NEW for 5/9: Tariffs, energy, DMV, ACLU

• BIG STORY:  Trump tariffs gnaw at state’s small businesses
• MORE NEWS: Energy bill passes without ratepayer protections
• LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: End of the session
• BRACK: Prepare before you show up at DMV
• MY TURN: Meeting the moment in S.C. during Trump 2.0
• MYSTERY PHOTO:  Boxy building
• FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts

Trump tariffs gnaw at state’s small businesses

By Jack O’Toole, Capital Bureau  |  They cost $9,000 a second. Every second of every hour of every day.

That’s what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says Trump administration tariffs of 10% to 145% are currently costing American small businesses. Annualized, that’s almost worth $284 billion a year.

And according to economists and small business operators here and across the state, that’s a dagger aimed straight at the heart of a sector that employs almost half of all working South Carolinians.

“Small businesses don’t have the flexibility or financial resources that larger businesses do,” University of South Carolina economist Joseph Von Nessen told the Charleston City Paper this week. “So they’re more likely to have to pass higher costs onto consumers, which hurts demand for their products and services.”

Another difference, Von Nessen noted, is that small businesses don’t have the same ability to lobby federal officials for tariff delays, waivers and exemptions, such as those awarded to U.S. automakers in an April 29 executive order.

“They just don’t have the capacity to negotiate [with government leaders] the way that large businesses might,” Von Nessen said. “So again, you’re in a scenario where they have to absorb the changes as they come.”

In short, South Carolina small businesses are facing big tax increases in the form of tariffs that they can’t absorb or avoid. And that means higher prices and fewer choices for Palmetto State consumers — and a harder economic road for the small business owners who serve them.

‘I just can’t take on all that risk’

Since 2009, Charleston’s Dan Einhorn has seen his Bilda Bike business grow from a backyard hobby to a regional powerhouse, with a 10,000-square-foot headquarters and retail locations in Charleston and North Charleston.

Key to that success has been the explosion of international trade and commerce, which allowed Einhorn to design and custom-manufacture his own line of affordable, corrosion-resistant bikes that can stand up to Charleston’s wet and salty environment.

While Einhorn says he supports the goal of supporting U.S. manufacturing, he told the City Paper that tariffs have already forced him to transition away from custom manufacturing and back toward selling off-the-shelf brands that are already in U.S. warehouses.

The irony? More than 90% of those major brand bikes are imported, too.

“It makes me a little sad,” Einhorn said. “I have a history of selling these products. People like them and I deliver them at a good price with good quality. But I just can’t take on all that risk right now.”

But even more concerning to Einhorn is the coming buying season, now just around the corner.

“We have to get things in order for next spring but what does that even look like?” Einhorn said. “What if you order something, but by the time the goods have shipped, the tariffs have changed? That would be incredibly challenging.”

How realistic is the goal?

Like Einhorn, Jon Lessans of Indigo Ink Marketing in West Ashley says he supports the goal of making sure that American manufacturers can compete and win in international markets.

But he, too, is already feeling the bite of tariffs, particularly on  custom-branded swag — think everything from shirts and hats to knapsacks and more — that his clients rely on him to provide for their businesses.

In fact, he just had to eat a significant tariff cost out of his own pocket to keep a client project moving forward.

“Usually a quote is good for 30 days, sometimes even 90,” he said. “And because of the crazy up-and-down tariffs, I wound up losing quite a bit on that one.”

What’s more, he says he wonders what it would actually mean to move production of the kinds of items he sells back to the U.S., where labor costs are so much higher.

“Would most of it just become automated anyway?” he asked.

Interestingly, that’s an issue Vice President J.D. Vance may have inadvertently raised with his May 1 visit to Nucor Steel in Huger, where he promised an “industrial renaissance” thanks to the administration’s punishing tariffs on imports.

But the production and employment numbers on U.S. steel over the past generation may answer Lessans’s question. At the industry’s height in 1973, America’s steel companies needed almost 600,000 workers to produce 110 million tons of steel. Today, they produce almost 75 million tons with just 85,000 workers.

