This week, House members met for two days at the State House for our bi-annual Organization Session. This session is held after an election year to allow new House members to take office, elect leadership officers and adopt House procedural rules for the upcoming two-year session and receive committee assignments.
York County came out a big winner in the House this week. Clover-area Representative Tommy Pope was re-elected to another term as House Speaker Pro Tempore, presiding over the House when the Speaker is not in the House chambers. Three of the nine Representatives who serve on the York County legislative delegation were appointed to the Judiciary Committee and two of the other six were appointed to serve on the Ways and Means Committee, where the state’s annual budget is assembled. This means a majority of the House members who represent York County serve in a leadership role or on one of the “major” committees, ensuring York County is well-represented in Columbia.
I will continue serving on the Education Committee, where I have been serving as the Chair of the K-12 Education Sub-Committee. This role has allowed me to play a key role in helping move education reform and ensure oversight of the state’s public schools. Last year, the House passed a key piece of education reform legislation, sending it over to the Senate for their review. Due to the COVID-related shutdown of the legislature back in the spring, this work was put on hold. When things get back to normal, we’ll be back to work on these needed reforms, including reducing standardized testing, increasing accountability and boosting teacher pay.
Our two-year session will begin next month. We’ll start out the year as we often do by choosing candidates to fill a number of state judicial seats, as well as college and state agency boards and commissions. Once those elections are behind us, we’ll start looking at crafting and adopting the 2021-2022 state budget, which may be challenging due to both the needs to address the ongoing COVID pandemic, as well as likely reduced revenues from the slowing economy.
We were not able to complete and adopt a state budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year as the General Assembly was forced to adjourn at the beginning of the COVID outbreak. State government has been operating on continuing resolutions and special authorizations, using the prior year’s budget for the spending framework. We may have to pass additional authorizations to help carry state government over to the next fiscal year, which will begin on July 1, 2021,but we will work to pass a complete annual budget this spring.
One of the downsides to the much-shortened legislative session this year was that a lot of legislation never got acted upon before the end of session and will have to start over next year. That will leave us with more unfinished business than usual. Between this, COVID and a tough financial outlook, the upcoming session could prove to be another challenging year for the General Assembly.
As always, look for my updates about what’s taking place at the State House as well as other state and community issues. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out! If I can assist you in navigating state government via my home phone 803-547-6715 or email me at Raye26@comporium.net.
