Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Sanford last year made no bones about his belief that S.C. legislators meddle excessively in local affairs. It's right there in his 2002 campaign platform: "Power should devolve to the lowest, most local level, and the state's role should be to support and assist the local body in carrying out its tasks."

That's why there's a whiff of hypocrisy to the objections that some legislators voiced this week after Sanford vetoed two bills aimed at fixing local problems in Charleston and Greenville counties. Of the veto of a bill that would have combined two Charleston voting offices into one, Rep. John Graham Altman III, R-Charleston, accused Sanford of trying to run the state without consulting legislators.

Wrong. Sanford's purpose isn't to muscle in on legislators but to push control downstream to county councils, making them use home-rule power to settle local problems. This clears blurred lines of government authority and gives the people greater say in what happens to them.

We applaud Sanford for making clear that he meant what he said last year in soliciting South Carolinians for their votes.