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SCGOP In-Fighting

Home Rule Loses to Gov. Nikki Haley

No more proof is needed that Home Rule is a myth in South Carolina than Gov. Nikki Haley’s State of Emergency declaration Tuesday.

With a few words, Haley eliminated county governments and school districts from decision making processes that should have been left in local hands.

Our so-called conservative politicians complain all the time about big government intrusion on people’s lives, but it’s all talk. The conservatives in South Carolina love to exercise that power as much as any politician.

Specifically, Haley closed county governments and school districts for three days beginning yesterday because of impending emergencies associated with Hurricane Matthew. That closure applied not only to coastal counties, but rather to all counties east of Columbia.

It made no difference that Matthew was around Haiti and Cuba at the time the state of emergency went into effect in South Carolina.

It made no difference that students went to school in Florida on Wednesday, a state that will be affected by Matthew at least 48 hours before any storm effects make it to Horry County, but stayed home locally by order of the governor.

It made no difference that future hurricane track predictions are notoriously subject to change.

Haley had an opportunity to jump on the national stage again and she took it, ignoring local officials in the process.

And, Haley’s emergency declaration is conflicting. According to county officials, it applies to county governments and school boards, but not to municipal governments

Over the last six years, we have seen Haley’s reaction whenever she perceives the federal government intruding on her executive powers, but she had no problem doing the same to local governments Tuesday.

Ignoring the Nikki Haley Influence

Now that the SC General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted to override the veto of the Farm Aid Bill by Gov. Nikki Haley, Time Magazine may want to rethink how influential Haley really is.

Time recently named Haley one of Time’s 100 Most Influential Leaders.

After losing votes of 39-3 in the SC Senate and 112-2 in the SC House, you have to seriously question if Haley is one of the 100 most influential people in Columbia. I would say no.

Haley’s veto of the Farm Aid Bill was always a loser.

There are over 25,000 farms in the state that cultivate over five million acres of land. When the October 2015 rains wiped out many crops, it was obvious many had suffered catastrophic loss.

It is estimated over $400 million of crops were destroyed by the resultant flooding.

But, aiding suffering farmers is not something that draws national headlines. Therefore, it is of no interest to Haley.

Haley had no problem declaring the “1000 year flood” and requesting federal aid for those affected by the storm.

She was merely unwilling to give some aid on the state level, aid that many farmers in South Carolina need, but does not put Haley’s name in national headlines.

While ignoring the plight of farmers around the state, Haley was more interested in the “A Great Day SC” PAC that is raising money to target state lawmakers Haley doesn’t like.

Included in the list of Haley hit targets is Horry County’s Luke Rankin.

Haley blames Rankin for the failure of the SC Senate to pass an Ethics Reform Bill.
Whether that characterization is fair or not, I would submit that Haley was the beneficiary several years ago of the same ethics laws that she now wants to change.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Nikki.

Nikki Haley and Her Road Plan

We finally know the secret plan of Gov. Nikki Haley to fix the state’s roads.

Haley announced her three-part plan to fix state roads during her State of the State address two nights ago.

The three-part plan is – increase the state gas tax by 10 cents over three years, decrease state income tax rates by 2 percent over 10 years and restructure the Department of Transportation from a legislative appointed agency to a governor appointed agency.

Nikki Haley Inaugural Speech “In the Air”

Gov. Nikki Haley told listeners of her dreams in her second inaugural speech yesterday with no idea of how to make them reality.

Haley quoted Henry David Thoreau – “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

Haley’s enunciated dreams are certainly in the air. Unfortunately, her performance as governor, to date, lacks any attempt at foundations.

SCGOP In-Fighting

Nikki Haley’s October Surprise

Last October, during her reelection campaign, Gov. Nikki Haley told South Carolinians that she had a secret plan to fix the state’s roads she would announce after the election.

When the election was won, Haley said she couldn’t divulge the road maintenance plan until the New Year, but it would be obvious in her budget.

When Haley’s budget was made public last week, there was no money or plans to fix the state’s roads.

Nikki Haley’s About Face on Atlantic Beach Bikefest

It seems that Gov. Nikki Haley’s thinking with respect to the Atlantic Beach Bikefest has begun to enter the realm of reality.

After meeting with several local government leaders yesterday, Haley told the media everybody was working together to see that bike week (Atlantic Beach Bikefest) “is safe, that it is law abiding and that it moves forward.”

Haley said discussions were very productive and “we are now working on traffic issues, noise ordinances and all of those things on how we need to go forward…”

More Atlantic Beach Problems for Nikki Haley

Gov. Nikki Haley’s recent trip to Atlantic Beach continues to garner negative headlines for South Carolina’s top elected official.

The governor failed in her attempt to have a “frank” discussion with the Atlantic Beach Town Council about ending the Memorial Day Bikefest.

After a short opening address by Haley in which she reportedly promised to help Atlantic Beach return to its glory days of pre-integration prosperity, Haley was met with silence from town officials.

However, that was not all that occurred during the meeting.

Nikki Haley and Atlantic Beach Bikefest – Updated

The entire meeting took all of approximately 15 minutes – a complete waste of time.

To her credit, Haley refused to meet with the Atlantic Beach Town Council in executive session after arriving for the meeting, so a short open-session meeting resulted. A minor victory for freedom of information.

Haley addressed council for a short time, during which Haley said she would help Atlantic Beach return to the prosperity it enjoyed in the 1940′s if it would end its Memorial Day Bikefest.

Atlantic Beach Mayor Jake Evans said the town would appreciate any help that was offered, but Memorial Day Bikefest would continue.

Meeting adjourned.

You have to wonder what this was all about. Couldn’t there have been advance planning between Haley and Atlantic Beach officials so they actually accomplished something?

Nikki Haley to Meet with Atlantic Beach Council

Gov. Nikki Haley and the Atlantic Beach Town Council are scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday July 29th during a specially called council meeting.

To date, there is no official notice of the meeting, but it has been confirmed through media contacts.

The meeting is an apparent followup to Haley’s call for the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest to end after the violence in Myrtle Beach two months ago associated with crowds for that event. Haley said she was going to meet with Atlantic Beach officials in June, but the meeting could not be arranged.

It has been reported that the meeting will be held in executive session. We don’t expect anything else of Haley who has made secrecy an art form during her time as governor.

SCGOP In-Fighting

Nikki Haley Says Time for Memorial Day Black Bike Festival to End

In town for an annual Hurricane Preparedness Conference, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, referring to the Memorial Day Weekend Black Bike Festival, “It’s time for that festival to come to an end.”

Haley said the state can let the people of Atlantic Beach know “we will help them with tourism, we will help them in any way to strengthen their community, but we are not going to promote any events going forward that do any harm to the citizens of South Carolina and that’s exactly what happened…”

Haley made her comments at a press conference held after a one hour meeting with Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes, Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus and other officials from around Horry County.