REP. VAL GUEST (STATE LEGISLATURE) CHECKS IN 7/7/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Time for a Columbia check-in with State Representative Val Guest on the list Callaway show with Nick Summers. 94.5 and 106.7. Talk for the entire Grand Strand.

SPEAKER_03 0:13

Representative Val Guest is here. State Representative. Good morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Good morning. How are y'all doing?

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Good. Did you have a good 4th of July?

SPEAKER_00 0:22

I did. It was uh pretty relaxing. I had my daughter and her husband came to town and some other family. That daughter lives in Charlotte.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

She just got married, and actually they're getting ready to move to Fort Mill. So they're coming back to the state. Closer. So I'm a little excited.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Got some uh big news. My other daughter, uh, I'm gonna be a grandfather.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

So congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

If that's your first month, that'll be the first. The only downside is they live out on the west coast.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

So you'll be making a trip, I bet.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Oh, several, I'm sure. To see the baby. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

Is it for work? They're out there.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yeah. Uh my son-in-law works for uh Starlink.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

For Elon?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

That's cool. What'd your daughter do out there?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

She is a uh instructor at a uh solid core. It's uh Palates thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Oh, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Um she was in retail for a while and kind of got burnt out.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Yeah, yeah, I get it. Uh I like how you say palates, like it's Chinese, like oh palates, it's Pilates.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Her husband's doing well. Her husband's doing well, so she's able to kind of try to figure it out, make her own schedule. We should all be so lucky. And now she's you know gonna have a a little one at uh the end of the year. So end of December, beginning of January. Congratulations. Yeah, very, very exciting.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Well, she'll have a strong core to push that baby out. That's that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

She yeah, she she does. She's ready to do that. So yeah, so it's kind of exciting. We have good things going on.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

All right, you'll be have having lots of frequent flyer miles.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

It's kind of uh in a way, it's not that bad. There's a direct flight every day out of Charleston on Alaska Air because of the uh Boeing plants. The one in Charleston and the one in Seattle.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So it's a direct flight. Okay. Each way, every day.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

So very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah. We've made that several times, as you can tell.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

You're a pro.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

I can't quite give you the hours when they leave and come in, but all right.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

So uh State Representative Val Guest is here. If you have any questions on the budget blinds, text line 843-798-talk 7988255. Now, because I know you over the years here, and I think you're a great guy and you know wonderful uh work that you do. I was like, I have to ask, I was like, I have to ask Val Guest. Why did he vote yes on this OTC over the counter ivermectin bill? It would be great if we can have Ivormectin over the counter, like let's say Tennessee. A lot of people want to take it, but they're resorting to going to tractor supply.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Alabama.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

And uh, yeah. So now voting yes on this moved it into a committee, which basically caused it to die or something. Can you explain?

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Hopefully not.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Can you explain what happened?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

I'm not necessarily against I I'm actually for it, okay. You're for it. So just to let you know, but my it was my understanding ahead of time, we were briefed and there were some issues that they wanted to iron out.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

So there was a motion made on the floor to uh let the committee go back and reconsider things.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Now look do you know what some of the issues are?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

I'll be honest with you. Uh just some questions about how they were gonna do it. I I don't I don't know everything. I I don't. I'll be honest. I don't. But so um, but I also understand then I found out after the fact that there was a bill that um we were trying to get past the halo bill. Are you familiar with that?

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Is that for the cops?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

It's for the police and the perimeter around the activity.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

The public a certain distance, like a halo around the activity.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Some somebody that's tied into the overme o uh the um ivermectin was instrumental in killing trying to kill that bill. So I think there was a little coup d'etat going on between two different groups.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

We heard it was nothing but politics.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Well, that is politics.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

But I mean it was like a a retribution thing. We're going to kill this because of we're mad. That's just you know the the scuttle butt that we hear.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

But I after the fact I've I have been told that it's not dead. We as you know, we ha uh should be having to go back to finish the budget.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Oh, so that's not done yet.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

No, no.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

When's that gonna happen? Um is this a special session that's coming up or something?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Well, so every every year we've had to go I've been up there, this is my fourth year, so every year we've had to go back and finish the budget. That's just the way it happens. Why this is something that was way before I got elected.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Um, but we always sign a diet into the session, but we can come back for the budget. Well, this year, obviously, we got called back by the governor because we were doing redistricting.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

