Republican South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis seems more likely to keep in workplace for a minimum of the remainder of the yr.
The Republican-dominated Home has determined to not take up a decision handed by the Senate to kick Loftis out of workplace due to his function in a phantom $1.8 billion account that confirmed up on the state’s books however had barely any actual cash in it and the failure to report it to lawmakers for years.
The Senate despatched the decision to take away Loftis to the Home on April 21. Home Speaker Murrell Smith mentioned there simply is not sufficient time to take it up earlier than the session ends Could 8.
“We’re going to concentrate on passing legislation now and we’ll make a decision after session concludes on the path forward with the treasurer,” Smith advised South Carolina Public Radio.
The choice leaves Loftis open to run for a fifth four-year time period in 2026. One in every of his arguments to remain in workplace was it wasn’t truthful to overturn the outcomes of an election.
“I am grateful for the House leadership’s decision today to choose the people’s business over political theatre. I feel sure that South Carolinians are thankful that they are the first priority, and political games are not. I am ready to turn my focus back to doing the people’s work,” Loftis wrote in a press release.
The Senate voted 33-8 to take away Loftis after a rare listening to with 23 Republicans voting sure. It was the fruits of over two years of investigation by senators that started when state accountants unintentionally exaggerated cash given to high schools and universities by $3.5 billion.
That led to the invention of an account error that began a decade in the past when the state was altering from one accounting system to a different. If accountants couldn’t stability the entries within the two units of books as they moved 1000’s of accounts with completely different definitions, they saved including it to a particular account yr after yr till it grew to $1.8 billion.
It took forensic accountants, who had been paid thousands and thousands of {dollars} in charges, to lastly unravel that just about all the cash was not actual money however simply an accumulation of errors.
Loftis has referred to as the Senate investigation a witch hunt. He repeatedly mentioned no cash went lacking and the errors weren’t made in his workplace, though others have testified in a different way. The treasurer mentioned persevering with to concentrate on the errors threatens the state’s sturdy credit standing.
Simply because eight Republican senators voted towards the decision doesn’t suggest they again Loftis. Senate Majority Chief Shane Massey mentioned he merely thought his fellow senators didn’t make a robust sufficient case to take away him from workplace.
“I would vote for a monkey over Curtis Loftis. I believe he has no enterprise being treasurer and my hope is Republicans will put up a very good candidate to run towards him,” Massey mentioned.
That is the primary yr of a two yr session, so the decision to dump Loftis, which is presently in a Home committee, will keep alive when lawmakers return to Columbia in 2026.
Submitting for workplace begins subsequent March with the Republican major for treasurer, governor and different statewide workplaces occurring in June.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
