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The State House Gavel: House passes roads bill without EV fees, the status of redistricting in SC

South Carolina Public Radio | By Maayan Schechter,
Gavin Jackson
Published April 30, 2026 at 6:01 AM EDT
House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, speaks with Rep. Micah Caskey, R-Lexington, in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 29, 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, speaks with Rep. Micah Caskey, R-Lexington, in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 29, 2026.

It's Thursday, April 30.

The House gavels in at 10 a.m. The Senate is back an hour later.

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.

It's taken several tries, but South Carolina appears to be on the verge of ending the decades-old criminalization of the youth playing pinball after the Senate advanced House legislation Wednesday.

Technically, lawmakers say they cannot find anyone under 18 who was arrested and charged with playing pinball, and there is no one currently housed in the state's juvenile justice department charged with the crime.

Either way, Gov. Henry McMaster could this year sign H. 3020, sponsored by House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland. The legislation removes the act of playing a pinball machine from offenses in the Children's Code, which still includes status offenses for truancy and running away, gaining admission to a theater by false identification and playing or loitering in a billiard room.

And the Senate late Wednesday voted 16-25 refusing to concur on House changes to the hemp consumable/THC drink bill, sending it to a conference committee for negotiations between the two chambers.

Notebook highlights

  • House gets unanimous backing to pass omnibus roads bill by pulling several controversial measures out
  • The status of redistricting in South Carolina after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Voting Rights Act case
  • Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette digs in after protests over her now rescinded invitation to speak at a historically Black college's commencement
Reporters Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson, host of This Week in South Carolina and the SC Lede podcast.
Andre Bellamy/SCETV
Reporters Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson, host of This Week in South Carolina and the SC Lede podcast.

Roads reality

It was truly all gas, no breaks in the House Wednesday as the lower chamber pushed through a comprehensive roads bill that at one point had more than 100 proposed amendments.

Instead of an all-day debate, it stretched about three hours.

The legislation — S. 831, sponsored by Senate Transportation Chairman Larry Grooms — aims to modernize state transportation department operations, targets congestion and speeds up infrastructure construction.

The House passed the bill in a unanimous 114-0 vote after Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, offered a strike-and-insert amendment that gutted the provisions lawmakers said caused the most heartburn.

That included adding language to abolish the DOT commission, and removing measures incentivizing counties to take back state-owned non-essential roads and raising electric car fees.

Another amendment changed the wording of tolls to "usage charges" and turnpikes to "choice lanes."

The updated bill:

  • Makes the DOT secretary a Cabinet position nominated by the governor with Senate confirmation
  • Eliminates the SCDOT Commission and the Coordinating Council for Transportation and Mobility, a group responsible for developing transportation plans and policy
  • Eliminates electric vehicle fee increases
  • Implements a $15 million pothole mitigation program so the public can report pothole locations on the state highways
  • Brings the federal National Environmental Policy Act permitting process to the state
  • Allows DOT to enter into public-private partnerships
  • Allows for the creation of fast-pass lanes that exist in other urban areas of the country, including Atlanta
  • Requires county transportation committee members to abide by the State Ethics Act
  • Strengthens internal audits

Bannister told reporters dropping certain contested parts of the bill — the measures incentivizing state to county road takeover and EV registration fee hikes — helped lessen anxiety and reach consensus with some of the bill's biggest critics.

The future of funding included in both the House and Senate budget versions for the voluntary road buyback program — the House added $25 million and the Senate included $12.5 million — is now up in the air.

Bannister said a proviso, a one-year budget measure, could be attached to the spending plan to outline how DOT spends that money.

“So, we have gone light years ahead in the way we're going to be able to procure road projects in the future, in the way we're going be able to finance those road projects and the speed at which we might be able to give some relief on the traffic congestion that South Carolina's experiencing,” Bannister told reporters.

Also included in the bill, the creation of choice lanes and usage fees could now be owned and/or managed by DOT or a private entity. It would only apply to new construction that could also be financed by bonds backed by future revenue on those roads.

“You would have the full menu of options on a public-private partnership, including having a private enterprise own the entire section of road and have that road financed by private dollars,” Bannister said.

