Politics

A Look at South Carolina Gov. Haley’s Successes and Stumbles

Published

9 years ago

July 16, 2015

Oakland Post

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (AP Photo)

SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — GOP Gov. Nikki Haley’s successful push to remove the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s Statehouse grounds following last month’s massacre at a historic black church has boosted her national profile. But that transpired over just a few weeks of the five years she’s been in office.

Here are a few other successes and some of her stumbles:

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JOBS

Haley has successfully branded herself a jobs governor, propelling her to re-election last year. Major announcements include Boeing’s decision in April 2013 to create 2,000 additional jobs at its North Charleston plant after legislators passed a $120 million incentives package she eagerly signed.

Michelin, Bridgestone, Continental, Trelleborg and Giti Tire also have announced new or expanded facilities in recent years, making South Carolina the nation’s tire capital.

But early in her tenure, legislators blasted her as nearly torpedoing an economic deal negotiated by her predecessor. She opposed giving Amazon a temporary exemption from collecting state sales taxes in exchange for 2,000 jobs. The bill eventually became law in June 2011 without her signature.

Since then, her administration has actively used incentives to bring companies to the state — angering tea party activists who helped put her in office. In May, Haley and her Commerce agency secured Volvo Car’s first North American plant, and a pledge of 2,000 jobs, by promising more than $200 million in state incentives.

The Associated Press has questioned her administration’s math on the total number of jobs announced since she took office, twice finding her figure was overstated and easily misinterpreted, as thousands of the jobs won’t arrive for years and some have already fallen through.

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AUTHORITY OVERREACHES

Minutes after the 2011 regular session ended, Haley ordered legislators back to pass her top agenda items. The GOP-controlled Legislature sued, and the state Supreme Court ruled she lacked the authority to make such an order.

Similarly, the state’s high court ruled a panel she chairs should not have disregarded a 2012 legislative agreement in the state budget by raising state employees’ health care premiums.

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ETHICS

Haley has called, unsuccessfully, for strengthening South Carolina’s ethics laws. Her push began shortly after the House Ethics Committee cleared her in June 2012 of allegations she illegally lobbied for an engineering firm and a hospital while a House member, benefited from lobbyists donating to the hospital’s foundation, and should have disclosed consulting income from the firm since it had state contracts.

It was the second time in two months the then-GOP-dominated committee cleared her, saying the state’s ethics laws are too ambiguous.

The first vote to clear her came immediately after the committee found probable cause that violations had occurred. The back-to-back votes caused a backlash and led to a formal hearing.

Haley repeatedly said there’s nothing wrong with asking lobbyists to donate to a nonprofit — especially since the foundation paid her a salary, not a commission — and that it was impossible under the state definition for her to lobby for an agency regulation. She said she didn’t report the consulting income because state law doesn’t require it.

Haley has said her own experience led her to push for reform, to make clear what’s right and wrong, so others don’t go through what she did.

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MISSTATEMENTS

In fall 2012, Haley acknowledged state officials didn’t do enough to prevent a hacker from stealing the personal data of 6.4 million people and businesses from the Department of Revenue’s computer servers. The acknowledgement came as a report showed dual verification for access and encrypted Social Security numbers could have prevented the theft. It followed weeks of her saying no one was to blame and nothing differently could have been done.

On the campaign trail last year, Haley sang the praises of a regulatory task force she created, saying it issued more than 3,000 recommendations on how to cut bureaucratic red tape, and all of those recommendations were “dealt” with. Actually, the panel’s report listed less than 50 recommendations, many of which have not been implemented. Her office later clarified that staff worked on each suggestion, whatever the outcome.

In September 2011, Haley acknowledged she couldn’t back up claims that half of people seeking work at the Savannah River Site, a former nuclear weapons manufacturing site now undergoing long-term cleanup, failed their drug tests. She repeatedly made the assertion to advocate linking drug tests to unemployment benefits. The actual number was less than 1 percent.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

Published

2 days ago

April 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

Published

1 week ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Mayor London Breed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

***PRESS RELEASE***

MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

HUD’s Continuum of Care grant will support the City’s range of critical services and programs, including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and improved access to housing for survivors of domestic violence

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program is designed to support local programs with the goal of ending homelessness for individuals, families, and Transitional Age Youth.

This funding supports the city’s ongoing efforts that have helped more than 15,000 people exit homelessness since 2018 through City programs including direct housing placements and relocation assistance. During that time San Francisco has also increased housing slots by 50%. San Francisco has the most permanent supportive housing of any county in the Bay Area, and the second most slots per capita than any city in the country.

“In San Francisco, we have worked aggressively to increase housing, shelter, and services for people experiencing homelessness, and we are building on these efforts every day,” said Mayor London Breed. “Every day our encampment outreach workers are going out to bring people indoors and our City workers are connecting people to housing and shelter. This support from the federal government is critical and will allow us to serve people in need and address encampments in our neighborhoods.”

The funding towards supporting the renewal projects in San Francisco include financial support for a mix of permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and transitional housing projects. In addition, the CoC award will support Coordinated Entry projects to centralize the City’s various efforts to address homelessness. This includes $2.1 million in funding for the Coordinated Entry system to improve access to housing for youth and survivors of domestic violence.

“This is a good day for San Francisco,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “HUD’s Continuum of Care funding provides vital resources to a diversity of programs and projects that have helped people to stabilize in our community. This funding is a testament to our work and the work of our nonprofit partners.”

The 2024 Continuum of Care Renewal Awards Include:

$42.2 million for 29 renewal PSH projects that serve chronically homeless, veterans, and youth
$318,000 for one new PSH project, which will provide 98 affordable homes for low-income seniors in the Richmond District
$445,00 for one Transitional Housing (TH) project serving youth
$6.4 million dedicated to four Rapid Rehousing (RRH) projects that serve families, youth, and survivors of domestic violence
$750,00 for two Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) projects
$2.1 million for three Coordinated Entry projects that serve families, youth, chronically homeless, and survivors of domestic violence

In addition, the 2023 CoC Planning Grant, now increased to $1,500,000 from $1,250,000, was also approved. Planning grants are submitted non-competitively and may be used to carry out the duties of operating a CoC, such as system evaluation and planning, monitoring, project and system performance improvement, providing trainings, partner collaborations, and conducting the PIT Count.

“We are very appreciative of HUD’s support in fulfilling our funding request for these critically important projects for San Francisco that help so many people trying to exit homelessness,” said Del Seymour, co-chair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board. “This funding will make a real difference to people seeking services and support in their journey out of homelessness.”

In comparison to last year’s competition, this represents a $770,000 increase in funding, due to a new PSH project that was funded, an increase in some unit type Fair Market Rents (FMRs) and the larger CoC Planning Grant. In a year where more projects had to compete nationally against other communities, this represents a significant increase.

Nationally, HUD awarded nearly $3.16 billion for over 7,000 local homeless housing and service programs including new projects and renewals across the United States.