Carolina Public Radio | By Maayan Schechter,
Gavin Jackson
Published April 21, 2026 at 6:01 AM EDT
Springtime at the South Carolina Statehouse.
Gavin Jackson/SCETV
Springtime at the South Carolina Statehouse.

It's Tuesday, April 21.

Welcome to Week 15 of the South Carolina legislative session.

Both the House and Senate gavel in at noon.

There are four more weeks and 12 more days until the final year of the two-year session officially wraps at 5 o'clock on May 14.

You're reading The State House Gavel, your daily reporter notebook by Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson that previews and captures what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse.

Tonight, six of the seven Republican candidates for governor will all meet for the first time on the GOP debate stage at the College of Charleston. It'll broadcast at 7 p.m. on Gray Media.

  • Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette
  • Sen. Josh Kimbrell
  • Congresswoman Nancy Mace
  • Congressman Ralph Norman
  • Businessman Rom Reddy
  • Attorney General Alan Wilson

This will be the first debate to feature Evette, who skipped the first debate earlier this month out of ticketing concerns, and Reddy, who is self-funding his campaign.

What we're watching:

  • Will Evette and Reddy's presence mix up what was a collegial first debate earlier this month? Will anyone throw any jabs, verbally speaking?
  • Moderators tried to get specific answers to questions. Will candidates better outline how they'll achieve some of their main policy goals?

ICYMI: On the latest "This Week in South Carolina," host Gavin Jackson gets an economic update from state Ports Authority President and CEO Micah Mallace and the University of South Carolina's Darla Moore School of Business research economist Joey Von Nessen.

"We expect slower growth for the second half of the year, mainly because we've seen an uptick in inflation, and that is having an impact on consumer spending,” Von Nessen said. “And we have to remember that consumers are still recovering that lost purchasing power. But, having said that, we are not anticipating a recession. We are anticipating slower growth, but particularly in South Carolina, we've been far more resilient.”

You can watch the full episode below.

Notebook highlights:

  • Senate starts debate over $15 billion spending plan. Big budget highlights
  • House may punt roads debate to next week, opening up calendar to debate over other contested legislation, and other key hearings to watch this week
  • Electric carmaker Scout Motors shows off new manufacturing plant as governor comments on expensive cost overruns
  • State leaders celebrate new, strikingly beautiful state bird

Senate starts budget debate

The upper chamber will begin debate today over its version of the $15 billion general fund budget (what the legislature can actually spend).

As we've noted previously (see here), there are plenty of similarities between the Senate and the House's plans:

  • Teachers: Supporting one of Gov. Henry McMaster's final budget requests, the two chambers agreed to spend millions of dollars to raise the starting teacher pay to $50,500, up from around $48,000.
  • State employees: Both proposals include roughly $66.9 million to raise state employee pay by 2%, and cover costs associated with the state health plan by spending about $33.9 million
  • Income tax: Both chambers will agree to spend $308.7 million now that the legislation to in part lower the top rate from 6% to 5.21% is officially law
  • Private school vouchers: The Senate's budget proposal spends about $23.2 million to raise the so-called Education Scholarship Trust Fund's 10,000 student enrollment cap to the next phase of 15,000 — spending the House also put in

There are, however, plenty of areas of disagreement:

  • Taxes: The Senate wants to spend more than $247 million to account for the chamber's passage of legislation that would expand the homestead exemption on primary residence property taxes for anyone 65 and older.
  • Roads: Both chambers want to spend millions of dollars to fix old bridges and accelerate interstate projects, but differ over how much to spend in each. The House spent just above $49 million per year for bridge modernization, on top of millions more in one-time spending. The Senate went with a one-time $50 million for bridges, with millions more out of the capital reserve fund, matching the House. For interstate acceleration, the House spent $125 million in one-time spending, and the Senate added $1, appearing to shift millions of dollars in road spending to the county transportation funds, where it spent $200 million versus the House's $100 million.
  • Captain Sam's Spit: The House spent $32 million on coastal land in Kiawah Island that's been tangled up in litigation for years, known as Captain Sam's Spit. The Senate put $1 on the line.
  • Earmarks: This isn't technically an area of difference, but the Senate this round gets the first go at sticking millions of dollars in one-time spending on what lawmakers call "community investments" for their districts into the budget. The House will get its turn soon.

