COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster has vetoed three bills in 2025 and some notable line items from next year’s state budget following the conclusion of the South Carolina Legislature’s latest session.

He tied two of his vetoes to refusing to sign legislation that applies only to one small area of the state, denying state lawmakers’ plans to establish regulations for delivery robots in Richland County and to exempt Georgetown County from building codes.

McMaster’s third veto came down on a bill that sought to expunge gun possession charges.

In his review of the budget, he rejected legislation regarding the new Pine Island park and school resource officers in some counties, as well as a handful other items. McMaster did not veto the increase in in-district expenses lawmakers gave themselves.

Delivery robots in Richland County

The first vetoed bill, sponsored by House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, sought to develop a regulatory framework for personal delivery robots and other devices in Richland County, much like those operated by Starship Technologies on the USC campus.

In a statement about his May 13 veto, McMaster said “special legislation” – legislation that applies only to one county instead of the entire state – is unconstitutional in South Carolina. Although he appreciates “that the underlying aim of (the bill) is to ensure that new technology is effectively and safely utilized for the benefit of South Carolinians,” the governor said he is aware of no reason why the same proposed regulations couldn’t apply across the entire state.

Rutherford told The State the veto was “silly and hypocritical” on Wednesday. He referenced McMaster’s approval of a bill that would dissolve the Greater Greenville Sanitation District’s duties outside the district limits, another instance of the state considering legislation targeted at a specific area. Rutherford said there are times leaders must recognize that certain things are only happening in certain areas.

The bill was an effort to have regulations already in place if a company comes into Richland County that doesn’t have the same infrastructure to make the devices safe, Rutherford said.

“So, if the governor doesn’t want to keep people safe and make sure that we have regulation, it doesn’t bother me a bit,” Rutherford said wryly on Wednesday. He doesn’t plan on drafting a second version of the bill.

Building code exemption

McMaster used the same special legislative reasoning to veto another bill about flood zones in Georgetown County, which would have allowed the county’s building codes to apply rather than codes on a portion of insurance rate maps.

The State previously reported on efforts by state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, the bill’s sponsor, to manage flooding and protect beachfront property owners from state enforcement cases. The senator’s efforts to loosen restrictions on seawall construction have been met with pushback from those who say the barriers increase beach erosion.

A different Goldfinch plan to update state regulations was killed by McMaster last year as well, when the governor said it was rushed, could cost taxpayers money and could be a detriment to environmental enforcement. The senator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dismissing gun possession charges

A bill sponsored by state Sen. Deon Tedder, D-Charleston, seeking a dismissal of pending gun possession charges was vetoed for the second year in a row. This year’s version was vetoed by the governor on May 22.

“I don’t believe in expunging records,” McMaster told reporters Wednesday. He added in his veto statement that every case is unique, and the state’s prosecutors should be allowed to decide which cases warrant dismissal or continued prosecution.

The State reported last year on the details of the bill, which Tedder described as a “simple fix” to the constitutional carry legislation passed in March 2024, authorizing gun owners to carry openly without a permit.

“We have to protect those who had pending charges at the time and just had not been convicted or pled guilty because of the slowness and backlog of our judicial system,” Tedder told The State.

When asked if he would draft a third version, the senator said on Wednesday he hoped the veto could be overridden that day. The Senate voted to override the veto, but the House of Representatives opted not to take up any issues besides the budget discussion.

The legislative session concluded for the year following Wednesday’s approval of the fiscal budget by both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Pine Island and SROs

McMaster vetoed a total of 11 line items from the recently passed yearly budget. One of the items sought to restrict public access of the new Pine Island State Park to only visitors with confirmed appointments.

In his veto statement, McMaster said the item “prematurely mandates the operation of a reservation system at Pine Island State Park, months before the park opens, and before attendance and traffic patterns demonstrate the need to institute one.”

The governor also wrote that he did not want any interpretation of attempting to limit access to amenities at the state’s newest park.

Another killed item aimed to allow Tier IV counties, which are typically South Carolina’s lowest-income areas, to use private school resource officers.

Providing all of South Carolina’s schools with a school resource officer has been a longtime goal of McMaster’s. He said this year’s budget provides full funding for that to happen, but also acknowledged Wednesday that Tier IV counties have had trouble recruiting them.

He reasoned that the bill would’ve skirted the requirements for certified school resource officers, which can’t be compromised under state law.

“If a school over in one place can’t find an officer, they can have an officer from another school district, another certified police officer to come and work in their school,” McMaster told reporters. “They can share, and that’s what they ought to do. What we don’t want is unqualified people that have not had the training, they’ve not met all the qualifications to be posted as a school resource officer when they’re not qualified to do that.”

McMaster said as the ability to share is upheld, “there should be no problem.”

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(Reporter Joseph Bustos contributed to this article.)

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