Representative Nikki Haley released the following statement on the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision regarding the stimulus:

“I continue to believe it is a mistake to spend $700 million that won’t exist in two years on programs and expenses that will, but the Court has ruled and it’s time for South Carolina to move on.

“That said, we cannot keep running our government this way. Before the struggling economy slowed us down, government grew a billion dollars every year I served in the legislature – an astonishing fact that stresses the need to change the way we govern our state.

“We need spending caps that take complete discretion away from a legislative body that has proven unwilling or unable to act responsibly with taxpayer dollars. We need real accountability in the State House, accountability that starts with recording all legislative votes – those votes belong to the people, not to politicians. And we need to continually audit, by law, every agency to rid ourselves of waste.

“What has happened this budget year can never happen again. As a state we need to take advantage of the good times so we are prepared for the bad. We need to protect the wallets of the taxpayer and the bottom lines of businesses. For these things to materialize we have to bring common sense and good government to Columbia – the potential exists in South Carolina, it’s up to us to act on it.”