Comptroller General Choose 1
ELECTION INFORMATION: The Statewide Democratic and Republican Primary Elections will be held Tuesday, June 9, 2026. You may vote in either the Republican or the Democratic primary. Your address indicates you live in the district for this race.EARLY VOTING: If you prefer to vote prior to June 9, 2026, you can vote during a two-week early voting period Tuesday, May 26 through Friday, June 5. Early voting centers are open Monday to Friday, excluding holidays, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Early voting locations are specific to the county in which you are registered to vote. For your location, check your county Voter Registration and Elections website or SCVOTES.gov.ABSENTEE VOTING: You may be eligible to vote absentee by mail. For details on eligibility and how to submit your request, see this SC Election Commission Voting Absentee page: https://www.scvotes.gov/absentee-voting.*****************Comptroller General -- The South Carolina comptroller general is an elected executive official in state government. This individual is the state's lead accountant and top fiscal overseer, responsible for supervising state spending, maintaining the state's books and keeping accounting controls over state agencies. This is a four-year elected position.NOTE:This candidate’s responses were not available before our publication deadline. Voters are welcome to encourage the candidate to share their views. Updated responses will be posted as they are received.
Biographical Information
What is the status of the state pension system?
The state pension system’s financial status is disclosed annually in the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (“ACFR”), including pension liabilities and related reporting. In the FY2025 ACFR, South Carolina reports participation in five defined benefit pension plans, with pension obligations reflected as part of the State’s long-term liabilities. The Comptroller General’s role is to ensure accurate financial reporting of that information, but the office does not administer the pension system or make policy decisions regarding benefits, contributions, or investments.
How does the Comptroller General ensure stability in the state pension system?
See response above.
Identify the top issues facing the Comptroller General's office and explain how you will address them.
The biggest issues facing the Comptroller General’s Office are improving systems, strengthening internal processes, and making state financial information easier to understand.
First, continue system modernization so our tools work better, reduce manual work, & support accurate reporting.
Second, continuous improvement of the State’s transparency portal making it easier to navigate & understand with risk based tracking.
Third, strengthening internal controls to reduce errors & improve consistency.
And finally, simplifying internal processes & training so the work is easier to follow both within the office and for the agencies we work with.
Biographical Information
What is the status of the state pension system?
The bad news is that the flagship SCRS carries a $23.7 billion unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL), with a funded ratio of 63.4% as of July 1, 2025 (national median of 78%). The combined employer and employee contribution rate for SCRS is 27.56% of payroll, nearly triple the normal rate of 11%. Overall, the plan is net cash flow negative (i.e., benefit payments exceed new contributions). This forces a heavy dependence on investment returns to fund current retiree payments. The good news is that the UAAL is down by $1.469 billion over last year, high contribution rates reduced the expected funding period to 12 years (from the statutory 22-year maximum) and combined 1, 3, 5 and 10-year returns exceed the 7.00% actuarial target.
How does the Comptroller General ensure stability in the state pension system?
To strengthen pension oversight and public transparency I will create: (1) a public scorecard; (2) cost benchmarking; and (3) a legislative liaison function. The CGO will publish an annual pension health score card as a plain-language annual report, separate from and simpler than the ACFR, that grades the pension system's progress on metrics that matter most to taxpayers and beneficiaries. While RSIC discloses fees and PEBA discloses admin costs, neither is benchmarked against peers. We will turn fee transparency into accountability for value delivered per dollar spent. We will advocate for structural best practices, provide independent analysis when the General Assembly faces major pension decisions, and model peer states’ success.
Identify the top issues facing the Comptroller General's office and explain how you will address them.
With $5.3 billion dollars in accounting errors, tens of millions wasted investigating them and a pension system that's $25 billion short, we don't have a spending problem. We have an accountability problem. I'm running to fix it. SC’s Comptroller General signed off on books that were wrong by 40% of the total state budget. My top priorities are to ensure high-quality, reliable data and an AI-ready workforce. Insufficient, unrelated, and bad data will make our financial reports less reliable and erode trust in our ability to detect fraud. Our performance roadmap begins with a data quality audit of SCEIS records and a staff training program. These investments will pay dividends regardless of which specific tools we ultimately use.