The Senate will finalize passage of the budget this week. And then the massive spending proposal heads right back over to the House, which gets to tweak the budget once again and slide in their earmarks, or pet projects, of choice.

The two chambers will meet to negotiate differences before the budget heads right back to each chamber for the final OK.

What else is the Senate doing this week?

Tuesday

  • A Senate Judiciary subcommittee will meet at 9 a.m. to debate three alcohol-related bills that include S. 849, sponsored by Sen. Jason Elliott, R-Greenville. The legislation would allow licensed and permitted retailers to offer customers curbside delivery or pick up via curbside service of alcohol, with regulations.
  • The Senate Medical Affairs Committee will return at 9 a.m. to decide whether to advance S. 1095, sponsored by Anderson Republican Sen. Richard Cash. The legislation would allow abortions beyond the current six-week ban, remove exceptions for rape, incest and fatal fetal anomalies and reclassify abortion-inducing medication as Schedule IV controlled substances. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, told reporters, "All I can tell you is, there has been, honestly, there has been zero conversations about that bill at all. We've had no conversation among the (Senate GOP) caucus about that bill at all."
  • A Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources subcommittee is expected to meet in the morning over S. 720, sponsored by Sen. Deon Tedder, D-Charleston, which would create a mandatory professional dog breeder license and rules over professional dog breeders.

Wednesday

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, reads in the Senate chamber at the Statehouse on Feb. 17 , 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, reads in the Senate chamber at the Statehouse on Feb. 17 , 2026.

What will the House do in Week 15?

While the Senate is busy passing its version of the state budget this week, the House we're told is expected to punt an expansive roads proposal to next week. (The House speaker initially said he hoped the roads bill to come up this week.)

Instead, beyond working through the calendar, the House may possibly shift its attention to other contested legislation on the agenda.

Bills still hanging on the contested calendar include proposals that would permit the over-the-counter sale of ivermectin and would regulate hemp consumable products, or THC drinks, while banning the use for anyone under the age of 21.

What else is the House up to? Some hearing highlights:

Tuesday

  • The full House Education Committee will meet at 10 a.m. to decide whether to advance S. 454, sponsored by Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree, R-Horry, that aims to regulate and put more oversight over charter school authorizers.
  • Is there a sine die resolution? The Senate-passed sine die resolution — S. 238, legislation that keeps the legislature from getting called back into the session by the governor and dictates on what terms the legislature can return to Columbia after May 14 — will get a hearing in a Ways and Means subcommittee after the House adjourns. And the panel of lawmakers will also take up S. 863, sponsored by Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, that would create a culinary arts management degree program at a technical college.
  • After the House adjourns, the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Medical and Health Affairs Subcommittee will meet on a packed agenda that includes legislation — S. 862, sponsored by Sen. Deon Tedder, D-Charleston — that would permit parents to make certain health care choices for their children who are older than 18 if the child is a dependent and is still covered by their parents' health insurance.

Wednesday

  • A 3M subcommittee will meet at 9 a.m. to decide whether to advance two bills that include H. 4293, sponsored by York Republican Rep. David Martin, that would give a city or county council, planning commission or local zoning board the OK to stop permits and construction if they find that a current or intended use of a property is not permitted under the zoning classification.
  • Lawmakers on a House Judiciary subcommittee will meet at 9 a.m. to decide whether to advance the ratification of a constitutional amendment proposal — S. 582, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield — that says, "Only a citizen of the United States and of this State of the age of eighteen and upwards who is properly registered is entitled to vote as provided by law." The referendum was approved overwhelmingly by voters in the 2024 election.
  • The full House Labor, Industry and Commerce Committee will meet on a packed agenda that includes bills dealing with removing guests from RV parks, financial exploitation and bridge loans, and the creation of a South Carolina-Bahamas Trade Commission, pending subcommittee approval for some.

Thursday

Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, Rep. Chris Wooten, R-Lexington, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, in the House chamber during the hemp-derived consumables bill, H. 4759, debate at the Statehouse on Feb. 4 , 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, Rep. Chris Wooten, R-Lexington, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, in the House chamber during the hemp-derived consumables bill, H. 4759, debate at the Statehouse on Feb. 4 , 2026.

Gov says money for Scout overruns 'must be there'

Neither the House nor the Senate added the $150 million requested by the state commerce department to cover cost overruns at the Scout Motors plant in Blythewood.

But Gov. Henry McMaster said regardless the money "must be there" when the state budget takes effect July 1.

