With 13 newcomers, South Carolina Senate may tackle tough issues

COLUMBIA, S.C. — With the largest number of newly elected members at least since World War II, Republican South Carolina Senate leaders are thinking about tackling some issues like tax reform that have long been too tough to handle.

The 13 new senators — nine Republicans and four Democrats — came to the Statehouse on Wednesday to meet, give five-minute introductory speeches, get their committee assignments and pick their seats. The session doesn't start for 40 more days.

When it does begin, Republican Majority Leader Shane Massey wants to debate a bill to allow parents to spend public money on private schools, tweaking a law that was found unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court earlier this year.

Massey wants the Senate — which now had a 34-12 Republican supermajority — to look into a broad bill rewriting South Carolina's energy policy to ensure the rapidly growing state has enough power.

There are criminal justice issues like fighting fentanyl and major retail theft and what many senators think is the growing problem with insurance rate spikes because the state's liability laws don't differentiate between levels of responsibility, Massey said.

But all those new members could mean senators can go after items that have long met resistance like reforming the state's entire tax system or retirement system or the civil lawsuit system.

''I think there will be some dynamic changes,'' Massey said of all the new senators. ''The personalities are different.''

But issues can wait until the session starts on Jan. 14. Wednesday was for housekeeping matters and introductions, with family watching their loved ones being sworn in

There was one major rule change passed. The Senate President and Majority Leader now can sponsor a resolution to remove a chairman from a committee that will go before the Rules Committee and the entire Senate.

There have been rumblings over the past few years about how some chairpersons, who are determined by seniority, handle their committees and the pace of legislation passed out of them. The rule sends a message to them about how they operate.

Massey said he doesn't expect the rule to ever be used, but it's there as a safeguard.

''We just want to make sure the committees are doing the work that they are tasked with doing and the majority is able to move legislation,'' Massey said.