Nikki Haley is a great cheerleader … but will she be a great governor?
It’s still way too early to answer that question, but her first State of the State speech – delivered on Wednesday night to a joint session of the S.C. General Assembly – didn’t provide many clues.
“Words are only as good as the definitions we ascribe to them,” Haley said early in her first major policy address, but the dearth of fiscally-conservative policy (or any policy, for that matter) in the speech left us feeling singularly “undefined.”
In the days leading up to her address, state lawmakers said they wanted to hear specifics from Haley as to how to bridge the state’s estimated $1 billion budget shortfall. Rather than provide them with those ideas, however, Haley basically tossed the ball back in their court.
Where Haley did get specific, it was to target “low-hanging fruit” in the state budget – programs which if axed would not generate much controversy (or achieve substantial savings). For example, she recommended cutting funding for the S.C. Arts Commission, S.C. Educational Television (ETV) and implementing a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying – calculating the combined savings from these three proposals at $13.6 million.
Obviously we support all of those ideas (and many others like them) but they are by no means major cuts.
In fact, Haley’s speech was so short on cost-cutting ideas that she had to pat herself on the back not once … but twice … for a minor office space switcheroo involving a pair of health care agencies that will save taxpayers an estimated $175,000 annually.
Sheesh … somebody get us Bill Lumbergh on the phone.
Anyway, as is the case with all of these so-called “savings,” they aren’t ever going to make it back in the taxpayers’ pockets – at least not until we create a “taxpayer rebate fund” that forces lawmakers to choose between spending the money elsewhere in government or giving it back to you.
Such a proposal has been offered by S.C. Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) – and Haley could have put some much-needed substance behind all of her Tea Party rhetoric had she simply come out in support of it.
Haley did offer one new idea – a recommendation that lawmakers scrap a budget proviso prohibiting the use of generic drugs for treating HIV/AIDS, cancer and mental health treatment – but she neglected to point out that such a move would only save around $1 million.
To her credit, Haley endorsed a long-standing request from the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to cut Medicaid provider rates, although again she failed to lay out a specific amount. We think a five percent cut this year would be a good start, which would save approximately $50 million in the upcoming budget.
Former Gov. Mark Sanford has proposed a similar cut in the past, too.
Obviously, that would be a major source of “savings,” but again … these are not new ideas.
Haley also recommended a series of restructuring proposals – most of them lifted from the 2002 campaign of S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford – but she gave no estimate as to how much these proposals would save if implemented.
Basically, the entire speech was nothing but a bunch of meaningless feelgood rhetoric and regurgitated Sanford ideas – a pep rally-style speech that was long on optimism, but short on new ideas. In fact in some areas, it was downright embarrassing in its lack of detail.
On education, for example, Haley devoted just 279 words (out of a 5,290-word speech) – and offered absolutely no specifics. She didn’t address universal parental choice – or any form of school choice – and made only a passing reference to her prior support for funding reform.
Haley’s one “new” education idea? Privatizing the state’s school bus fleet – which was actually first proposed by Sanford in 2002.
And while Haley claimed that her administration would have “no greater priority than economic development and job creation,” she offered no specific tax policies aimed at achieving that objective. In fact, she even neglected to mention her proposed tax swap – which as we’ve noted would have a negligible impact on the state’s employment situation.
Instead of a less government Tea Partier, Haley sounded more like a Bobby Harrell-style champion of government-driven economic development, saying at one point that she hoped the S.C. Department of Commerce would become more of a “resource for small business.”
Huh?
Small businesses don’t need more government resources … they need tax cuts. Specifically, they need income tax relief that will enable them to keep more of what they earn.
On multiple fronts, Haley’s first State of the State speech was a tremendous disappointment … and a major missed opportunity. Let’s hope in the weeks and months to come that she digs a little deeper.
Cheerleaders are nice to look at … but this state needs a real reformer.
THE SOURCE …
S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s 2011 State of the State Address
***
By Doris January 19, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Now Will, honey, she did a great job. She looked great and was very poised for her first time and immediately following the inauguration. The place was not as crowded as usual and between me and you, the Democrats were bitching more than usual. I didn’t see Brad Hutto but on television and who told him it was okay not go on television with that scraggly beard? Just awful, Brad. I know your people – on both sides.
By sam January 19, 2011 at 9:10 pm
MR WILL (village idiot) FOLKS,
THE LOW HANGING FRUITS ARE ALREADY GONE.
AT THIS STAGE, BUDGET CUTTING SHOULD BE DONE IN STAGES OVER WEEKS/MONTHS, NOT IN ONE DAY. Else the system becomes unstable.
folks, have you been going back to drinking booze again or what ?
By sam January 19, 2011 at 9:15 pm
i am a big supporter of will folks and his moronic funny writings.
But i do wish for his health that will folks would stop drinking so heavily.
on jan 8th, we had to literally pick Will Folks up from the sidewalk after he got plastered with booze, and passed out. It was so funny, we are still laughing about it (btw, harry and the boyz send you their love)
By LittleBusinessPerson January 19, 2011 at 9:39 pm
She sounded pretty clear to me: work with the legislature, post results on the Web, door is open to all visitors, will travel the state for town-hall meetings.