In other words, experts say, even if U.S. steel manufacturers once again reached their zenith of 110 million tons, they’d only employ about 125,000 Americans — far fewer than the number currently working in the legal cannabis business.

‘Small businesses can’t do any of that’

S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce President Frank Knapp says his members are already feeling the effects of high Trump tariffs — and that unlike the major corporations that have dominated the headlines, their hands are mostly tied.

“Big businesses can find new sources, make special deals and stockpile inventory before tariffs take effect,” Knapp said. “Small businesses can’t do any of that.”

And the few options they do have, he says, are bad for consumers and businesses.

“Tariffs are a tax,” Knapp said. “They have to either pass it along or eat it.”

But what Knapp says he’s most concerned about right now is President Donald Trump’s recent suggestion that small businesses aren’t being negatively impacted by his tariffs.

“They’re not going to need it,” Trump said on May 4’s Meet the Press, when asked if he would consider giving small businesses tariff relief. “They’re going to make so much money.”

Knapp said the answer “showed his feelings” about small business.

“The attitude of the president of the United States is just appalling,” Knapp said. “How hard would it have been to show a little compassion to small businesses?”

But in Knapp’s view, the president is unlikely to change course.

“Everything’s always fine — until it’s not,” Knapp said. “But by then, he’s already on to the next thing.”

• Have a comment?  Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

Energy bill passes without ratepayer protections

By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau  |  A sweeping energy bill is headed to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk for signature, but only after lawmakers stripped out consumer protection provisions designed to shield residential customers from higher power bills.

Advocates say the legislation, which will make it easier for utilities to build new power stations such as a controversial natural gas plant in rural Colleton County, is necessary to boost energy production in the nation’s fastest growing state.

But S.C. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield,  warned his colleagues against passing the bill, which supporters pushed through this week in the closing days of the legislative session.

“Your constituents are going to be paying more for energy,” Massey said. “You’re going to regret this.”

The new legislation comes less than a decade after the V.C. Summer nuclear fiasco, which bankrupted South Carolina’s largest private utility and saddled ratepayers with $9 billion in fees for power that was never produced.

Consumer and environmental advocates were quick to denounce the move.

“It is deeply disappointing that H. 3309 passed without much-needed protections against monopoly utilities taking advantage of everyday people,” Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Kate Mixon said in a statement.

Among the consumer protections that disappeared from the final bill were provisions requiring utilities to invest in energy efficiency to lower power bills, and to give notice to landowners before eminent domain is used to take their property for new power projects.

But particularly galling, consumer advocates say, was the removal of language that would have forced computer data centers, which are responsible for about 70% of new power needs in the state, to pay full price for the energy they use.

Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton, who supported the bill last month with consumer protections in place, said he voted no on final passage largely due to the data center issue.

“South Carolina ratepayers should not be forced to subsidize massive data centers,” Sutton said in a social media post after the vote. “If data centers need new power lines, new generating stations, and special infrastructure, they should pay their fair share—not your family or your business.”

McMaster, who’s repeatedly called for energy legislation this session, is expected to sign the bill after it reaches his desk.

In other recent news

S.C. legislature ends its 2025 session with some wins, some uncertainty. The General Assembly wrapped up its regular 2025 session Thursday with a few accomplishments, but a number of things like the fate of the state treasurer and radical changes in the state’s tax code are still up in the air.

• 2025 S.C. legislative session closes with flurry of activity, major debates on the horizon
• S.C.’s 2025 legislative session marked by late-hour deals on liquor insurance, energy
• Energy, liquor liability, hands-free driving bills head to governor’s desk
• S.C. GOP leaders strike liquor liability compromise.

S.C. Democrats highlight programs the state budget won’t fund. Debate on the House’s second pass at the budget centered around the refusal to fund earmarks.

S.C. House approves plan that could eventually eliminate income taxes. The state House of Representatives passed a bill that would initially lower costs for many, though about one in four filers would see their taxes go up. The Senate will consider the bill next year.

