Two state lawmakers criticize decision to give raises to some state agency heads

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)– Some state lawmakers are criticizing the decision to give raises to some state agency heads. Last week, Senator Mia McLeod, who is running for governor, asked the Governor Henry McMaster via Twitter if he supported the increases.

Thursday, State Representative John King released the following statement:

“Corruption is the only word that can describe how Governor McMaster and his Republican bagmen have trampled on the backs of working-class South Carolinians to benefit their cronies. While our working families struggle to make ends meet, the Republican legislature uses our tax dollars to give their friends quarter-million-dollar salaries. I refuse to sit quietly while my constituents are exploited.

South Carolina’s working-class last received a $0.90 pay raise 14 years ago. According to a study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 40 percent of South Carolinians require a household hourly wage of $35.67 to provide for their families and live above the poverty line. More than 300 thousand of South Carolina’s children live in poverty today. With this knowledge, Republican lawmakers refused to give state employees a pay raise that outpaced inflation – limiting them to a three percent pay increase. Meanwhile, they gave their appointed agency heads pay raises up to 48 percent. This action by the Republican legislature is wrong, unfair, and corrupt.”

We reached out to the Governor’s Office for a response to these allegations. A spokesperson for Governor McMaster writes, “first of all, because of the governor’s leadership – including decisions like the one to end the state’s participation in the gratuitous federal unemployment program – job applications are up, South Carolinians are getting to work, and the state’s economy is stronger than virtually any other in the country. If some of the folks criticizing the governor had their way throughout the pandemic, South Carolina’s economy would be in shambles and our small businesses would have borne the brunt of it.”

The spokesperson went on to say “as hyperbolic and ludicrous as those statements are, they’re equally uninformed. The governor doesn’t vote on or approve raises for agency directors – he was notified of the decisions after last Thursday’s meeting, like everyone else was.

But to be clear – the governor believes the members of his cabinet who were discussed in Thursday’s meeting are innovative leaders who bring great value to the state and are worthy of any praise or recognition they receive for their hard work.”