So when the governor calls you back, it kind of opens the floodgates that you can address other things. Other things.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

So, and that's been part of what's been going on with the budget, is my understanding, is that the Senate's now wanting to us trying to force us to deal with bills that have nothing to do with the budget that they won't pass. And we're like, this that's not that's not uh the way this goes. You know, this is the budget. We need to pass the budget. These other bills have their place in time to get through the system.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

So that's kind of going on. But I I'm not sure why we went back for this the vote where we had the ivermectin. Uh because we didn't obviously the budget wasn't there, but we're going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Is this the end of the two year session or the midway session? This is the end.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

This is the end. We have a re we get re-elected every two years. The Senate it does not. So this is kind of their midterm. So they've got two more years before they have to be re-elected. So they're they do things their way, we do things our way.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

It's a little different, but I I Are there la I mean, I'm not gonna ask you to mention any names, but are there like a few people in there that are just pulling strings here and making things work malf like malfunction on purpose?

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Obviously, leadership is the ones that sets the schedule, who decides what we're gonna deal with on a daily basis. And they can do that if they want to. I don't think they do that on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

I don't but I mean, do you sit back and say this could be done so much more efficiently and like why is this happening?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

I think that would be an understatement.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Yeah. Why is that happening?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Um you know, i you gotta in the obviously in the um in the house we have uh you know, 124 people trying to figure things out and get on the same page. Well, not all of them, because obviously, but we have a supermajority, you would think that uh we would be able to do that. And that's why you have the leadership that tries to get you focused. Focused.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

But this didn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

No, it didn't, you know.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

And and so now you were looking at this Ivermectin bill. Now you believe that this may not be dead. Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

There was a statement that came out afterwards that said that you know, that it's not dead, that it may come back up. And I can assure you that's you mean when you come back for the budget. Right.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Okay, got it.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

This session and they're supposed they've already met once. They met last, I think a week ago today, actually. Uh they didn't come up with a resolution. They're gonna meet again sometime either on the 14th or sometime after the fourteenth, to try to iron out the differences.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Sounds like there's a free-for-all with the following of the rules. Well, because I can't follow anything.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Understand. Where we're at now, the House has passed a budget.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

The Senate has passed their version. They don't they don't mesh.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

So now it's in uh they have a conference committee that comes together to try to iron out the differences.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

So line by line, they're going through the budget.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

And then the things that they that we're trying to iron out, if they can get to some resolution, there's only six people, three from the House, three from the Senate that are on a conference committee. So they're going to and that's what we were voting on, things that had gone to conference committee and then come back out. Like we didn't pass a DUI bill that we needed to pass. We didn't pass the hemp uh hemp bill with the THC drinks.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

That's right. That you were you were real hot on that one.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Um can I throw one in there just to ask since you're on the different things? What about the uh homestead credit? It's currently at 50,000. There was talk of 150,000. Is that going to be through or is that I I it's funny you mentioned that.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

I'm for that because I I I'm old enough to get that. But um the uh I have not seen that. And I don't know if that's part of the budget that I that that's just in there, okay, or not, because I think that's a good bill that we need to we need to pass. Um but um so that's what we were doing. We were voting on these conference committees that had gotten together, and so what then happens is they come in and say, Well, the Senate took our version, so we just want to approve that, or we had to compromise, and here's what we did. We need you to vote on that. We recommend either doing that or not doing that. We also overrode some of the um governor vetoes, a couple things. Okay, it was just some cleanup stuff that we did for that little one day. We were only there for one day.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

So I see here major bills that died. Um, most gambling expansion bills died.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

That didn't really come up this year. It was up last year. They they were trying to talk about uh building the casino on I-95. But that I think they realized that even if they got it out of the House and the Senate, the governor was gonna v was gonna kill it and they wouldn't have the votes to override a veto. All right. So I think that'll be back up next year.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Some kind of HOA reform. Know anything about that?

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Uh I'm for trying to do something because Ory County's always number one in HOA issues.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

The complaints are number one right here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Equal Parenting Act and other pre-filed legislation, those died with the two-year kind of term there. Yeah. Um things that passed, okay. Um now the one thing that um I think failed also uh is coercive control.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

I don't think Micah Miller uh I think it passed the Senate. I don't think it got to the House.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Yeah, something happened and they said it would have to get reintroduced again.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

And it will. It will. Um that was uh a bill brought by Senator Goldfinch that over in the Senate. Um and I think it'll it'll gain traction again.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

What did you make of this? Um I haven't talked to you in a while. What did you make of this? You miss me, don't you? Yeah, I do. What did you make of this Dr. Traxler um nomination by Governor McMaster?