Praised certain legislators who have helped so far, said the road ahead will be blood spattered, but didn’t get into details, which seems to me that she will work to force the legislature to make cuts.
Which they will not do.
The intransigent legislators will be identified in time, and one by one, Will, you can tell us about these people and let us judge them, one by one, like pulling off all eight legs of an insect.
Like Jake Knotts, who is … what … cockroach?
Bobby Harrell … what … grasshopper?
Hugh Leatherman … what … termite?
And Nikki is in charge of this thriving, dirty, incestuous, self-serving, spendthrift, wood-boring Animal Farm.
By dwb619 January 19, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Oh that’s great. The lowest hanging(and paid) fruit in the Department of Education. THE BUS DRIVERS
By UpState Native January 19, 2011 at 11:49 pm
So she wants to sell the buses, fire the guys that keep these things safe for the kids, let more prisoners out so they can commit more crimes because it cost to much to feed them, put the certified police officers that work for probation parole under corrections and tell them plus all street cops, sheriffs and deputies plus all Judges state wide they can’t send anyone to jail because they have been bad simply due to the state does not want to feed them. With this idea to save money why not do what Camden NJ just did and fire half the police and a third of the fire department then wonder why they are still the worst city for violent crime 3 years running. I bet most of the ones in prison are there because state law says Mandatory sentences that were enacted while she was a legislator since 2004.
Since ETV will be cut and sounds like it will be closed how many people will be out of a job and what will she do then lease out the TV stations or be another empty former state building.
If she wants to save some money how about selling the governor’s mansion and she have to pay for her own housing like everyone else.
Why not cut the budget for DOT while she is at it and lets go back to gravel roads then we can increase small business in the form of more car repair shops and save millions on the never ending repaying of the interstates and highways. She could claim we have gone green and back to nature to use as a tourist tool.
By Ken E. January 19, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Again, FITS with the “taxpayer rebate fund”? Give it a rest. Can you please tell me how it makes sense in our current situation?
By Louisa January 20, 2011 at 12:29 am
Newspaper pictures statewide show her ravishing beauty. Gorgeous! What class! The men surrounding her — mostly unattractive codgers with double chins.
By Spicoli January 20, 2011 at 12:54 am
Q: How can you read tele-prompters when you are half-baked?
A: You can’t.
OFMROFL
Maybe Will Folks will make the new SCHotline Who’s Who
http://schotline.us/2011/01/19/schotlines-whos-who/
Doris,
I thought you were talking about 125k/year Tim Pearson for a second, yeah Hutto, okay got it.
By john January 20, 2011 at 2:20 am
she is a joke, she is like 99% of people in the republickin party she will do what most of these clowns do cut programs that help the poor and give more to the rich. she is a clown id like to ask her where are the jobs? bring jobs to sc and ill be impressed but im afraid she is the same old broken record.
By Andy January 20, 2011 at 6:31 am
Short on specifics. Now there’s a big fucking surprise.
By Stumpy January 20, 2011 at 7:35 am
@ UpState Native,
I’ve always wondered how all these people expect to pay no taxes and still have roads, schools, law enforcement, fire protection, etc. How did the toll road work out around Mauldin and Greenville, not too good. Maybe they can cut funding for enforcement for home poker games, prostitution and pot and divert it to other areas. Shucks, them pot smokers stimulate the economy buying all those Twinkies.
By Beeza January 20, 2011 at 8:12 am
Here’s Bobby Hitt’s new economic development ad campaign…come to SC where Saturday night entertainment is chasin’ greased pigs, and ridin’ our trakters to tha drive-in. Aint got no art museums n’er them syfony folks….got rid o them hoity toity folks wid tha arts co-mission. Y’all come hear?
By WorkingTommyC January 20, 2011 at 8:13 am
I thought the speech was really good. It can’t be an panacea. It just outlined the major goals, some accomplishments, etc. which is all such a speech is supposed to do. I noticed a lot of people NOT clapping when others gave applause in her proposing to eliminate funding for public broadcasting in an age where we are flooded with programming options.
She had the guts to lay down her goals to a group of men who mostly despise her policies and will work to put a stake through every reform effort they can. She hit on a LOT of tea party movement goals and I think she will prove herself to be a fighter when she starts working hard to get the reforms passed.
I got involved in a discussion after the event regarding the “recruitment” of companies to SC. It’s possible that, in her speech, Nikki was referring to cutting taxes for all equally under the law but if so, she did not make that clear to me. We can’t afford to continue to do business as usual in funneling taxpayer money to bribe filthy rich mega-corporations to come here. I don’t think the results of such funneling are anywhere near as good as they would be by implementing tax cuts across the board but, even if they were, wrong is wrong, fascism is fascism and it has to stop.
By toyota kawaski January 20, 2011 at 8:30 am
Gov.Sanford looked good in drag
By Soft Sigh from Hell January 20, 2011 at 8:35 am
Realistically, how soon will we hear about serious and feasible (politically included) proposals for the real hacking, the meat-ax cuts to come?
