SC Governor Nikki Haley is big on drilling down to government's core functions. I spent some time trying to find out what those are, and am left scratching my head.
Here's what I've learned.
The Department of Agriculture's advertising budget is a core function of government, but the governor refuses to explain how. It just is. Law enforcement is a core function of government. Dues to the National Governors Association isn't a core function. Making the unemployed pee in cups is a core government function.
"I so want drug testing," the governor said last year. "I so want it."
Requiring people to buy IDs from the government to be able to vote is another core function of government. As The Economist noted, "Opponents of the bill claim it discriminates against black and poor voters. 'Find me those people that think that this is invading their rights,' Mrs Haley said tartly, responding to such claims, 'and I will go take them to the DMV [the Department of Motor Vehicles, which issues driving licences with photographs] myself.' In the end, Mrs Haley did not drive anyone anywhere, though she has ordered the state to ferry voters without ID to the DMV free of charge on September 28th."
Politely feathering his own nest, though, State GOP chair Chad Connelly, who wanted a "spectacular" and "successful" 2012 party presidential primary, argued, "I believe that secure elections and complying with federal law are absolutely a core function of state government."
In a campaign website Haley declared, "Tax dollars were always intended to pay for the core functions of government. Any additional should be given back to the taxpayers for them to spend as they see fit not for legislators to decide what charitable program or local project should be funded."
We know political primary funding and public TV are not core functions of government. Neither is the SC Arts Commission.
Establishing a Department of Administration would give the "core administrative functions" of government to the governor, and apparently establish a subset of core functions of government in the process.
A prominent GOP state senator says "solid education and health care" are "fundamental" but if the government uses tax monies to create jobs- like going to the Paris Air Show- then that's the core function of a socialist state (Senator Tom Davis later clarified that health care is not one of his core functions of government). Others wonder if the governor thinks education really is a core function of government. Governor Haley wasn't sure in 2010; in a campaign debate she opposed state funding of kindergarten education and advocated turning library funding over the corporations:
Haley argued that the state could solicit money from state businesses.
"Have them go and start picking up where we need to with libraries," she said. "This is what we need in our libraries. We need your help. And they would step up."
At a May 2011 teabagger rally where she appeared with the president of The John Birch Society, Haley elaborated:
Haley said the [GOP presidential] candidates need to address repealing health care reform, spending limits and returning to the core functions of government. She wants to hear about combating high gas prices and protecting South Carolina's status as a right-to-work state.
"'We want real answers. We want specifics. We're smart in South Carolina. We like to talk about policy,' Haley said later."
Sometimes she seems less certain where and what the core functions of government are. Last June "Haley said she will target her budget vetoes at 'anything that's not that core function of government.'" Last December she declared corporate income taxes and state-owned school buses non-core: "'This is the perfect time to go back and look at the core functions of government.'"
One right-wing think tanker says core functions of government are like words to Humpty Dumpty: "When I use a word, it means exactly what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less":
Bob Williams of the conservative think tank State Budget Solutions said new governors will be able to take a fresh look at the proper role of state government.
"You have to redesign and refocus state governments around what are the real functions of state government. If it's not a core function, don't do it," he said.
Governor Haley likes think tanks. Last March she told a Rock Hill audience some would help her find the core functions of government: "The state is bringing in 'think tanks out of Washington to help see what's the best tax structure for South Carolina.' This fall we will know more, she said."
Some on the inside of the Columbia GOP/Legislative/Consultant Complex think it's all snake-oil: “Her public motivation is: that it is not a ‘core function of government,’” said one South Carolina Republican operative. “In the public realm, that’s a message you can sell. Within the party, people are more savvy and they know there’s more to the story than that.”
The op may be onto something. In December 2010 Haley told Fox News's Neil Cavuto there really aren't any guaranteed core functions of government: "We are going in and looking for every avenue that we can cut, privatizing every section of government that we can..." It's a view that echoes her legislative infatuation with zero-based budgeting, which reduces every agency and functional budget to zero and makes it justify its existence every budget year.
Lawsuits? In general, they shouldn't be a core function of government. In January Governor Haley told the legislature, "My biggest disappointment has been just as surprising, although less pleasantly so. I simply do not understand the culture of negativity that exists within our political class. The initial response to almost every action is for someone to say 'can't' and 'no' and then run to file a lawsuit."
But other times? Well, it depends. While her party chair contends complying with federal law is a core function of state government, National Review- interviewing her as governor-elect, reported, "At the state level, she is supporting attorney general Henry McMaster, who has a backed a federal lawsuit against the new health-care law."
And now, this: SC Attorney General Alan Wilson has thrown the taxpayers' resources behind a suit brought by a Catholic family services organization and a nun over the contraception/insurance coverage flap.
In Nebraska.
South Carolina ranks 43rd among US states in its population of Catholics. A 2007 report estimated the number of active nuns in the state to have "dwindled to around 100."
What's the core function being served here?
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