Split over abortion tactics leads 29 S.C. House members to resign from Family Caucus. More than half the members of the S.C. House Freedom Caucus resigned Wednesday, after caucus leader Rep. John McCrav. R-Greenwood, stood with anti-abortion protesters who targeted GOP House members’ churches with political leaflets on Palm Sunday.

• Have a comment?  Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

End of session

Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way.  This week, he takes a crack at the regular “sine die” end of the session and what happens to all of those bills that now languish until next year.

• Love this week’s cartoon or hate it?  Did he go too far, or not far enough?  Send your thoughts to  feedback@statehousereport.com.

Prepare before you show up at DMV

By Andy Brack  |  It took four tries and three different state Department of Motor Vehicle offices before a new-to-me car got a South Carolina title and license plate.

On two in-person attempts, I gave up when I realized lines were two hours long and then three hours long.  It didn’t help that people who have had seven years to get their REAL ID were freaking out and flooding the agency.

So after a couple of days, I went to another office where the line was shorter.  I sucked it up and got help after an hour and a half – only to be told that the person who transferred the title to me actually titled it to himself.  Hooray.

Armed with more paperwork a few days later – and after the REAL ID deadline passed – I headed to another DMV office.  After a 1.5 hour wait, the transaction took four minutes.  Hooray.

Kevin Shwedo, who has directed the agency’s 1,500 employees since 2011, knows these visits can be frustrating.  But when he inherited the agency, average wait times were 40 minutes, which were cut to six minutes around the state.  These days, the average is 13 minutes, he said.

But as the agency’s funding has remained mostly stagnant in recent years, the state’s population has grown by a third from 4 million to 5.5 million people.  And the types of transactions that the agency has to process haven’t gotten smaller.

“I’m responsible for 444 different transactions all predicated by law and all interpreted at the individual level,” Shwedo said.  Earlier in an interview, he noted that “with a 25% increase [in the population], we haven’t had a significant increase in personnel, but we have changed policies and procedures.”

In recent years, the department gained significant efficiencies by shifting how it dealt with tags and titles for car dealers. It also reduced wait times, Shwedo said, through mandatory electronic registration protocols, more online services, third-party driver’s license testing and installation of self-serve kiosks.  The agency also has boosted employee training, which has helped to improve retention rates.

And while Shwedo is always looking for ways to improve, what he really wants now to make sure the agency succeeds is a new software system that uses off-the-rack software, not a system powered by a computer language developed in 1959.

For that – and to avoid a software meltdown that’s sure to come and be more expensive if it isn’t fixed pronto – he said the agency needs $12 million more in recurring funds for computer and identity management security.

“My COBOL programmers are older than I am,” Shwedo said. “If you don’t use current technology, you can’t keep up with the demand.  So you’ve got to be able to be more efficient on the computers and be able to secure them.”

If you need to head to the DMV to get some business taken care of, here are three tips to make your trip go more smoothly.

1. Find the best time.  Before you head out, go online to the DMV website (scdmvonline.gov) and click the button at top right that is marked “locations & wait times.” Then click on an office location near you to find out – in real time – how long you might have to wait.  Worst times tend to be around 8:30 a.m. and lunchtime.
2. Research.  Learn on the website what you need to bring with you to have a successful transaction.  Note: Shwedo says there are a lot of unofficial sites that take advantage of people.  Only use the state’s site.
3. Pay taxes.  If you need a title or tag, make sure you pay taxes on the vehicle before you show up at the DMV.  There’s no telling how many people we saw walk out of an office for not having this done first.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report.  Have a comment?  Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

Meeting the moment as South Carolinians during Trump 2.0

By Jace Woodrum, exclusive  |  As is expected from a reality TV star turned U.S. president, Donald Trump dominates the news cycle, social media feeds and (for many of us) our minds.

The chaos and sensory overload are part of the strategy, cultivating the sense that he can’t be stopped as he disregards judges’ orders and flouts the Constitution. President Trump’s policies and actions are eroding the rule of law, threatening our democracy and creating a Constitutional crisis.

