Things seem to stay the same in South Carolina politics. The discouraging tendencies set by former Gov. Mark Sanford have quickly been picked up by Gov. Nikki Haley. Both repeatedly pushed for more transparency and reform in the state, but it seems those ideas have been lost in translation for most Palmetto State voters.
The Associated Press recently reported that the task force Haley appointed to solve the state’s financial issues has never given the required public notice to any meetings it held. No one, except for members of the actual task force, ever sat in on the meetings. The panel’s chairman said public scrutiny would make it too difficult for them to candidly discuss the issues. More accurately, they don’t want anyone to know what they’re talking about.
To coincide with Haley’s watchdogs working behind closed doors, details on Sanford’s definition of transparency recently came to light. State senators, led by last year’s Democratic nominee for governor Vincent Sheheen, say there is sworn testimony on record from a former head at the Department of Health and Human Services that the agency was instructed by Sanford’s staff to lie about its budget. The agency was told to underestimate how much money it needed and to conceal the true growth rate of the state’s Medicaid program. The failure to ask for more money is one of reasons the agency’s deficit is around $228 million, more than a quarter of the state’s overall deficit.
If this trend of artificial transparency continues at the Statehouse, we may never be able to get our state back on track.
Maybe it’s time for voters to look to a new kind of leadership, one that reaches beyond party affiliation and fights day in and day out for the best interests of every South Carolinian.