AP: Haley Veto Could Hurt Special Schools
Sunday, July 15, 2012 at 8:49PM COLUMBIA -- A public residential high school that aims to foster South Carolina’s future technological leaders is boosting enrollment this fall after years of planning and construction. But filling the available slots depends on whether legislators override Gov. Nikki Haley’s veto.
Haley vetoed $3.4 million designated to the state’s special schools for students who are academically and artistically talented and, on the other end, schools for troubled teens at risk of dropping out. The schools receive no local taxes. The Republican governor said she wants to evaluate their roles before giving them any more money.
“All of these are good things, but if we’re going to lead and take South Carolina to a new place, we’ve got to take the emotion out of it,” she said Friday. “How can we handle these things smarter? To do that sometimes hurts, and to do that sometimes means we wait but we make good decisions in the end.”
Those vetoes are among her 81 that strike a total of $67.5 million from the Legislature’s combined $6.8 billion spending plans. The House returns to Columbia on Tuesday to take up the vetoes. Overrides require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, which returns Wednesday.
Other vetoes met with outrage by many legislators and activists include $2.4 million that eliminates the Arts Commission, which is now closed; $454,000 for rape crisis centers; and $100,000 for sickle-cell patients.
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