SC

Nikki Haley’s Budget: A Mixed Bag

IS SHE FINALLY CUTTING GOVERNMENT? This website has had few positive things to say about S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley since she took office two years ago.  We believe she’s a liar and a hypocrite, but our real problem with her has nothing to do with either of these character flaws….

IS SHE FINALLY CUTTING GOVERNMENT?

This website has had few positive things to say about S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley since she took office two years ago.  We believe she’s a liar and a hypocrite, but our real problem with her has nothing to do with either of these character flaws.

Our beef with Haley?  She has brazenly betrayed the limited government ideology she campaigned on in 2010 – choosing instead to back the rampant government growth pushed by her “Republican” colleagues in the S.C. General Assembly.  In addition to the massive $22.8 billion executive budget she proposed a year ago, Haley has also signed off on record spending increases pushed through the legislature by fiscal liberals like S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman.

Through her first two years in office, Haley has approved all but $273 million of a whopping $45 billion in state spending.  Talk about an underwhelming commitment to slowing the unchecked growth of state government …

This year Haley’s executive budget for FY 2013-14 proposes to spend $6.3 billion in general fund revenues – up from the $6.1 billion appropriated last June.  That’s a 3 percent increase.  However her spending plan claims to reduce total state spending by roughly $400 million – from $23 billion to $22.6 billion.  That’s a 1.8 percent reduction.

How is this possible?  Haley says the reduction in total state spending is due to changes in the way the way state leaders calculate the federal funding they receive – along with the money that gets transferred within the maze of bureaucracies that comprise state government.

Hmmmmm ….

“The reduction in total spending is primarily attributable to the deletion of ‘certified public expenditures,’ which artificially inflate apparent spending by either counting the same dollars twice (for interagency transfers), or else by counting direct federal entitlement payments to beneficiaries, even if those funds are never held in the state’s custody,” her budget states.

Unfortunately, Haley didn’t show her math on this point … so we don’t know if it’s valid reasoning.  Maybe this point will be raised at the public budget hearing that’s required by law to take place within five days of Haley releasing her executive budget.  Or maybe not – as it turns out lawmakers don’t follow that law.

Anyway, Haley deserves some credit for proposing minimal increases to a state budget that has grown astronomically in recent years.  We suspected that she would begin the process of tacking mildly to the right on fiscal issues this year – and that’s exactly what she’s doing here.   Still Haley’s budget – which is really nothing but a collection of state agency presentations submitted to her office – once again fails to do the long-overdue work of identifying state agencies performing non-core functions.

Like this one …

Or this one …

Or this one …

Haley also missed another opportunity to propose letting our state’s higher education establishments to pursue their destiny as private institutions – as well as a chance to push real government restructuring reforms that would streamline government by collapsing agencies (as opposed to what Haley proposed).

NIKKI HALEY’S EXECUTIVE BUDGET FY 2013-14

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15 comments

BigT December 26, 2012 at 3:52 pm

I hope there are more cuts to arts programs, ETV and state-propped entitlements…

Obama’s economy is miserable…let’s Punish those responsible for the disaster….

Haley can make her name by screaming ‘NO’ to liberals…

Reply
Thebeachisback December 26, 2012 at 3:56 pm

You are without a doubt the biggest jackass! Without the arts and ETV, how will you watch your Cival War reinactments or purchase your Elvis on velvet art?

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BigT December 26, 2012 at 4:04 pm

The Free Market does a better job marketing Elvis and The Civil War…

Better question: What will Gwen Ifell, Bill Moyers, Jim Leher, Tavis Smiley, Cornell West..and a host of other Worthless Leftwing Idiots do, if we quit tolerating Hate and Stupidity on Public Funded TV????

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Oh, Haters! December 26, 2012 at 4:45 pm

Maybe you could get on a public access station and bitch about Anti-CAIR?

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Liberal Trash December 26, 2012 at 4:50 pm

I remember that defunding PBS was one of the ways that Mitt Romney was going to balance the budget.He even said so in one of the debates.Republicans are always bellyaching that taxing their benefactors,the rich, will only fund the government for a few days.Defunding PBS would fund the government for a second or two,but the irrational hatred of this Republicanmgoes on I see.

Unsurprising.

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notagain December 27, 2012 at 7:41 am

During WWII, a proposal was made by the British treasury to Winston Churchill that they had to cut back spending on the arts so that they could more easily fund the war effort. Reportedly Churchill replied, “Then pray tell me, what are we fighting for?” I kind of agree with old Winston.

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Bill Clinton December 26, 2012 at 4:57 pm

Liar and hyprocrite, perhaps… but did she swallow?

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Twinkie Ho-Ho December 27, 2012 at 11:30 am

That sneer on her face indicates that she did.

Reply
BigT December 26, 2012 at 5:05 pm

I’ve digested the Election of 2012 already. Our country is being ruled by Takers…

I’ll agree to a Scorched Earth policy by Republicans. If I have to suffer, I’m down for the struggle. I’ve been there before. I am a product of what irresonsility does. I’ve paid dues, unlike the Liberals Poverty pimps…

And I did not get a government hand-out to soften the blow of an dysfunctional situation…

Now we have communities where the fathers have a baby by multiple mothers…but we pay for it…

We will not grow as a moral society until the immoral are called to account…

Haley can Rule w/ REVENGE…as Obama has encouarged. He declared war on the Earners and the Givers…if you surrender, he will Rape and lay the ground to waste…

We must be ready to Burn down the village to rid it of the FILTH that now is in power.

You either purge this disease now…or the workers will have nothing worth fighting for, when the Obam-ites get through with it…

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Liberal Trash December 26, 2012 at 5:42 pm

Heartburn is Hell!

Aint it?

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BigT December 26, 2012 at 6:13 pm

It’s not for me. I can handle it…

But I’ll LMAO when the Freebies and hand-outs have to be cut…after Obama pushes us off the Cliff…

But don’t worry. He’ll be fine, playing golf and drinking the bubbly…while your ignorant @$$ freezes and starves…

And Remember: you asked for it…

Reply
Saluda Rapids December 26, 2012 at 7:54 pm

Mr. Clinton above has it right. She tries to talk tough, throws out the red meat for the clueless knuckle draggers, then begs for the federal cash when she thinks no one is looking..and when she’s finished…sometimes she spits and sometimes she swallows.

Reply
notagain December 27, 2012 at 7:46 am

Wow! What vitriol. I am so glad I do not live in a world that remotely resembles yours. Must be terrible.

Reply
Sam December 26, 2012 at 8:34 pm

All smoke and mirrors.

No real cuts.

She is a big spender

Reply
Sailor December 26, 2012 at 9:15 pm

Big T(urd) says “I am a product of what irresponsibility does” . He’s right! His daddy should have used a condom.

Reply

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