Dear Friend,
I waited a couple of weeks to send out my first update, and I’m very glad that I did. So, before my regular update, let me update you on the most recent action in the Senate. You all know that I believe that life begins at conception, and I’m proud to say that the Senate passed last week S. 1, also known as the Fetal Heartbeat Protection from Abortion Bill. The bill outlaws abortion from any point forward following the detection of the baby’s heartbeat. The bill contains exceptions for the life of the mother, rape, and incest. I opposed the latter two in roll call votes, but a majority of voting senators added them to the bill. S. 1, nonetheless, advances the right to life for unborn children further than before, and I hope that the House will act soon to make it law.
2020 Review
The General Assembly passed far less legislation in 2020 than in regular years, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I firmly believe that if our problems were due to a lack of statutes on the book, then we wouldn’t have any problems. The Assembly did, though, act upon some things that needed attention and make a positive difference. The Assembly passed a continuing resolution to fund state government for the 2021 fiscal year (7/1/20-6/30/21) at the same level as the previous fiscal year. Federal CARES Act funds were appropriated in June with $500 million flowing into the unemployment insurance trust fund to protect South Carolinians thrown out of work by government mandate and also protecting small businesses that accrued unemployment tax liability, again, through no fault of their own. The CARES Act also sent nearly $225 million to our schools and another $270 million to local governments for emergency needs. The other legislation of note passed by the General Assembly concerned election law, specifically absentee voting. It addressed absentee voting in the presence of a state of emergency, but it did NOT allow provisions that created havoc and likely fraud in other states such as drop boxes, no witness signature, earlier absentee voting, or any other change to permanent law. The resolution covered ONLY the November 2020 election.
2021 Plans
2021 also will be an extraordinary year, and we don’t know yet how the economy, federal actions or the needs of our local schools and communities will affect our budget prospects and deliberations. I will advocate for increased starting pay for our State Troopers, and I will push to fix problems in our Department of Corrections. I will support measures to get teacher pay back on track, and I also will support the continued suspension of standardized testing until students fully return to regular classroom instruction. I also will fight hard for fully funding the unemployment insurance trust fund so as to prevent that burden from falling on our businesses and, by extension, their employees.
I will continue to advocate for Law Enforcement both as Subcommittee Chairman on that section of the state budget and as Chairman of the Senate Corrections Committee. I also will use my position on the K-12 budget committee to advocate for our teachers and students AND parents. Many of you have heard from me on my belief that our students must return to school, in person. I will continue to fight for that and for the resources that our schools need to operate safely. Special thanks to our local districts for getting our children back in school, especially my district (Spartanburg 6) who has held in person instruction since August!
Everyone knows that the executive branch of state government made the difficult situation with COVID 19 even worse in 2020. The arbitrary, and I believe unlawful, closure of businesses, schools and medical facilities devastated the 2020 economy, especially for those whose livelihoods depend upon the tourism, leisure, or entertainment industries. The ineptitude has continued in 2021 with an ineffective and, frankly, inexplicable program for vaccination. Many hoped that with at least six months to prepare that the governor and cabinet agencies would devise a simple and efficient plan to deliver vaccines with logical priorities and easy access. That did not happen. The General Assembly now will step in and try to solve the problem through oversight of the responsible agency and whatever legislation may be necessary. The first step will be updated phone numbers and emails for vaccine signup. DHEC now has a new dedicated Vaccine Information Line to help citizens access provider information to schedule vaccine appointments. The new call center has 240 operators and is open from 7am to 7pm, seven days per week. The phone number is 1-866–365-8110. Look for more on this as we force more action.
Please look to hear from me during session on other important matters such as the protection of our Second Amendment rights and tax reform for our small businesses and individual taxpayers.
Constituent service is what I pride myself on, so please call on me or my office anytime. Also, check out and like my new Facebook page @SenShaneMartin. Thank you and have a great year!
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