The amended bill returns to the Senate.

Bannister said he expects the elimination of the DOT Commission to be a hot topic in the upper chamber, and the eventual conference committee tasked with negotiating the differences.

Read more:

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, speaks from the well in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 29, 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, speaks from the well in the House chamber at the South Carolina Statehouse on April 29, 2026.

No plans — as of now — for mid-decade map redraw

South Carolina legislative leaders say, as of now, there's still been no talks or plans to go ahead with mid-decade redistricting, even after the U.S. Supreme Court's Wednesday ruling over a section of the Civil Rights-era Voting Rights Act.

In a 6-3 ruling, the high court struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana, ruling the district an "unconstitutional racial gerrymander," that court observers and critics say could further worsen minority representation in Congress and across government.

South Carolina is not among the states where — for example, Texas, Virginia and now Florida — leaders have chosen to redraw congressional maps mid-decade.

For months, Republican leaders who include Gov. Henry McMaster have resisted redistricting of the map that currently is broken down by six Republicans and one Democrat, Congressman Jim Clyburn.

The Wednesday court ruling, however, has reignited calls throughout the state's Republican Party, including some running for the GOP nod for governor, urging the legislature to redraw the maps while lawmakers are still in session.

But, as of now, there are no plans to do it, we're told.

There are a few factors standing in the way, they say:

  • It would throw the state's primary election calendar out of whack. Candidates have already been certified and early voting is set to start soon for the statewide June 9 primaries and subsequent June 23 runoffs
  • There's the potential that a mid-decade redraw by the GOP-controlled legislature could actually create more competitive districts, rather than turn all seven districts red
  • What the state Supreme Court could say after a recent ruling upholding the state's map
  • Longtime Congressman Clyburn, the 6th District representative and the sole Black Democrat in the delegation, is running for reelection with strong relationships in state government and a reputation for delivering for the state in Washington
  • The legislative session officially ends May 14, and, to date, only one hearing has been held to discuss and advance proposed maps.
  • There is currently no sine die resolution, which dictates what the legislature can return post-May 14 to do. Absent one, only the governor can call lawmakers back to Columbia.

"This decision threatens to send our country deeper into the thicket of never-ending redistricting fights, with repeated aggressive map redraws, protracted legal battles, and relentless partisan tugs-of-war, all of which are destined to result in more regressive Court decisions," Clyburn said in a statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington.
Mariam Zuhaib/AP
/
AP
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington.

SC State pulls Evette's invite

Republican candidate for governor Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette is no longer invited to speak at South Carolina State University's May commencement next week after the historically Black university's president said they pulled the invitation.

"Out of an abundance of caution for safety and with careful consideration, the university has decided to move in a different direction for this Spring Commencement," S.C. State President Alexander Conyers said in a statement.

"We will welcome Lt. Gov. Evette to our campus to engage with our students, faculty and staff in a constructive manner at a later date outside the celebratory nature of commencement."

Background: Students protested on campus Tuesday and launched an online petition that has since garnered nearly 19,000 signatures as of Wednesday night. In response, Evette referred to the student protestors as "woke mobs" she said who are "coming after me for being a champion of eliminating radical DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) scams on college campuses." The lieutenant governor who serves with McMaster further doubled down Wednesday morning in a call with reporters.

The invite now a no-go, Evette said through a campaign email, "The fact that a speech had to be canceled for credible safety threats is exactly why we cannot give up the fight to end indoctrination and DEI on campuses once and for all."

"The root problem is professors who gin up feigned outrage at the detriment of their students, who they should be teaching to think critically. End tenure now!" Evette added.

There are 40 days to go until the June 9 primaries.

FILE — In this July 22, 2014, file photo, flags fly at the entrance to South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C.
Bruce Smith/AP
/
AP
FILE — In this July 22, 2014, file photo, flags fly at the entrance to South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C.

Statehouse daily planner (4/30)

SC House

SC Senate

SC governor

  • 10:30 a.m. — Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to attend the Small Business Day at the Statehouse

Statehouse clips from around the state
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