COLUMBIA, SC (WSPA) – South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (R-South Carolina) is a little more than a month into his second and final full term.
With this year’s legislative session in full swing, Governor McMaster sat down with us to talk about his priorities. He said the state’s progress is based on three main categories: economic growth, education, and the environment.
“Everything sort of falls into one of those categories and they all intertwine,” he said.
Some of his proposals include setting aside money to help the state Department of Commerce acquire mega-sites for prospective businesses looking to come to South Carolina, increasing teacher pay and providing bonuses for educators, and investing to help preserve natural and cultural resources across the state.
The governor said he supports sweeping bond reform and how the state elects judges. He said he feels the public has lost trust and confidence in both systems.
Last year, the governor shared some of his public safety proposals with state lawmakers ahead of the start of the new legislative session. Bond reform was at the top of his list.
“We’ve got revolving doors all over the state and country. I don’t know how it happened this way,” McMaster said.
The governor said would like to see changes that would result in violent repeat offenders remaining behind bars and enhance penalties for someone who commit a crime while out on bond.
McMaster said, “We’ve got to get serious about it but until we do we’ll continue to have sad stories in the news. We’ve got to do something. That’s what I’ve asked the General Assembly to do. Shut that revolving door.”
Currently, the South Carolina House of Representatives and Senate elect judges. McMaster said he would like to see the governor appoint judges with advice and consent from state lawmakers.
He believes the General Assembly would be on board with making this change, “The General Assembly in our state has a lot of say in a lot of things. This is one thing I do think we need to have a change.”
According to the governor, more people would interested in becoming judges if this were to happen.
We asked Governor McMaster if the state’s Supreme Court ruling striking down the six-week abortion ban has sparked this push for reform.
“That’s something that some people have mentioned. But there are a lot of people who have been concerned about the system from the very beginning,” McMaster continued. “I’m not casting dispersion on anybody but appearances are important. For instance, when you have lawyer-legislators electing the judges they appear before. We got a lot of great lawyer-legislators and I’m not criticizing anybody but the average citizen has concerns about that very thing.”
You can watch our full interview with Governor McMaster below:
