In South Carolina news...

In local news, it looks like South Carolina will have uniformly BAD ROADS for another year, at least.




Our roads are secondary to the election. (Aren't yours?) Our awful Governor, Nikki Haley (at left, making excuses), does NOT want to be accused of being "pro-spending" before November. If you wonder why our roads are a wreck, keep this in mind. Safety is NOT as important as Nikki's re-election, of course.

Remember, when she was elected, I pointedly asked: Can the infrastructure of this state stand four more years of total neglect?

I was dead serious, although several local readers believed I was joking. Obviously, we see that I was pretty good at fortune-telling, even without my Tarot cards.

It's even worse than we thought, according to Nikki's ex-boyfriend and one-time mentor, Will Folks at FitsNews:

Three years ago S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley‘s Transportation Department (SCDOT) ran out of money and had to stop paying contractors. The result? All paving and maintenance work in the state ground to a halt (although totally unnecessary boondoggles still got their money).

Haley got her agency out of the jam by (wait for it) requesting and receiving a $52 million bailout from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. Just six weeks after she approved what at the time was the largest spending plan in South Carolina history …

Gotta love those “Tea Party” Republicans, right?

Anyway … what is past is prologue, it would appear.

This week, SCDOT commissioners met to discuss the agency’s fiscal outlook … which isn’t good.

Specifically, they admitted their cash balance would be in the negative beginning later this summer – a shortfall that is expected to last for several months. In fact the cash crunch could be much deeper – and extend into 2015 – if the federal government can’t (or won’t) pay states reimbursements from the recent ice storms. [...] At a recent commission meeting, S.C. Sen. Larry Grooms asked point-blank if the agency was going to have another problem paying contractors like they did in 2011. Agency leaders claim they have a contingency plan, but the ice storms were unforeseen, and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is already warning states that they will have to decrease payments, beginning in July.

“The trajectory for the highway account has worsened,” federal transportation undersecretary Peter Rogoff said at a hearing in Washington, D.C. earlier this month.

In fact the cash crunch may start affecting states prior to July …

SCDOT is currently run by Haley’s former college roommate. She assumed the position after the governor’s first pick, Robert St. Onge, resigned his office in disgrace earlier this year.

Ugh. Saints preserve us. This woman CAN'T MANAGE MONEY.

At left: Nikki Haley's independent opponent, attorney Tom Ervin.




Outside the local library, the well-scrubbed Tom Ervin partisans had tables all set up, taking signatures for Ervin, their Independent candidate. I usually sign all petitions for Independents to get on the ballot, since as a Green Party member, I want more parties involved in the process, in addition to the Majors. So, I joked to the well-scrubbed partisans that I was a socialist, red as they come, but if they want, I will sign.

They glared. They obviously needed signatures, because they grimly and wordlessly handed me their pen. So I signed. I told them to get rid of the governor, and they just glared some more.

So, Tom Ervin, teach your people to be NICE. Even if I AM a red, I vote strategically and have consequently voted for Ron Paul twice. My vote counts as much as anyone else's, whether I'm a red or not. Put that in your bong and smoke it.

Which brings me to say something nice (!) about the Governor. About the bong, I mean.

Nikki Haley Signs Medical Marijuana Bill Into Law:

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) signed the Medical Cannabis Therapeutic Treatment Research Act into law Monday, clearing the way for children with severe epilepsy to use cannabidiol oil (CBD), a non-psychoactive derivative of cannabis, to help reduce their seizures if recommended by a licensed physician.

The bill, which passed the Senate unanimously and cleared the House with a 92-5 vote, will also designate a new clinical trial at the Medical University of South Carolina dedicated to evaluating the effectiveness of CBD in controlling epileptic seizures.

Seven other states -- Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin -- have also implemented similar CBD-only medical marijuana proposals in the past four months.

It's a start.

Mr Daisy joked that since several children have died in DSS care, Nikki figured she better do something for the children, quick. The election, remember?

The SC Department of Social Services scandal has resulted in Lillian Koller's resignation, and not a moment too soon. (Once again, I warned you about her too.)

From WLTX:

Columbia, SC (WLTX) - South Carolina Department of Social Services Director Lillian Koller has resigned amid continuing concerns about the agency that she ran.

Koller submitted her letter of resignation to Governor Nikki Haley Monday morning, and Haley accepted. In the letter, she said she felt her continued presence at the agency might be causing problems.

"It has become more and more apparent to me during the past few weeks that my being the State Director is causing a distraction and making it more difficult for DSS to continue the measureable improvements made to the Agency during my tenture that have improved the lives of citizens we serve."

She said it had been a privilege to be the director.

The resignation comes a day before state senators were to discuss a no-confidence vote on Koller.

Koller's agency had come under scrutiny over how it handled cases, including some where children died. One of those was the death of 4-year-old Robert Guinyard, a Richland County boy who died after being given back to his parents. Last week, his parents were convicted of killing the child.

