Session Week 18

Key Points for This Week
● Body adjourns in sine die sorta-kinda
● What passed, what didn’t?
● What now?

The One-Minute Drill
The Big Picture:
As of 5:00 PM on Thursday, the bodies officially adjourned sine die. Kind of. Sort of. Well. Not at all, really.
Both bodies adopted rule change legislation allowing the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House to reconvene by June 30 to pass the budget and adopt any outstanding conference committees (if they were created before sine die). Nothing out of the ordinary there.

However, following the Senate’s rejection of the proposed sine die resolution that allowed them to return to take up Congressional redistricting, the Governor called the body back into session, which opens the entire calendar and leaves no rules for what gets taken up.

The Wrap Up
What Passed?
DOT: A conference committee adopted language around DOT modernization and reform on Tuesday. 
Unemployment/Business Tax Cuts: A Conference committee adopted the report on a bill to adjust the Unemployment Trust fund look back periods (S. 688). The bill was amended to include language from the Small Business Tax Act (H.5006) that would exempt the first $10,000 of business personal property tax, as well as exempt the first $50 million of paid-in or capital surplus capital for businesses whose corporate headquarters are in South Carolina. The adopted report included language from both bills.
Penny Sales Taxes: A bill allowing municipalities in counties to adopt their own penny sales tax (if their county does not have one) is awaiting ratification. The legislation allows municipalities to enact the same referendum process as a county would, but municipalities must use 20% of the revenue generated to reimburse taxes on residents.
Abandoned Buildings: Legislation clarifying the permitted applications of the abandoned buildings tax credits is awaiting ratification. The language is in response to a Supreme Court ruling and clarifies a property did not have to be income producing property to qualify.
Airline Economic Develpoment: For the next year, commercial service airports will be able to utilize fee-in-lieu-of-tax (FILOT) agreements as part of negotiations with airline carriers who want to make significant economic development investments in South Carolina. The agreements must be approved by the Coordinating Council for Economic Development within the Department of Commerce and meet existing requirements for FILOT agreements.
Drone Regulation: The bodies passed the S.C. Drone Regulation and Public Safety Act (4679), strengthening protections for airports as well as military installations and correctional facilities by establishing a 1,500-foot no-fly zone for drones and creating registration requirements for drone operators. 

What Didn’t?
Curbside Alcohol: The ability for retailers and restaurants to participate in the curbside pickup and delivery of alcohol has died on the senate floor again this year.
Tort Reform: The Senate did not finalize work on three bills that deal with liquor liability reform and tort reform. There was good conversation on the floor this year about the need to continue discussions on tort and lawsuit reform, and that the liquor liability reform passed last year did not go far enough.
Blue Ridge Community: A Greenville County Legislative Delegation bill, sponsored by Senator Corbin (R), that would have required single-family dwelling units in a designated area in the Blue Ridge section of the state to be built on a minimum of five acres. The bill failed on a house floor vote on Thursday.

What needs a Conference Committee?
Small Business Regulations: Small business regulatory relief (H.3021) is headed to a Conference Committee after the Senate voted to non-concur in a tie 22-22 vote. The bill has been heavily amended by both sides of the body but deals with limiting regulations. 

What Next?
Redistricting: The Governor wasted no time in calling the General Assembly back to deal with redistricting, and the House met on Friday and plans to meet on Monday and Tuesday. The Senate is expected to come back in once the House finishes to consider their maps.
Budget: The budget conference committee is expected to begin meeting the week of May 25th, with the body expected to come back to fully adopt the bill following the June 9 primary election.

Primaries for statewide seats and House members are still slated for June 9. Whether or not congressional seats will be on this ballot is still undecided, but the clock is ticking.

The Week Ahead
The House will return Monday and Tuesday. The Senate has no definitive plans, but are expected to return once the House concludes its work.