A FUMING senator is suing over a “secret” $18,000 pay hike which will cost taxpayers a whopping $4.3 million.
Republican Wes Climer has accused greedy lawmakers in South Carolina of illegally cashing in on an extra $50 each per day.
APSouth Carolina attorney and ex-senator Dick Harpootlian, left, and Sen. Wes Climer, R-Rock Hill, tell reporters about their lawsuit against a legislative pay raise in Columbia, S.C.[/caption]Climer, a dad-of-five and devout Christian, revealed on Monday that he and state retiree Carol Herring – his co-petitioner – are suing lawmakers for “giving themselves a pay rise.”
They want the Supreme Court, the highest court in South Carolina, to effectively block a $2,500-monthly hike that legislators voted to pay themselves.
He and Herring maintain that the raise was illegal as – per the constitution – sitting politicians are barred from increasing their own compensation.
They warned it was like a judge deciding the outcome of their own trial, or a cop investigating their own misconduct.
“Every member of the Legislature got an $18,000 [annual] expenses bump,” Climer ranted on his website.
That brings up their total pay to “$40,400 per year, which is forbidden before the next general election,” alleged the lawsuit, lodged last Friday.
CBS-affiliated WCSC explained that when politicians discussed the next state budget, the General Assembly included a special measure, called a proviso.
This proviso, which is a one-year order on how to spend money, resulted in raising the amount of in-district compensation lawmakers receive, starting from July 1.
The monthly stipend is meant to compensate legislative work.
However, it’s become controversial as the lawmakers have approved more than doubling it from the original $1,000 a month to $2,500.
Lawmakers’ pay will rocket from $12,000 to $30,000 a year for legislative expenses.
This is in addition to their current annual salary of $10,400, bumping the total to $40,400. Plus they receive extra money for meals, milage to drive to Columbia and hotel rooms while in session.
What does the lawsuit say about the $18k pay raise?
The South Carolina Senate has voted for an $18,000-a-year pay hike
Republican Sen. Wes Climer and Republican activist Carol Herring are fighting political colleagues by trying to block the $18,000 pay raise.
The duo alleged in their lawsuit that the hike was illegal, as “the South Carolina Constitution prohibits a General Assembly from increasing the compensation of its own members.
“Any increase must take effect after the next General Assembly is seated in January 2027 following the next general election.
“It is unconstitutional.
“There is an extraordinary public interest in preserving our constitutional prohibition on a legislature giving itself taxpayer money.
“For a General Assembly to vote to give its own members public money is akin to a judge presiding over his own trial, or to a police officer investigating his own alleged conduct.
“[Its] machinations to avoid public scrutiny of its self-dealing with taxpayer money are extraordinary.”
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
The lawsuit petitions for an injunction to block Curtis Loftis, State Treasurer of South Carolina, from paying the extra money.
The document added that the General Assembly had bumped up payments with “an increase of approximately $50 per day, starting in July 2025.”
Climer has vowed to fight to “stop the pay raise colleagues put into the 2026 state budget.”
SECRET
The raise was proposed by Republican Sen. Shane Martin late in the budget process.
Martin explained the plan for just 30 seconds before it was approved 24-15.
But Climer said he and other opponents of the “80% pay raise” believe it should have passed as a stand-alone bill with hearings and a full debate.
For a General Assembly to vote to give its own members public money is akin to a judge presiding over his own trial, or to a police officer investigating his own alleged conduct
LawsuitFITSNews – which described the contentious deal as a “secret pay raise” – said he was one of just a handful of lawmakers to vote against it.
The go-ahead means the in-district compensation is set to balloon to $2,500 a month for each of the 46 senators and 124 House members starting July 1.
FITS warned of the South Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature, “All told, the raises would cost taxpayers $4.3 million between now and the end of the 2025-2026 legislative session.”
VIOLATION
“Regardless of how you feel about a legislative pay raise, this is the wrong way to do it,” Climer told journalists on Monday in Columbia.
He added, “It violates the Madisonian principle that the legislature cannot take the people’s money and appropriate it to themselves in real time.”
But Sen. Deon Tedder, D – Charleston, told WCSC, “Only certain people can afford to run for office and serve.
“With how little the pay is, it really prohibits the average South Carolinian from being able to serve in our General Assembly.”
Gov. Henry McMaster said he believed “the case can be made that the expenses have gone up dramatically… the remedy would be to provide some more money to be used for those district expenses, not a favor.”
Climer and Herring are being represented by former S.C. senator Dick Harpootlian.
The state Supreme Court has ordered both sides to submit briefs before the end of the month.
BLOCKED
The lawsuit said a similar move to increase the pay was successfully blocked 11 years ago.
Lawmakers passed a $1,000-a-month increase in the budget in 2014.
But Republican Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed it and senators did not have the votes to override her decision.
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