Tag: Nikki Haley

Ethics Reform Commission Actions

Gov. Nikki Haley’s Ethics Reform Commission continued its work yesterday with another public hearing soliciting comments on how to reform and strengthen ethics laws in South Carolina.

The commission is scheduled to summarize comments and testimony January 8, 2013 and draft recommendations. On January 22nd it will discuss final recommendations and written report with January 28th being the date the report will be presented to the governor, the General Assembly and the public.

This all sounds great, but it probably isn’t going anywhere. It will take legislative action by the General Assembly and we don’t see that happening beyond some minor, face-saving measures being passed.

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Economic Development Incentives and You

One of the biggest ripoffs of American taxpayers comes in the form of economic development incentives given to businesses under the guise of job creation.

This is something we hear about every week, but the cost to the individual taxpayer is never considered.

It has gotten to the point that companies and the governments they negotiate with consider job creation something that should be subsidized by taxpayers.

Businesses understand any expense they can transfer to taxpayers will make the bottom line look better. Government interference in the marketplace is to be avoided at all costs except when business can shift expenses to government.

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Nikki Haley and Economic Development

A recent announcement by the Schaeffler Group that they would be expanding their operations in Cheraw gave Gov. Nikki Haley the opportunity to claim economic development progress as she prepares for her 2014 run for re-election.

Schaeffler is a bearing manufacturer headquartered in Germany with two significant plants already operating in Cheraw with locations in Ft. Mill and Spartanburg as well. The total number of Schaeffler employees in South Carolina already numbers 2,300.

Haley and her propaganda chief Rob Godfrey would have us believe that the announced increase of 190 jobs in Cheraw was the direct result of the governor’s trip to the Paris Air Show in 2011.

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Nikki Haley’s Foreign Vacations

You have to give Gov. Nikki Haley credit. By the end of this week and in less than two years in office, she will have visited three of the world’s great cities. Even better for her, Haley’s foreign vacations are being paid for with taxpayer dollars.

These three trips, London, Paris and Tokyo, are billed under that great government boondoggle category “economic development.” No big surprise there, it’s the category always used when the real intent is ‘We want to use public dollars to advance private agendas.’

In Haley’s case, however, I believe her private agenda is political more than personal. Remember, this is a governor with two paid staffers (taxpayer dollars) to advance her image and profile.

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Governor Nikki Haley’s EthicsReforms – Style Trumps Substance

Haley’s Ethics – Style Trumps Substance

Gov. Nikki Haley’s run around the state this week promoting ethics reform was a perfect example of disingenuous political posturing.

Haley must be given credit for several things. She knows how to define the message and present herself in the best possible political light. After this week’s demonstration, one could almost think Haley supports real ethics reform.

Nothing could be further from the truth. She supposedly supports transparency in government while her administration continuously refuses to follow the guidelines of the state’s weak freedom of information act.

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The Internet Sweepstakes Café Conundrum

The Internet Sweepstakes Café Conundrum

The conundrum now engulfing the internet sweepstakes cafe issue around the state has had intricate twists and turns in the last several months.

Several key legislators told us recently that SLED chief Mark Keel was lobbying General Assembly members to close the “loophole” in the state law on gambling that allows sweepstakes games at food stores and fast food restaurants. The same loophole is being used by internet sweepstakes café operators to justify their business model.

After the General Assembly failed to act on any change in the law, Keel, using an opinion by Attorney General Alan Wilson, began raiding internet sweepstakes cafes and confiscating the computers on which the games were being played.

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The Politics of the Internet Sweepstakes Raids in South Carolina

The Politics of Internet Sweepstakes Raids

Politics and intrigue too often inject themselves into what should be relatively straightforward issues in South Carolina. This has been especially true recently in government agendas related to internet sweepstakes cafes.

We have been reading recently of what is called the ‘Lexington Ring’ in blogs. Assertions have been made that this so-called cabal of law enforcement officials, magistrates and state legislators is conspiring to allow illegal video poker operations in the midlands.

“Make no mistake none of this is about video gambling. It is, all about assisting petition candidate Katrina Shealy in defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Jake Knotts in the November general election.”

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Nikki Haley Ethics Case Won’t Make Difference

Haley Ethics Case Won’t Make Difference

The S.C. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear an appeal of whether a circuit court judge erred when he refused to hear a lawsuit concerning alleged ethics violations by Gov. Nikki Haley when she was a state legislator.

Judge Casey Manning ruled state courts were not the proper venue to hear alleged ethics violations. Rather he said ethics regulators should hear the case. The complaint was heard by the S.C. House Ethics Committee twice, behind closed doors in May and in open session in June. Both times, the committee excused Haley’s actions.

This case says everything that needs to be said about the lack of ethics in S.C. governments.

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Time to Rethink Government Cheese in South Carolina

Time to Rethink Government in S.C.

The vote last week by the state Budget and Control Board to slightly increase out of pocket contributions for health insurance premiums of local and state public agency employees has raised interesting questions about government in South Carolina.

The General Assembly included $20.5 million in the FY 2013 state budget to pay for health insurance premium increases for the 234,363 state and local public agency employees covered by the state health insurance plan.

The B&CB voted to have the employees covered by the plan participate in the premium increases to the tune of a $7.25 per month. Now some state legislators are crying foul on the B&CB saying the agency acted illegally.

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Governor Nikki Haley’s EthicsReforms – Style Trumps Substance

Nikki Haley, Public Corruption and Nepotism

Charges of nepotism and apparent attempts at media intimidation have turned a non-story into a story affecting the administration of Gov. Nikki Haley as well as highlighting why South Carolina ranks as the 45th worst state in the nation in a public corruption study by the Center for Political Integrity.

A little background:

Approximately two weeks ago, we received an e-mail claiming that Gov. Nikki Haley’s 14 year old daughter was working at the State House gift shop and that two workers hours had been cut to accommodate the new employee.

We could not confirm that employee hours had been cut and decided this was not an important story. When a high school age girl, regardless of who she is, wants to get a summer job, we applaud it.

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