![[DEV] SC Policy Council](https://assets.nationbuilder.com/themes/64c02d01e8919c40538c4526/attachments/original/1677010541/logo-sc_policy.png?1677010541){kind=logo}
With the 2025 legislative session in the rearview mirror, S.C. General Assembly made major progress on a host of reforms and initiatives championed by the South Carolina Policy Council.
While school choice and tort reform issues dominated headlines, lawmakers advanced several additional priorities, including education, tax reform, deregulation, and energy policy.
SCPC is proud to see meaningful progress on many issues outlined in our 2025-26 Legislative Agenda. We would like to give a huge “thank you” to lawmakers for their work on these issues.
Below is a look at how SCPC shaped public policy in South Carolina in fiscal 2025, which ends on June 30.
Education
When lawmakers returned to Columbia in January, their top priority was reinstating the state’s education scholarship program, which the S.C. Supreme Court struck down in 2024. SCPC published a detailed analysis of the new ESA proposal (S.62), offering several key recommendations. Shortly after publication, the House passed an amended version of the bill that addressed several concerns raised in our report.
The final legislation created an ESA program accessible to roughly 85% of South Carolina families. With the governor’s signature, thousands of students across the state will now have access to education choice.
The bill also requires all school districts to adopt and publicly post inter-district transfer (open enrollment) policies, a reform supported by SCPC and included in our Legislative Agenda.
Lawmakers also passed legislation (S.77) to increase livestreaming and archiving of school board meetings statewide, a reform backed by SCPC. This issue was highlighted in the nerve's coverage, revealing that nearly one-third of South Carolina’s regular school districts at the time didn’t livestream their official meetings. The bill uses recommendations from SCPC’s report on the subject.
In addition, the Legislature passed two proposals supported in our Statehouse Update series:
- S.79 – Non-certified teachers: Allows districts to hire a limited number of non-certified teachers with subject-specific professional experience to help address staffing shortages.
- S.78 – Post-work experience teachers: Grants one year of teaching experience credit for every two years of relevant full-time work experience.
Taxes and spending
Lawmakers made substantial progress on tax reform this year. From income to boat motor taxes, the General Assembly advanced numerous proposals backed by SCPC. For starters, the budget this year includes funding to reduce the top marginal income-tax rate from 6.2% to 6.0%, accelerating income tax relief, as we recommended last year.
SCPC played a key role in shaping the conversation on income tax reform by publishing reports outlining the best path toward elimination and having our amendment being included in a House bill. SCPC met with lawmakers and explained the concept of surplus triggers to leadership, with that concept being added to the legislation via an amendment.
While the bill (H.4216) passed the House, it still must pass the Senate. We plan to offer several recommendations to ensure that any final income-tax reform legislation is the best possible plan and will benefit citizens at all income levels. Although this bill is an important step toward eliminating income taxes, it needs further refinement.
On the budgetary spending side, SCPC and The Nerve have long advocated for greater transparency around earmarks, which funnel taxpayer dollars to lawmakers’ favorite projects. For the first time in years, both chambers chose not to include earmarks in the state budget – a welcome change – though lawmakers have signaled earmarks could return next session. Before that happens, the Legislature must adopt reforms to ensure the process is transparent and accessible to the public.
In another key win, the House adjourned debate on H.3832, a bill that would have expanded film tax credits. SCPC raised concerns about the bill in our Statehouse Update, and the defeat of the legislation represents a step toward more responsible spending.
We also highlighted and advocated through the Statehouse Update for a bill (H.3858) that would remove the requirement for boat outboard motors to be titled, effectively eliminating a tax on outboard motors and removing the double tax on boats. The House approved the measure.
Deregulation & Reform
SCPC helped lead the debate on tort reform, particularly on liquor liability, another issue highlighted on our legislative agenda. Our analysis of S.244, a broad tort-reform bill, was the lone voice calling for separate treatment of liquor liability and other tort issues. Lawmakers ultimately adopted our approach, passing H.3430, a stand-alone bill focused solely on liquor liability.
This victory marks an important step toward broader reform of joint-and-several liability. SCPC also ran a targeted media campaign to raise awareness of this issue and encourage citizen engagement.
SCPC also supported various deregulation measures, such as increasing the number of anesthesiologist assistants a supervising anesthesiologist can oversee, from two to four; and streamlining the licensing process. This proposal mirrors a reform previously featured in our 2023 Legislative Scorecard.
For nearly four decades, SCPC has been a consistent voice for limited government. The Senate introduced a measure (S.318) to bring the popular federal model of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to South Carolina. The bill was passed by the Senate and will likely be an issue revisited in the coming year.
More Policy Wins
SCPC produced an independent review of the state’s latest energy legislation and recommended several improvements. Of the recommendations we are happy to share that lawmakers incorporated many of our suggestions before passing the bill, including:
- Placing greater emphasis on nuclear energy over unreliable renewables.
- Preventing the Public Service Commission from considering economic development factors or public interest duties when setting utility rates, which would ultimately give the PSC more power to increase rates.
- Providing for additional public scrutiny on the process that utilities must go through for rate increase requests.
In another area, The Nerve also reported on a major transparency win: a decision by S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Kittredge to reverse the court system’s longstanding practice of shielding the salaries of higher-paid judges and court employees. Both SCPC and The Nerve have highlighted this issue for years.
Separately, after years of coverage by The Nerve on the problem of senators’ control over the nomination of county magistrates, including the influence of senator-lawyers who handle cases before magistrates, Kittredge issued an order generally banning magistrates from hearing contested cases involving senators who have a direct role in recommending those judges’ appointments to the governor.
Finally, The Nerve led the state in covering the case of South Carolina’s s “mystery” $1.8 billion– stories that earned a first-place, South Carolina Press Association award earlier this year for in-depth reporting.
Looking Ahead
With the 2025 session complete, lawmakers have the 2026 session to finalize bills that have already passed one chamber. We encourage them to act quickly on the proposals highlighted above.
South Carolina made substantial progress this year on key reforms supported by the Policy Council. We’re grateful for the work of lawmakers on these issues and believe these steps are essential to making South Carolina a national leader in freedom and limited government.
With advancements in education, tax policy, and liability reform, South Carolina is headed in the right direction.