"It must be there,” McMaster told reporters. "That was part of the deal, that we’d make the site ready. This money isn’t going to Scout. It is going to the site to make that site ready. So we will do what we said we were going to."

The Senate added a one-year clause to the budget that would require audits and a follow-up review by the General Assembly prior to any money getting spent.

Senators say they want a better understanding of what led to the overruns, and how to avoid running into the same problem.

McMaster's comments came at Scout's Midlands plant as the electric carmaker showed off its new training center near the sprawling 5 million-square-foot production facility still under construction.

The $25 million facility was publicly funded through the state's ReadySC program, with help from the state's technical college system.

The overall project was funded by a $1.3 billion incentives package approved by the General Assembly in 2023.

Scout's leaders said they're continuing to hire to its goal of 4,000 people, as the company aims to start production next year and full production in early 2028 of its electric Terra truck and Traveler SUV. So far, Scout has hired 600 employees, including 100 production associates and technicians.

"Always the critical issue was, could we get the talent here? And from what we’ve (seen) so far, without (a) doubt from the number of hand raisers, plus the physical talent here in the room," Scout Motors President and CEO Scott Keogh told Gavin Jackson, adding 17,000 people have expressed interest in working for the automaker. "One hundred percent, we feel very confident we can get the talent to get these trucks made here in Blythewood."

Keogh also addressed and defended the Volkswagen subsidiary choosing Charlotte for its headquarters over South Carolina.

"Anyone looking for it as ... somehow disrespectful to South Carolina is completely inaccurate," Keogh said, defending the choice by citing Charlotte’s international airport, larger engineering labor market and available property. "If you look at the amount of dollars and the amount invested, the simple answer is South Carolina won. We have 4,000 employees that will be here, plus another 5,000 in the supply base."

Read more:

Gov. Henry McMaster tries his hand at the painting simulator at the Scout Motors training center in Blythewood on April 20, 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Gov. Henry McMaster tries his hand at the painting simulator at the Scout Motors training center in Blythewood on April 20, 2026.

New year, new SC bird

The Prothonotary Warbler was further cemented Monday as South Carolina's official state migratory bird in a ceremonial bill signing at the Francis Beidler Forest.

Gov. Henry McMaster signed the bird's new title into law earlier this year but chose to wait several weeks for the perfect location — and perfect weather — to give the bright yellow songbird that nests in forested wetlands throughout South Carolina a more ceremonial honor.

"This is a remarkable place. It's a paradise," McMaster said, standing in front of a more than 1,000-year-old tree. "And we have to preserve it, and love it, keep it, and save it and that will make everything else better."

There was no bigger advocate to give the swamp canary a more official title than 9-year Jack Ragley, who lobbied lawmakers for the change and joined McMaster, the bill's sponsor Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis and other state leaders Monday.

"It's really neat to be here in the swamp with everyone, because (this is) where this bird actually lives and comes back every year to build nests and raise its babies," Ragley said.

The Prothonotary Warbler chooses South Carolina each year, and Ragley said he's glad South Carolina chose the bird too.

Gov. Henry McMaster; Jennifer McCarthey Tyrrell, community science and research program manager at Audubon South Carolina; Jack Ragley; and S.C. Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, celebrate on Monday, April 20, 2026, at the Francis Beidler Forest a bill signing designating the Prothonotary Warbler as South Carolina's state migratory bird.
MAAYAN SCHECHTER
/
SCETV
Gov. Henry McMaster; Jennifer McCarthey Tyrrell, community science and research program manager at Audubon South Carolina; Jack Ragley; and S.C. Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, celebrate on Monday, April 20, 2026, at the Francis Beidler Forest a bill signing designating the Prothonotary Warbler as South Carolina's state migratory bird.

Statehouse daily planner (4/21)

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SC Senate

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News From South Carolina
Maayan Schechter
Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter) is a news reporter with South Carolina Public Radio and ETV. She worked at South Carolina newspapers for a decade, previously working as a reporter and then editor of The State’s S.C. State House and politics team, and as a reporter at the Aiken Standard and the Greenville News. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2013.
See stories by Maayan Schechter
Gavin Jackson
Gavin Jackson graduated with a visual journalism degree from Kent State University in 2008 and has been in the news industry ever since. He has worked at newspapers in Ohio, Louisiana and most recently in South Carolina at the Florence Morning News and Charleston Post and Courier.
See stories by Gavin Jackson