The South Carolina General Assembly reconvened on Tuesday, September 15 and concluded the legislative activities for the year on Thursday, September 24. This was a delayed final session because of the truncated schedule due to COVID-19. The General Assembly did not pass a new 2020-2021 budget for the budget year beginning July 1, 2020 and will not do so until more financial certainty is known and the full effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state budget is realized. All state agencies, with the exception of those engaged in the COVID-19 response and those that received CARES Act funding, are currently operating at the 2019-2020 level of funding as specified in a Continuing Resolution passed earlier this year by the Legislature.
As for legislation still pending and eligible for passage when the General Assembly returned to the State House for this special two week session, all of SCWF’s priority bills made it across the finish line in what was a wild roller coaster ride of back and forth legislative activities between the House and Senate chambers. Here is a synopsis of the bills SCWF actively advocated for and a recap of their final disposition by the State Legislature.
H.4831 (the so-called Turtle Bill) – This bill gives more authority and enforcement power to the SC Department of Natural Resources to crack down on illegal wildlife traffickers who capture from the wild and sell some of our state’s most precious and iconic native amphibians and reptiles. It would also permit SCDNR to promulgate regulations regarding the importation of non-native wildlife species. The original bill introduced in the House did not specify personal possession limits of reptile and amphibians. This was to be promulgated by the Department at a later date as set forth in the original bill. The Senate amended the House bill by listing personal possession limits for each of the named species and also offered a more comprehensive list of native turtles for which the possession of for the intent of selling, trading, shipping or removal from the state is now prohibited by law. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 40-0 and the House by a vote of 99-0. It is rare for any legislation to be approved by both chambers unanimously. Here is a link to the actual language of H.4831: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess123_2019-2020/bills/4831.htm
S.719 the Raffle Bill – This legislation extends the ability of non-profits to conduct raffles. The original authorization expired at the end of the state’s fiscal year on June 30, 2020. Both the House and Senate introduced bills to fix this problem but because of the truncated legislative session brought about by COVID, no bill was enacted prior to the sunset. The Senate version finally prevailed and the five-year sunset that was included in the original bill was removed by amendment in the House. The Raffle bill passed the House by a vote of 112-0 and Senate accepted the amended bill on by a vote of 40-0. A link to the language included in S.719 is here: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess123_2019-2020/bills/719.htm
S.259 The Disaster Relief and Resilience Act – This legislation, originally named the SC Resilience Revolving Fund, was introduce by Senator Stephen Goldfinch and was initially passed the Senate in March 2019 by a vote of 44-1. It called for the creation of a Resilience Revolving Loan Fund to help local governments finance the voluntary buy outs of repetitively flooded properties and restore those properties back to a natural state. Not only would this remove folks from harm’s way from future extreme weather events but, by restoring these flood prone properties back to a natural state, it would help mitigate storm surges downstream. S.259 lingered in the House for more than a year. Eventually, we worked with House Ways and Means Chairman Murrell Smith and his staff and some of our conservation partners to craft a more comprehensive resilience bill that would preserve the language for the revolving fund but include the establishment of a State Resilience Office run by a Chief Resilience Officer, among other things. The current Office of Disaster Recovery would be folded into this new entity. The bill also calls for statewide resilience planning and new approaches to hazard mitigation. This is now a much better bill and could become a model for other states to follow. The bill bounced all around in the last two days of this special session literally going back and forth between the two chambers no less than four times in one day. Because of a Senate concern, that body voted to non-concur with the House amendment which expanded the scope of the original bill. This move by the Senate set up at joint House-Senate Conference Committee to work out a small objection some members of the Senate had. The Conference Report was adopted with only an hour to spare on by a vote of 99-7 in the House and 41-0 in the Senate. Click here for a summary of the final legislation and you may click here to read the entire bill: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess123_2019-2020/prever/259_20200923a.htm
All of the aforementioned bills have now passed, been ratified and are on their way to Governor McMaster for his signature.