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 Rep. Haley gets standing ovation during visit to Edgefield County web posted January 22, 2010  JOHNSTON – State
Representative Nikki
Haley attended the first meeting of the Edgefield County Republican
Women Thursday night and in short order set the bar high for her
Republican challengers for Governor. She laid out her conservative
beliefs and based them on sound fiscal policy, accountability, and most
of all transparency. By the time she was finished the room erupted in a
standing ovation. (Audio of Rep. Haley's comments can be heard here) Rep. Haley explained that she had never been politically active until she ran to represent the Lexington area and defeated the longest serving incumbent in the State House five years ago. After arriving in Columbia, Rep. Haley said she saw things she liked and things she did not like. It was the things she did not like that she focused on to make government more accountable to the people. “We had consistently seen more and more voice votes being read across the desk. They would pass a bill across the desk, and as an accountant, those were dollar signs because every time they voted by voice vote, every time they did not have their name with that vote, I knew that they were growing government, spending your tax dollars, and not being accountable for it,” Rep. Haley said. But that last bill she gave as an example passed “overwhelmingly” by a voice vote. “This one was different,” Haley said, “because to this day you cannot find one legislator that says they voted themselves a pay raise.” The next day Rep. Haley said she filed a bill that stated anything that is important enough to be discussed on the floor of the House or the Senate was important enough to have a vote on the record. According to a report issued at the time, she said, the people of South Carolina did not know how House Representatives voted 92% of the time, and worse, no clue 99% of time on votes in the Senate. Without knowing who voted for what, Haley asked rhetorically, “How did you know who to vote for when you went to the polls? You didn’t.” Though fellow Republican leaders in the House stripped her of her committee appointments for pushing the bill, she forged onward and won passage. “Now, I don’t stand here as a victim of that process. I was very aware that if I pushed forward there would be punishment. But while they were trying to show my colleagues this is what we do to someone who steps out of line, I was trying to show my colleagues, this is what happens when you step out of line,” Haley said. “I wanted them to know I was very aware of who I worked for and it was no one in that State House,” Haley said. Last January rules were passed to put an unprecedented number of votes on the record and she is still fighting for a bill that places every single vote on the record. Rep. Haley said she supports term limits for legislators to promote a closer connection to the voters by elected representatives. Elected representatives, she said, go to Columbia with good intentions, but become “broken” by the system, and end up representing themselves, not the people who elected them. Another thing Rep. Haley said she wanted is for all budgets and all spending to be available online. “I want you to be able to see every single taxpayer dollar that is spent.” Although she admitted many people are busy in their lives earning a living and may not monitor the votes, “But if they know you can see it, they will have to behave in how they spend it.” She compared the Legislature to a classroom, “When a teacher is in the classroom, the kids are fine. When the teacher walks out of the classroom, what happens, the kids cut up a little bit. Not because they are bad kids, but because they can.” By putting spending online for the public to view at will, “You will be the teacher in the classroom,” she said. “They will know you’re watching and they will have to behave in the way they spend taxpayer dollars.” Having income disclosures for legislators is another measure she promoted. “You need to know who is paying your legislators. Because when they have to disclose that, you will suddenly see why legislation has moved the way it has in the state of South Carolina.” Two good things would come from such disclosures she said. First would be that members would have to recuse themselves from votes they should not be allowed to be included, and secondly would be legislation that benefits the people of South Carolina, “and not the legislators.” To address the states unemployment, presently at 12%, Rep. Haley said cutting the small business income tax would make a large impact on creating jobs. “Because when you give small businesses cash flow, when you give them profit margins, what’s the first thing they do? They hire people. They invest back in our state.” Small businesses, she said, represents 95% of businesses that make up the economy in the state. By making South Carolina more attractive to our current businesses, other businesses and industry will seek South Carolina out as a place to locate. Not because of special deals cut for them that are not available to businesses already in the state, but because South Carolina would be more “business friendly”. As business opportunities grow, education opportunities would be equally enhanced. “We can’t fund a child’s education on where they have to be born and raised. We have to give a child an education because that is our future workforce and they deserve it,” she said in an earlier interview. Restructuring the educational funding formula is a part of her plan. Making sure that education dollars are spent on things that work and make sense, “and that we look at graduations rates.” Every dollar spent on education in South Carolina right now, she said, “has to go through a thousand people at the Department of Education and eighty-five school districts before it ever touches a student or teacher in the classroom. We need to make sure those dollars are going into the classroom where it matters” In addition to her vision for the state Rep. Haley closed with an expression of her faith. “My husband and I understand the importance of what it means to walk with the Lord and appreciate the fact that with His blessings, all things are possible.” “I am a legislator that knows what good government is and I want the people of this state to know what that feels like,” Haley said. © Copyright 2010
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