House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, R-Pickens, speaks Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Screenshot of SCETV legislative livestream)
COLUMBIA — Tensions boiled over as House Republicans butted heads during debate over the state budget, with hardline Freedom Caucus members striving to eliminate entire state agencies as fellow Republicans called their efforts disingenuous.
Debate continued Tuesday evening on the House’s $14.5 billion spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1.
It includes raises for teachers and state employees, hurricane relief, and more than $100 million additional for state colleges. The process remains months from completion. The budget debate on the Senate floor is still six weeks away.
The ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus aimed to cut $1 billion from the state budget by eliminating programs and entire state agencies, which members then wanted to turn into an income tax cut, Rep. Jordan Pace, the caucus’ leader, told reporters before the debate began Monday.
“If we’re going to cut taxes that boldly, we need to cut government boldly,” Pace, R-Goose Creek, said at the podium to preview his caucus’ more than 100 amendments.
Reducing government spending is a common refrain for the caucus, leading to contentious debates in recent years over the state’s spending plan and what the government should or shouldn’t fund.
The budget is “chock full of crap,” said Rep. April Cromer, an Anderson Republican and Freedom Caucus member.
But Freedom Caucus amendments didn’t come close to its own $1 billion goal, even before its members started withdrawing their own amendments Monday, said House Majority Leader Davey Hiott.
After Cromer refused to answer questions from him, he called the proposals campaign ploys. This was the first time in his 21 years in the House that a fellow member refused to answer his questions, he said.
“I’m sick and tired of this crap, coming up here and making a farce of what the state of South Carolina deserves and needs,” Hiott said from the lectern.
In an impassioned speech, the Pickens Republican said law enforcement officers, public school teachers and students, children with disabilities, taxpayers and state employees all rely on state spending.
None of them are “crap,” he said.
“You can call them crap, but that’s not what I call them,” Hiott said, as other representatives gave him a standing ovation. “I’m appreciative of what they do.”
Some of the largest cuts the Freedom Caucus proposed would have erased funding meant to keep tuition steady at public colleges for students graduating from South Carolina high schools.
After representatives voted down the first of about three dozen similar proposals Monday night, Freedom Caucus members withdrew the rest.
Agencies on the proposed chopping block included the Arts Commission and Sea Grant Consortium, two agencies that have long been a point of contention among different factions of Republicans.
In 2012, then-Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed all state and federal funding for the two agencies, forcing them to shutter for two weeks until the Legislature returned for a special session to override the vetoes.
Some lawmakers call SC Arts Commission funding a ‘waste.’ Supporters say it’s essential.
The Arts Commission and Sea Grant Consortium are relatively small agencies, with budgets totaling less than $13 million. That money goes toward supporting the arts, an economic boon to the state, and protecting the state’s coastline, other representatives argued.
“These are really vital services to provide to the public,” Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, said amid debate on the Sea Grant Consortium, which funds research along the state’s coast.
Other agencies already do that work, Freedom Caucus members replied.
Funding the arts and coastal research doesn’t fall under the “core functions of government,” which caucus members defined as education, transportation and health care, Pace said.
“We’ll save millions of dollars in one fell swoop,” he said.
Other representatives, many of them fellow Republicans, questioned how caucus members decided what they wanted to cut and what they wanted to keep.
For instance, every member of the Freedom Caucus voted to continue paying for the Confederate Relic Room, the state’s military history museum, including an additional $1.4 million for new exhibits and improvements to existing exhibits. At the same time, caucus members argued against increasing funding for the State Library and State Museum, despite them ostensibly having similar purposes, Rep. Gil Gatch said.
“I’m trying to understand the principles you actually stand for,” the Summerville Republican said.
Rep. Micah Caskey, R-West Columbia, called on Freedom Caucus members to defend the cuts they wanted to make. Each proposed cut would affect real people and programs that have far-reaching impacts, he said.
“Does it matter to you at all what the dollars are being spent on, or are they just dollars that should be cut irrespective of anyone or anything?” Caskey said.
At one point, Rep. Jay Kilmartin, a Freedom Caucus member, proposed removing 10 cents from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism’s budget.
The Lexington County Republican insisted his amendment was a serious attempt to see if other representatives were willing to cut anything at all from the budget. But other representatives called it a joke and dismissed it as an example of the Freedom Caucus not being serious about the process.
Other representatives pointed to the budget they were considering as proof that they were willing to cut revenue.
The plan being debated cuts income taxes by more than $200 million. That completes a multi-phase, 2022 law that has already collectively reduced revenues by more than $1 billion.
House GOP leaders have repeatedly said another historic tax cut is a priority for this session. But they probably won’t release details on that plan until later in the budget process.
If the House passed the 10-cent reduction, it wouldn’t be worth the paper on which it was printed, Rep. Justin Bamberg said.
“Thank you for wasting our tax money,” the Democrat from Bamberg said.