In another case, also out of Richland County, DSS employees were criticized for failing to find a mother who Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says didn't give her child the proper medical care. The coroner concluded the neglect led to the boy's death. In the wake of the incident, DSS changed an agency policy, saying it would request law enforcement help if it couldn't locate a child withing 72 hours on its own.

During a state senate committee hearing looking into allegations within the agency, concerns were also raised about the workload of DSS caseworkers.

Haley had stood by Koller through the criticism, and in a statement after the resignation, praised her work within the agency.

"Lillian Koller is a dedicated public servant and child advocate, and a wonderful and loving mother - and I am so grateful for her service to South Carolina," said Haley. "Under her leadership, DSS closed a $28 million deficit, moved more than 20,000 South Carolinians from welfare-to-work, and has done wonders to improve our foster care system, placing more South Carolina children in stable, healthy families."

Koller had been director since 2011. Amber Gillum will served as the interim director until a permanent appointment is made.

Closing deficits! Now, that's important.

Children? Safety? Roads? Our money? Not so much.

Nikki Haley begins terrorizing the poor and disabled of South Carolina

The mainstream press can't stay away from the story of the first woman governor of a deep-south state, born to immigrants. Nikki Haley is the lady of the hour, much as she was during the summer, when she won the primary and made the cover of Newsweek.

Needless to say, all this press-adulation undoubtedly translates into political capital:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says she won a huge victory as the budget board unanimously accepted her choice to run the agency that oversees the state's finances and bureacracy.

The five-member Budget and Control Board on Thursday approved Eleanor Kitzman as executive director.

Unanimous votes are rare on the board led by the governor. For eight years, former Gov. Mark Sanford fought with the board's legislative leaders.

Haley says she hopes the vote is a sign of things to come.

I'm sure it is.

It is notable that Haley is appointing a lot of women to state positions. Not my favorite women, but women nonetheless. (It's a mama grizzly thing, I wouldn't understand). From WIS-TV:

Haley nominated attorney and former prosecutor Lillian Koller to take over as head of South Carolina's Department of Social Services. "She brings a true amount of experience in a time where South Carolina needs it," said Governor Haley, "She brings a lot of reform and conservatism at a time where South Carolina wants it."

Koller promises to cut more services.

Which services are those? I wasn't aware we had any social services left, but I'm sure they'll find something to take away from us.

And guess what? LET THE GAMES BEGIN! Lawsuits Follow New DSS Director Lillian Koller To SC:

In November of 2010, a lawsuit was filed claiming the state of Hawaii was falling behind on handing out food stamps to families in need. Federal guidelines require food stamp applications to be processed within 30 days.

Documents in the suit filed against the state of Hawaii and director Koller say that only 78 percent of applications were processed on time. During that same time, the departments staff was cut and the state lowered the eligibility requirements for food stamps, encouraging more to apply.

If the federal government finds that states don't distribute 80 percent of the benefits in a month there could be fines. So far, Hawaii hasn't been fined.

South Carolina gets Hawaii's cast-offs! Oh goodie.

And today, Haley outlines cuts of just more than $110 million:

Gov. Nikki Haley will propose cutting payments to doctors and hospitals for treating poor patients in a state-run health care program; requiring the use of generic cancer, HIV/AIDS and mental health drugs; and eliminating state funding of South Carolina ETV and the state Arts Commission in her State of the State speech tonight, according to an Associated Press interview.

...

The largest savings would come from reducing what doctors and hospitals are paid to treat patients in Medicaid, the state-run health insurance program for the poor and disabled. For each percentage point reduction, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services, the state could save about $10 million. Lawmakers previously have barred the agency from cutting the rates that the state pays doctors and hospitals.

Allen Stalvey, vice president of advocacy and communications for the S.C. Hospital Association, said hospitals have been preparing for this news.

...

Hospitals are working on alternatives to a rate cut, Stalvey said, including increasing the $264 million in taxes that they pay to the state each year.

Still, Stalvey said, health care providers will be impacted.

“The small rural hospitals,” he said, “it could be disastrous for them.”

Ken May, executive director of the S.C. Arts Commission, said losing $2 million in state funding would shutter that commission's doors.

The commission, formed in 1967, supports South Carolina's arts community through arts education programs that bring authors, artists and dancers into schools, grants to individual artists, and operating money given to local arts organizations.

Much of the commission's state funding is matched by federal dollars.

"Cutting our funding means leaving federal dollars on the table and doing serious damage to the arts statewide," May said, adding a thriving arts community helps attract new industry and an educated workforce to the state.

"Everybody who talks about the world economy realizes that, if we are going to succeed, it must be through creativity and innovation. It's not going to be through blue-collar jobs or cheap labor. That's all gone overseas. If we're going to attract the people who work in those emerging industries, we have to offer a quality of life that attracts them," he said.

Eliminating the state portion of ETV’s budget would save $9.5 million.

Requiring poor patients on Medicaid and mental health patients to use generic cancer, HIV/AIDS and other drugs would save $991,000 a year, Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Jeff Stensland said.

Good thing I can get North Carolina public TV from here. Good thing I have medical insurance.

And those are the only good things I can think of in response to this horrific bullshit right now.