Charleston Metro Chamber Of Commerce: The Advocates: End Of Legislative Session Updates

Charleston SC

19 May, 2022

3:12 PM

Description

Press release from the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce: May 13, 2022 On Thursday at 5:00 p.m., the legislative session came to an end in Columbia. Several of the Chamber's legislative priorities made it to the finish line, even with Hate Crimes dead for the year. The legislature still has plenty of work to do when they return at noon on June 15, the day after the primaries. There are over a dozen conference committees that will be meeting and about $1.5 billion difference between the House and Senate versions of the budget. All that to say there is plenty of work to do before they return next month. H.3247, the Workforce Enhancement and Military Recognition Act, passed the Senate on Thursday and was sent to the Governor's desk for his signature. The bill exempts military retiree pay from the state income tax. This has been a Chamber priority for nearly a decade and it finally made it to the finish line. This is a huge win for our service members and retaining their talent in our state. H.3144, the South Carolina Workforce Industry Needs Scholarship or SC WINS, is a statewide technical college scholarship for SC students designed to address workforce shortages in critical need areas. The scholarship supplements the Lottery Tuition Assistance. The extension of this scholarship will help address workforce needs in our region and state. H.3948 allows counties who have either a capital projects sales tax or a transportation sales tax to go to voters, where current state law only allows one of the sales taxes to go to voters via referendum, to implement both sales tax programs if voters approve them. This is a huge win for the region and allows counties the ability to ask the voters for more funding for infrastructure, which, as we all know, is a critical need. This press release was produced by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author's own.