COVID-19 | SC Economic Revitalization Plan
Updated May 12, 2020
Governor Henry McMaster of South Carolina made public his accelerateSC plan to reopen South Carolina’s economy on April 20, 2020. The state launched an accelerate.sc.gov website as a “one-stop-shop” of South Carolina COVID-19 resources.
Gov. McMaster has announced several Executive Orders that allow certain businesses to reopen with guidance and safety measures in place. He has also announced that state employees will begin to return to work on June 1, 2020.
accelerateSC Plan
The plan includes a “coordinated COVID-19 advisory team to consider and recommend economic revitalization plans of South Carolina.” The task force includes small and large business leaders, healthcare professionals, local government officials, and education professionals that are tasked with creating short and long term recommendations of how to best revitalize the state’s economy while protecting the health of its citizens. A full list of the accelerateSC team members is available here.
accelerateSC is made up of five components of analysis and effort, which will each be coordinated by a state agency. More information about each component is available here.
- Response (Commerce)
- Protection (Department of Health and Environmental Control [DHEC])
- Governance (S.C. Executive Office of the Governor)
- Resources (Department of Administration, Executive Budget Office [EBO])
- Information (Department of Administration [Administration])
Gov. McMaster and Lt. Gov. Evette will attend and participate in accelerateSC meetings. The group will convene for its first meeting Thursday, April 23. accelerateSC is effective for 30 days.
On April 16, 2020, Gov. McMaster first announced he was preparing an economic revitalization plan guided by a task force to assist the Governor in providing best practices for an incremental safe reopening of South Carolina. During the briefing, Gov. McMaster noted that no timeline has been set to reopen the state and get South Carolinians back to work, but his desire is that it be as soon as possible. There is a hope for the state to reopen some time in May, and for business to be “humming” again by the end of June.
The Governor has stressed the importance of a measured and careful response, and that moving too quickly would be reckless.
MVA Public Affairs will update this page as more details about the plan become available.