Haley Tells President: Provide More Dredging Dollars
Deepening harbor seen as key to S.C. economic growth.
By John Celock, State Politics Reporter, Patch/Huffington Post
WASHINGTON — Gov. Nikki Haley kept the focus on ports during a meeting with President Obama and fellow governors at the White House on Monday morning.
Haley, in town for the annual National Governors Association conference, said at a press conference Monday afternoon that she used the White House meeting to urge the president to speed up the process for deepening the nation’s ports. Haley’s call comes as ports around the East Coast try to deepen following the upcoming widening of the Panama Canal.
"If we don’t get our ports deep enough, we will waste that opportunity," she said.
Haley indicated she would like to see the federal government allocate more funding for port deepening efforts.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference sponsored by the Republican Governors Association, Haley said that she was not specifically speaking about the Port of Charleston, but about all of the ports. She said among her comments to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden was for the nation’s maritime policies to be upgraded, along with speeding up the timeline for the Army Corps of Engineers to address port deepening requests from state governments.
Haley’s remarks come the same day that she vetoed a bill from the state legislature regarding the Georgia Ports Authority and the Savannah River. The legislature had sought to overturn her administration’s approval of permits to deepen the river, which could lead to the deepening of Georgia’s Port of Savannah faster than South Carolina’s Port of Charleston. Haley explained that her veto was due to what she saw as legislative meddling in executive branch actions.
Funding for required studies of the harbor deepening were announced earlier this month. First, the U.S. Army Corps of engineers announced Feb. 8 that it had set aside $2.5 million for studies on deepening the harbor.
The White House released the president's budget on Feb. 13, which included an additional $3.5 million for the Charleston Harbor project. That money isn't assured since the Congress will ultimately decide budget priorities.
And, last week, the state House Ways and Means Committee agreed to set aside $180 million toward the actually cost once studies are complete. The total project is expected to cost $300 million.
Cornell Davis
5:58 pm on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Haley and her tea party nutjobs like to complain about everything that the president does, disrespects him at every turn, call him all kinds of names, complains that he is not a US citizen, but then she has the nerve to run to Washington to beg for money to deepening the Charleston Harbor. I hate to say this, but the president should say "hell no, Nikki". If she wants the money to deepen the harbor, then have her racist republican collegue and tea party nutjob whole a fundraiser to raise the money themselves. Don't go begging the government for funds to do this.
George Kaplan
12:52 am on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Cornell, that's pretty harsh. I'm kind of fighting your tone on this one.
But, when I took each statement independently, by itself, and without the name calling ... I found myself nodding my head.
stanley seigler
3:07 pm on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
@Cornell Davis: "...hell no, Nikki"
as you/we know BO is a much bigger man than this...if he feels it will help SC and chas he will find a way to increase funding and speed up the chas harbor dredging...
opine: there will be plenty bigger ships coming though the widened panama canal...both sav and chas harbors are needed.
facts appreciated.
JoSCh
9:51 am on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
The only fair way to fund the dredging is by raising taxes on the poor and middle class, as the rich already have too much invested in maritime what with the cargo ships and the mega yachts. Fortunately Haley has a plan for doing just that.
/tea partied
Max G. Mahaffee
10:56 am on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
I agree with all of you. In fact yesterday I sent a tweet as follows: Another bad move (IMHO) by S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley: Skipping a White House dinner, while she is in DC: http://huff.to/zKHUz6 If you go to that webpage of Huffington Post you will see the following quote: "Haley attended Monday morning's meeting with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, where the president stressed the importance of education policy. Haley later joined fellow Republican governors Bob McDonnell of Virginia and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana at the RGA press conference to blast Obama's policies and urge the election of a Republican president."
Pretty ballsy move....not a smart move by any stretch of the imagination. Ask for help and then try to kick the President in the butt with such rhetoric? Come on Govern-Not Haley!
Richard Hayes
12:15 pm on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Ms Haley needs to talk to Senator DeMint - who does nothing to support Federal dollars for the deepening of our Port! And that is his job! We need to remove DeMint from office for lack of performance!!
stanley seigler
2:57 pm on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
"Haley indicated she would like to see the federal government allocate more funding for port deepening efforts."
get the government off our backs except when we want money and the right to invade women's reproductive organs...latter has northing to with topic...just thought i'd throw it in...
Wounded Warrior
12:32 pm on Wednesday, April 11, 2012
I m not her biggest fan, but at least she can create jobs.