Haley eliminates Arts Commission in vetoes
Posted: 07.06.2012 at 12:28 PM
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's 81 vetoes of the Legislature's spending plans would wipe out the state Arts Commission, cut money for teachers' pay raises, and designate less money to a Commerce Department fund used to close economic development deals.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's 81 vetoes of the Legislature's spending plans would wipe out the state Arts Commission, cut money for teachers' pay raises and designate less money to a Commerce fund for closing economic development deals.

Haley's vetoes would remove $67.5 million. They include 74 items in the Legislature's $6.7 billion budget and seven items in a separate bill spending $100 million from a rainy-day account that wasn't needed.

Haley on Friday chastised legislators for what she called government waste on local projects. She says they should feel embarrassed and voters should be infuriated.

Items Haley wants removed include money for a North Myrtle Beach museum, preserving African-American history sites in Charleston and buying land to preserve the nation's first community of freed slaves on Hilton Head Island.