McMaster supplies the state’s state the same day he sets record as SC Governor

On January 30, 2025By Littum

Columbia, SC (WCSC) – The Government Henry McMaster proclaimed South Carolina’s financial success in his 2025 State of the State address as he set his goals and regulatory wish list for the new year.

He gave his annual speech, his eighth, the same day he became the longest served governor of the Palmetto state. Before he is ready to leave the office, he will have delivered a total of 10 state speeches.

He began this year’s speech by recognizing law enforcement authorities and K-9 officers who were lost in the duty of duty and recognized several notables in the crow Advertised expansion and investments throughout the state.

“We jumped in 2024 and will boom again in 2025,” he said of the state’s economy. “Our state government is in superior fiscal form. We continue to maintain our largest rainy day reservation fund balance and make quantities of general obligation debt. Again, saving money instead of using them has earned our state well – and ensures that we will always be prepared for future financial uncertainties. “

He said he signed the largest income tax in state history three years ago designed to reduce personal income tax rate from 7% to 6% over five years. State’s financial successes, he said, has allowed the acceleration of this goal.

“This year, I propose that we cut the state’s personal income tax rate again from 6.2% to 6%-which allows taxpayers to hold another $ 193.5 million of their hard earned money instead of sending them to the state government,” he said. “However, we should not stop at 6%. We should continue to cut as much and as fast as we can until we can completely remove the personal income tax. “

He said it’s “what the people want” and what they want to give them.

But he challenged legislators to streamline state permit processes and said that licensing of professionals ranging from accounting people to builders to doctors to social workers becomes “more complicated and burdensome” every year.

He also called for replacing torture reform to protect people and businesses from “paralyzing financial assessments and skyrocketing insurance premiums”, which he accuses of the actions of others.

“I ask the general meeting to find a commonsense solution. One that will provide accountability, security and just compensation, without hurting our finances. And one that I can sign the law the moment it reaches my desk, ”he said.

He also approached the state’s crisis in mental health and a report that found that the state had the “most fragmented and muted health and human service delivery system in the nation.”

“Immediately changes are needed at the Department of Mental Health and Department of Disabilities and Special Need. They are run by a board council that is not responsible for anyone – and it is almost impossible for a governor to remove them, ”he said. “If everyone is in charge – is no responsible.”

He said that former head of government Carroll Campbell’s successful efforts to restructure state authorities in the early 1990s was based on the idea that South Carolinians should be able to hold a person, their governor, responsible for actions of agencies like Department of Mental Health and Department of Disability and Special Needs.

“This year, let’s quit this job with a stroke of a pen by doing the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Disability and Cabinets for Special Needs Direct and Immediately Responsible to the Governor,” he said. “And let this regulatory session are remembered when the year we finally moved into the future.”

About the educational topic, he pressed legislators to raise the state’s minimal teacher salary to $ 50,000 a year earlier than planned to keep the state’s schools competitive to attract the best teachers. He also called on the general meeting to allocate the funds needed to further invest in the state’s 4K programs, hire the school’s resource manager to the remaining 177 public schools throughout the state that do not have one; To support a sixth consecutive annual freezing of state colleagues and a school coupon program that “addresses last year’s state Supreme Court decision.”

“Parents, not school graduation lines, should determine the education that best suits their child’s unique needs,” he said.

This is an evolving story. Check back for updates.

The annual address gives both the governor and the opposing party an opportunity to specify their respective regulatory priorities for the new year.

State Secretary Margie Bright Matthews, a Democrat representing District 45, which includes parts of Charleston, Colleton, Beaufort, Hampton and Jasper County, is set to provide a counter -movement immediately after McMaster’s speech.

“Well, all you have to do is just to be alive,” he said to laughter. “This is a great office. I think many times we do not realize how big this office is with our history. Our state is a unique place, and again, people who have been in many other places tell it, and sometimes we are not aware of how lucky we are to be here. “

In her democratic response, which comes immediately after McMaster’s speech, Bright Matthews is expected to tackle key issues such as education, healthcare, financial development and reform of criminal justice in her remarks.

“I am honored to respond to behalf of the South Carolina Democrats to Government Manager McMaster’s State of State Address,” said Bright Matthews. “Our state faces significant challenges, but also great opportunities. I look forward to sharing our vision to build a more just and prosperous South Carolina for everyone. “

Bright Matthews succeeded the deceased late. Clementa Pinckney, the main pastor of mother Emanuel Ame Church in the center of Charleston, after the shooting that killed him and eight of his parishioner in the church in June 2015.

South Carolina Government Manager Henry McMaster puts his wish list to the state’s general meeting as he achieves a large milestone as governor.

Of his record rod as a governor, he entered the role when former government manager Nikki Haley stepped down to work for the first Trump administration. He has since been selected twice on his own.

The governor was in good mood hours before the speech as he talked to journalists about the milestone.