Our view: SC Gov. Haley must work with legislators

Is that Mark Sanford in a dress? Gov. Nikki Haley, like her predecessor, doesn’t get along with the Legislature, even when it is populated overwhelmingly by members of her own party.

When Haley first ran for the governorship, she promised cooperation. She would not be another Sanford, who had continually butted heads with the Legislature and rarely was able to form working coalitions to forward his agenda.

After all, said Haley, she had been one of them, one of the ranks of state representatives who, herself, had sometimes opposed Sanford.

But that spirit of cooperation didn’t last long. During her first year in office, she publicly issued report cards on lawmakers, with those who didn’t vote according to her wishes on key topics getting low grades.

At the end of that session, she tried to force the Legislature into passing her version of a bill to abolish the state Budget and Control Board by ordering lawmakers back to work during a recess. The state Supreme Court eventually ruled that she had acted unconstitutionally.

In August 2012, she tried to co-opt the Legislature on the matter of covering the cost of health-insurance premiums for state employees and retirees. Haley disagreed with the decision by lawmakers to fully cover those costs, but rather than vetoing the budget they approved, she used her authority on the Budget and Control Board to require state employees and retirees to pay part of the increase themselves.

Once again, the state Supreme Court ruled that what Haley had done was unconstitutional.

At times during her tenure she has appeared sincerely willing to do the often difficult legwork to change minds and build support for her agenda. But in recent weeks, we have seen the combative, caustic Haley who seems more interested in burning bridges than in building them.

On March 24, she suggested to a state Realtors group that a visit to the General Assembly might threaten one’s hygiene: “Because I know many of you are going to the Statehosue, which I love, just make sure you take a good shower when you leave.”

She continued in that vein, suggesting that members of the General Assembly were out of touch with average South Carolinians: “Legislators don’t feel the burn like we do,” she told the real estate group. “Legislators don’t remember what it was like when you go through days without a sale. ... Legislators don’t remember what it means to truly live day to day.”

House Speaker Jay Lucas, a fellow Republican, took to the House floor to admonish the governor for “middle school comments” that threatened to “poison the well.” He lamented that Haley’s remarks reminded him of the edgy relationship between the Legislature and Sanford, who once brought two piglets to the Statehouse as props to criticize what he labeled pork-barrel spending in the state budget.

“The relationship with Gov. Sanford was never really good,” said Lucas. “I thought that we were setting a new tone, and I thought we were building a good relationship with Gov. Haley.”

It’s not as if Haley’s remarks were secretly taped and released to the public as a “gotcha” moment. Haley’s office took videos and posted them on social media, so she evidently believes the attacks will be beneficial in moving her agenda.

Haley also has singled out specific lawmakers for criticism. She blasted House Ways and Means Chairman Brian White of Anderson at a Greenville Rotary Club meeting for his proposal to borrow $500 million in bond money to help pay for various state needs. Opposition she posted on Facebook helped kill that plan.

She also has gone after Senate President Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman, accusing him of blocking ethics reform efforts.

In some cases, Haley has legitimate gripes. In the case of Leatherman and fellow senators, she is right to take them to task for refusing to consider adopting an independent ethics panel to oversee the Legislature.

But lawmakers have a point when they say her tactics often are childish and unproductive. Some of the attacks are simply cheap shots. Haley, who, while serving in the House, made six figures lobbying for a Lexington hospital and more than $40,000 in consulting fees from a government contractor who hired her for her “good contacts,” has no room to call lawmakers out of touch with reality.

While the Legislature might include a number of well-to-do lawyers and business people, it also features many hard-working members who hold down jobs that don’t make them independently wealthy. And most don’t exploit their positions as elected officials to make a buck.

Some have accused Haley of concentrating more on what the next step up the political ladder might be after she leaves office than the job at hand. If so, a record of constant contention with the Legislature won’t look great on a resume.

But the governor owes it to residents of the state to get beyond the rancor and ill will, and work with lawmakers to address the many pressing problems the state faces. Haley had pledged to do that and seemed to be moving in that direction, but these pointed and pointless shots at lawmakers makes us doubt her sincerity.

If she thinks this is the way to win support for her agenda, she’s wrong.

This story was originally published April 5, 2015 at 8:17 AM with the headline "Our view: SC Gov. Haley must work with legislators."