First year of two-year session wraps up

By Weston Newton CONTRIBUTOR

The first year of the 2023-2024 regular legislative session concluded May 11 at 5 p.m. with the House of Representatives adjourning “Sine Die.” As the Latin phrase “without a day” suggests, this marked the adjournment of the session without any day set to reconvene.

As I previously reported in this column, the House set an ambitious agenda last fall that included improving statewide economic development, reforming our education system, implementing fiscal discipline, increasing personal freedom, and prioritizing public safety.

Employment and Workforce to coordinate, align and direct workforce efforts throughout the state to maximize available resources, enhance accountability and transparency, and actively foster a customer-centric workforce development system that is readily accessible, highly effective and easily understandable.

Gavin into sharing compromising photos and then threatened to share these photos publicly. He ended his life out of fear and shame.

Jennifer Herrin

Amber Linaburg

Oswald Mikell

John Riolo

Gwyneth J. Saunders

Larry Stoller

Brian Treacy

Weston Newton

Mark F. Winn

Tim Wood

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The list of accomplishments since January reflects significant strides for a brighter future for South Carolina and its citizens. The Education and Workforce Development Act, which was signed into law on May 19, makes comprehensive revisions geared towards realizing South Carolina’s full workforce potential. The new law provides initiatives to coordinate and make the most of publicly funded job training, scholarships, apprenticeship programs, and other workforce development services.

To provide oversight of all services, the Office of Statewide Workforce Development (OSWD) is created in the Department of

To the Editor:

Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed Lynne Hummell’s most recent editorial (June 18).

I, too, had the most wonderful childhood. As an only child, I had hours to myself to find my own fun. I’d explore the woods behind us on other side of the little brook that ran along our home, and huge fields beyond our back yard. I would run through the tall wheat (or whatever it was) for hours with our collie.

There weren’t enough hours in the day in summer.

To this day, I can smell the grass and

Modernizing government agencies and making them more efficient has been a major priority, and we took a huge step in doing that by splitting the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) into a Department of Health and a Department of Environmental Services. Under the restructuring, both departments would be cabinet agencies with directors appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Certain veterans nursing homes will be transferred to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the food safety program will be transferred to the Department of Agriculture, and the flood mitigation program currently housed with the Department of Natural Resources will be transferred to the Office of Resiliency. Finally, water resources would be transferred from the Department of Natural Resources to the Division of Water within the newly created Department of Environment Services.

In 2022, Gavin Guffey was a 17-year-old victim of sextortion. The scammers tricked

Letter to the Editor

different flora/fauna around our home. I can taste the lemonade made by Mom (from the little cans that went into the freezer, both the yellow and pink!)

I remember vividly the watermelon dripping down my chin. A few years of summer camp. The summer trips with Mom and Dad. Lying in bed at night hearing the crickets outside (there was no central air just a window fan).

My swimming was in backyard little blowup blue pool when I was little. The rest of our swims were at the Jersey shore – either the ocean or on Metedeconk River, down the slope from my aunt’s house, where I’d spend

Gavin had just graduated from high school and was planning to study education in college to become an art teacher. Rep. Brandon Guffey, Gavin’s father and one of my colleagues, has turned a tragedy into action to prevent other families from suffering a similar fate.

His bill, which the Governor signed into law on May 18, makes sextortion a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and an additional twenty years if the crime results in the victim’s death. The law separates the offenses of a minor from those of an adult perpetrator. The law also requires school districts to inform students and faculty about the dangers of sextortion.

Within hours of adjourning on May 11, Gov. McMaster used his authority to call legislators back to the state house for a special session to focus on a solution to our state becoming the abortion destination state in the Southeast, to finish work on trafficking fentanyl, bond reform and to resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget. I will report more on those matters next month.

Weston Newton is the representative for District 120 in the State House of Representatives. WestonNewton@schouse.gov endless hours catching tiny black eels in a can. I loved rowing my aunt’s boat all around, with her daughter who was about four years older than I was. Sleeping in bunk beds there, listening to the gentle lapping of waves coming up onto the beach.

Bike riding, tree climbing – the sky was the limit, wasn’t it?

And oh yes, those lightning bugs – kept in those jars with holes in the lids!

How lucky were we?!