Credit: Sgt. First Class Roberto Di Giov
On Tuesday, July 2, Governor Henry McMaster announced line-item vetoes for the fiscal year 2024-2025 state budget that were set to go into effect the following week. Among those vetoes was a measure that would have benefited some beachfront homeowners who built sea walls or similar structures to protect their properties from erosion.
The vetoed item, Proviso 55.25, would have required regulators to let some property owners rebuild sea walls that the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) had ordered removed. Additionally, it would have required the state to reimburse some owners’ legal costs and repay them if they removed what DHEC deemed illegal sea walls.
In a press conference on Wednesday, July 3, Governor McMaster said the measure was a “piecemeal attempt to address beach erosion and management through provisos, which are only in effect for one fiscal year.”
“These are questions that have been presented, have been answered, and then the environment changes and it takes constant study and work, but a one-year proviso freezing everything, I think, is not the way to progress in this very delicate and important area,” Governor McMaster said.
In total, the governor issued 21 vetoes, totaling $2.3 million. The remaining budget includes 292 proposals, an increase of more than 126 from two years ago, totaling $2.4 billion. These proposals include an income tax cut, teacher and law enforcement pay raises, a college tuition freeze, and investments in the state's bridges and workforce development through SC Nexus and South Carolina Workforce Industry Needs Scholarships.