Haley Talks Report Card, Agenda Items at Town Hall Meeting

In front of a group of about 50 people on Tuesday night, Gov. Nikki Haley urged those who attended the town hall meeting to ask questions of lawmakers about the 2011 Legislative Report Card and shared some new initiatives for the next session.

On Monday, Haley released grades on how legislators voted on such items as tort reform, on the record voting, merging the Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole into the Department of Corrections and the appointment of the superintendent of education.

Haley said the report card was to create dialogue between the public and legislators.

"The report card was always intended to increase communication from me to you and from you to your elected official," Haley said. "We are on a plan of trying to implement certain things to change the culture in South Carolina and change what we do."

legislators representing the Irmo-Seven Oaks area received an "A" on the report card that Haley said is used to track legislation results.

Rep. Chip Huggins, R-Lexington, said he thought the report card was fair.

"I feel like the Governor was very clear in the beginning that she was going to have a report card and that was known," Huggins said. "The most important thing is that our district agrees with our grade."

Haley went on to discuss some new agenda items including job creation and training, tax reform, retirement system reform and higher education accountability based funding.

Haley's top priority, however, was jobs.

"I sleep, eat and breathe it," Haley said. "If we can get everybody a job, we would see our economy turn."

Haley said she's going to promote an aggressive job training plan to help bring jobs to South Carolina.

"We have to make sure that we are putting these people back to work," Haley said. "We're going to implement a new job training program that's going to be accepted by all manufacturers, accepted by all companies that are coming in."

Haley said she will work with technical schools to prepare graduates, retirees and those seeking jobs to join the work force.

After discussing her plans, Haley responded to questions from the audience.

Members of the small group voiced concerns about affordable health care, school bus privatization and E-verify, an Internet-based system employers used to confirm new hires legal wokring status.

Mike Irons, a resident of Chapin and business owner, said he attended Tuesday's meeting because he has concerns about the amount of time employers are given to make the verification of new hires' legal status.

Irons said that it's not fair for employers to be penalized for not filing the legal status of a worker within three business days.

"The issue isn't hiring illegals, the issue is that if you don't fill out your paper right, then they close down your business," Irons said. "It just doesn't seem fair."

"I think even with the issue that I have a problem with, I think it can be worked out," he said.

Haley said the purpose of the town hall meetings was for the public to be able to receive information about the legislative agenda without having to go to the Statehouse and to hear about the state's accomplishments.