Here is your State House Dispatch for the week.
It's budget season in the House
The South Carolina House of Representatives will begin hashing out the state budget this week. Budgets are moral documents, and we'll be there to watch closely. In addition to setting teacher salaries and funding things like public infrastructure, budgets can be a back-door method of legislating.
Lawmakers can skip the work of lawmaking by sneaking their policy preferences into budget "provisos," which set rules on how public agencies including libraries and schools can spend state funding. They often do this with little to no public input or debate.
To cite one consequential example, in 2021 during a rampant public health crisis, lawmakers used a budget proviso (Proviso 1.108) to ban the use of public funds to enforce mask mandates in schools. In the current 2023-2024 budget, Proviso 1.82 bans public school educators from teaching that "an individual should feel discomfort ... on account of his race or sex." This broad gag order has been taken up by everyone from local Moms for Liberty chapters to the State Freedom Caucus as a reason to sue, harass, and intimidate public servants.
Crucial vote on trans healthcare ban
The Senate Medical Affairs Committee is expected to take a vote on H. 4624, a bill that would strip away medically necessary care for transgender youth. Depending on how and if the bill gets revised this week, it could also require certain public school employees to out trans and gender-nonconforming students to their families. It could also ban the use of public funds to provide gender confirmation care for South Carolinians of any age.
If you have not already, you can contact your state senator and ask them to stop this bill. Our coalition partners at SC United for Justice & Equality created this action page:
This bill started in the House in January and has been fast-tracked by lawmakers who are singularly obsessed with making life difficult for LGBTQ people. We've shown up at every hearing along the way, provided testimony, and even provided overflow testimony from opponents to this bill at a subcommittee hearing on Valentine's Day. The facts are plain and on the table: This bill is deliberately harmful and goes against the recommendations of the major medical associations.
The committee meets on Thursday, February 29, at 9 a.m. in Room 105 of the Gressette Office Building (1101 Pendleton St., Columbia). Public comment is not allowed at this meeting. If you would like to watch the vote elsewhere, it will be live streaming on the State House website.
Voting bills
In the wake of last week's Republican presidential primary, we want to highlight some bills currently assigned to the House Judiciary Committee that would help preserve and expand voting rights. Our own Matthew Butler testified in favor of these bills in January, and we hope they pass this year.
H. 4590 (Early Voting Hours) would expand the hours of early voting centers to 7 p.m. This is especially important in areas where voters may have to travel a greater distance to reach the designated early voting center. H. 4022 (Instant Runoff Voting) would eliminate the need for reunoff elections and reduce the cost to municipalities that may not have large budgets for elections.
Don't say we never bring you good news.