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Uh duh fortunately, we don't have anything to do with it. The Senate has to approve that. That only the Senate, the House has nothing to do with it. I I didn't understand.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Isn't it baffling?

SPEAKER_00 11:52

It is, uh especially after what happened with the other person that was there.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

After what happened to us during COVID. I mean, she was there the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

I I don't I it makes no sense.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

I think uh maybe McMaster's smoking a little dope up there in the statehouse. You can't say that without any proof. Sorry, some drinks. He's drinking. Oh, okay. He's drinking uh dope. Um, I was surprised by that.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

And I and I don't think the Senate's gonna approve that. Oh, good. That's good.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

I could be wrong, but what do you think about this race we went through?

SPEAKER_00 12:23

It it the the two people I thought would be there at the end were there for s for governor. And um, you know, I think they're the most in line uh to keep us on on you know, open us up for the case.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

So either way you would have been okay with where we were heading with the two final uh Alan Wilson and Pam Evans.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Yeah, well yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Um yeah, a lot of people said that they it was like uh but then you know uh Orie County, um they they were one of the counties that went just you know edged out Alan Wilson um with the vote. Three counties she won, but I mean the majority of the state went for the that was all from that stand your ground case, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Oh I think Al Alan got it. For Ori County. Yeah, yeah. He got beaten up for that big time.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

Mm-hmm. So I don't even know if it really falls on his plate totally, does it?

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Well, he took it on his plate and he made the decision that it was a stand your ground case. He could have he should well it'll be interesting because he gave it to another solicitor that's now got it has now impaneled a state grand jury. So I think there's gonna be some indictments coming, whether they're in involved with the shooters or whether or not they're gonna be involved with the law enforcement that handled the case. Yeah, I think it's a combination of the case.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

I heard uh the police department in Johnsonville just like pulled it up. All of them they all walk down, and and the people are like, Well, who's gonna protect us? And the sheriff's supposed to step in, and but people are, you know, I don't know what goes on with these police departments, but I I know Ory County's under scrutiny, and that really sucks for morale.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

They're doing an outside internal review, so that's a step.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Yeah, but they said that they received an anonymous letter from somebody from the police force saying, help, you know, blinking twice like, hey, this is not good over here.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Well, everybody has a boss, you know, so the the the that that law enforcement has to answer to, I guess, city council over there. Yeah. There were some things going on that they were not happy with or uncomfortable with. I don't know all the ins and outs.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

What about South Carolina falling in line with the big beautiful bill when it comes to taxes, tips, all that stuff? Because I know that's something that didn't pass. Is that something that's gonna be brought up again? We have a lot of questions on that daily.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

You're talking about like the big beautiful bill. Yeah, the uh tips and all that.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

I thought we had passed that. We have not. No, that did not get out.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

No.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

They voted no. Well, I hope that'll come back up and we can get that back.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

I feel like I feel like I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. I feel like there's an entity there in Colombia that is just like pulling strings. I just feel like I can't help but feel that way. And just basically how you're answering. I just feel like sometimes um the way you think things work isn't how it's working.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Well, how you think things should work is not necessarily how they're working.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

Yeah, and you're trying to do what you want to do and and you're trying to vote the way you want to vote, but if they're not putting it in front of you the right way, it's like how are you supposed to do it.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

There are a lot of moving parts. There's a lot going on, and and you know, where you get your information from can obviously dictate where you know who you get behind early and w what you get behind early and or what you don't get behind. And uh you may hear it from you know, somebody that's knows what they're talking about or somebody that has their own agenda. So you have to be careful.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

Uh that's for sure when you're and learning where those mine fields are is uh part of the deal.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

You have to learn who you can trust in the world.

SPEAKER_03 16:05

I can tell you right now, I can never do this job because I'd be screaming my head off.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

I'd be so more than you already do.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Yes, more than I already do. Thank you for pointing that out. Thank you, Sunday Representative Balgas. Appreciate your time. I'm glad you said it next time.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

I'll play for that next time. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

I'm sure it's uh