Will the legislature pull its normal “everything up in the air until two days to adjournment” routine?
By commonman January 20, 2011 at 8:59 am
Privatizing school bus transporation goes back to at least the 1990′s. Sorry, Sanford was not first on this one. Believe it was lobbyist pushed and actually received some consideration.
By stateemployee January 20, 2011 at 9:11 am
Has anybody ever been so bad at reading a speech from a teleprompter, she seemed mesmerized by the thing, at one point staring a few seconds waiting for the next words to come on. It was like watching a tennis match, Left-right, left-right, left-right.
By Ralph Hightower January 20, 2011 at 9:47 am
No specifics, no goals. That way, Nikki can pat herself on the back next year and say that she accomplished all her goals outlined.
By Eastbound and Down January 20, 2011 at 10:36 am
Look we all know why legislators were demanding “specifics”, because they want to be able to blame shift all the negativity thats going to come from this budget on Haley.
Anyone who has a clue about this states budget process already knows that the budget writers already know what they are going to do, they just want Haley to take the public hit for it.
I am no Haley fan but i can read through the lines of legislators statements on demanding “specifics”
Haley was politically savvy not to lay out every option so as not to get the negative PR from the upcoming slash and burn budget that the state is going to get.
What she probably doesn’t figure on is that she is going to get the blame regardless. And it will be harder for her to lay out any specifics on the budget given that she is not doing a sanford style exec budget. She will have little precedence when she hands down budget vetoes, if she goes that route, which i doubt.
By Michael P. January 20, 2011 at 11:13 am
SC is the only state in the country where the Dept. of Education runs the school bus system. Put this onto the school districts to run like every other state does. And shut down the Budget & Control Board.
By Michael P. January 20, 2011 at 11:14 am
stateemployee – Give her a few months and she’ll be as good as Odumbo is at reading the teleprompter.
By sam January 20, 2011 at 12:37 pm
TO ALL MY FRIENDS ON FITSNEWS,
Please stop criticizing my good friend Will Folks.
Will Folks may have some negative points (Will Folks is an alcoholic, a compulsive liar, a wife beater, and was thrown out from his last job because he stole money).
But Will Folks has his heart in the right place and has some good points going to his credit (Will Folks is gay, has not touched any drugs in the last 2 months and sometimes writes well).
We fully support Will Folks and denounce anyone who says anything against Will Folks,
Sam (and other Will Folks supporters)
By Soft Sigh from Hell January 20, 2011 at 1:04 pm
“Anyone who has a clue about this states budget process already knows that the budget writers already know what they are going to do”
But WHEN do we start hearing some scuttlebutt on these matters?
By ceilidh10 January 20, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Don’t look at me…I didn’t vote for the mophead. She’s in your court now.
By Crooner January 20, 2011 at 3:26 pm
In MY day, school buses were driven by high school juniors and seniors, and all they got for it was school bus driver jackets with their bus numbers on them.
I have difficulty ciphering how privatization of the fleet results in savings. Would the private sector force illegal aliens to drive the buses for little or no pay? Would they use fewer buses thereby increasing the wait for little Johnny to get to and from school? Would they do less maintenance thereby making the bus ride less safe for our children?
Frankly, judging (non-scientifically) from the amount of kids I see being ferried to and from public school by their parents in private cars this may well be a haves vs have nots issue where the haves don’t give a shit about what happens on the bus ’cause their kids ain’t riding them anyway.
By Blue January 20, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Think about the bus privatization this way. You have a family relative or friend that knows a thing or two about fixing a car. And when your car needs breaks or an oil change you take it to them. You pay what the job is worth because you know you are geting the parts at cost and the labor might be a flat $50 or dinner. Now you have a repair that your guy can’t fix and you have to take it to the dealership. How much are those parts going to cost you? How much more is that labor going to be marked up. Right now you those bus drivers are on the payrole so you know what those parts and labor are going to cost you every time. So when that bus needs a transmission and capitalism says go for the big money are the tax payers and schools going to get treated the same way you do when you need your car fixed?
Not that this will save the jobs of all those young teachers who are really another furlow or two away from public housing
By dwb619 January 20, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Be interesting to know Nimrata already has “short-listed” for this contract. Charleston County has already fired many contractors, still won’t admit they made a mistake. Beaufort County tried it, not sure, but i think they went to running buses themselves.
By Eastbound and Down January 21, 2011 at 11:58 am
Soft Sigh are you naive?
Come on the budget writers wont start trickling out right now its too early, they haven’t bent enough elbows or twisted enough arms yet.
Look i am sure Egg Tooth Dan, and Too Short to Ride Hugh, have already discussed what they will ram down the throats of the legislature.
Once they have bought off the power brokers with “incentives”, like maintaining the Hunley, etc. They will make their move, with what I am sure Egg Tooth and Too Short will present “as the only feasible option in these dire times.”
Hope I am wrong but with these morons overseeing the budget, who the hell knows.
By Soft Sigh from Hell January 21, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Oh I’m sure you are right concerning their attempts at secrecy and dribbling, but I would have thought the legislature was a spy’s dreamland and leaky as a sieve.