As the executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina, I travel around the state talking with South Carolinians who are shocked and scared by what they see from the Trump administration. They see the president going after people’s rights and freedoms in ways that remind them of fascist regimes—and they ask me again and again, “What are we supposed to do? Tell me, what can I do?”

I tell them there are three things to do in this moment:

One, don’t abandon hope.  

President Trump will not give in or back down unless he is forced. That’s why the ACLU has taken more than 100 legal actions to fight back against his current administration. (We filed 434 legal actions during his first administration.) While we must recognize that incredible harm has come to so many, we must also acknowledge that the protection of the constitution remains.

Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship? His attempt to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender people under 19? His threats to cut funding to schools if they engage in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives? All have been blocked by the courts. Trump’s flagrant misuse of the Alien Enemies Act to skirt due process and deport Americans to an El Salvadoran prison was even blocked by a judge that he appointed in his first term.

These rulings aren’t permanent and they don’t mean we rest. But they do buoy our hope and strengthen our resolve to keep pressing the courts to hold the President accountable to the law.

Two, don’t relinquish power. 

Like most of us, I am not an attorney so it’s hard to see my role in the national picture when the fight for the future of our representative democracy seems to be happening in courtrooms. But we have power and it lives right here in South Carolina.

Everything that is happening at the national level is flowing down to the states. Trump’s executive order attempting to get rid of DEI in schools? Our S.C. superintendent of education did a copy and paste here. Trump’s attempt to deport immigrants without due process? He’s going to demand your local police department’s help.

The good news? You have more power than you realize. You can join us at state Board of Education meetings, at the Statehouse or in your local community to fight against the same fascist policies that are dominating the headlines. And here, your voice can really make a difference. Engaged activists have protected the teaching of Black history in schools, expanded housing rights at the county level and staved off some of the most egregious state-level legislative attacks on the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

As author Alice Walker said, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

Three, stick up for your neighbors. 

Marginalized communities are facing draconian attacks like we’ve never seen before. Transgender people make up 1.6% of the population, but right-wing politicians spend an inordinate amount of time hurting them. Immigrants are so frightened about being arrested and sent off to an El Salvadoran prison that they’re not leaving their homes. Black Americans are watching the dismantling of civil rights protections that they’ve bled and died to secure.

When the government turns its back on people, we must open our hearts. You can bring groceries to your immigrant neighbor or offer to fix their broken taillight. You can push for your employer to keep prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion, even as the political winds shift. You can speak up when your coworker tells an anti-transgender joke, offer support to a transgender young person, or spread facts — not misinformation — about trans folks on your social media.

What matters is that we take care of people, even when they’re different from us and especially when they’re living through this moment in history.

We’re just over 100 days into the second Trump administration and we have a long way to go before it’s over. But the fight of our lives isn’t in Washington, D.C. It’s here at home – and we need you in it.

Jace Woodrum is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina.

Boxy building

Here’s a boxy building in a South Carolina town. Where was this picture taken?   What is it?  Make sure to add your name and hometown to your guess and send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

Our most recent mystery, “Pink clouds,” was supposed to be a little easier than in recent weeks.  It showed a close-up of the cables on the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in Charleston with pink clouds in the background.

Hats off to this week’s successful sleuths:  Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Lester Dempsey of Charleston; Jay Altman of Columbia; Steve Willis of Lancaster; Bill Segars of Hartsville; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Curtis Joyner of Charleston.

• Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but  make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)  Send to:  feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission.  Thanks.

Send us your thoughts

We’ve been getting a few good letters and would like to share them, but writers aren’t leaving phone numbers and hometowns to help us verify them for publication.  We encourage you to send in your thoughts about policy and politics impacting South Carolina.  We print non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your thoughts.

• Have a comment?  Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com.  Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification.  Letters are limited to 150 words.

Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.

• Editor and publisher:  Andy Brack, 843.670.3996
• Statehouse bureau chief: Jack O’Toole

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