Reaction to Sanford's State of the State speech

A look at what key figures around South Carolina thought of Governor Mark Sanford's State of the State speech on Wednesday night:

Democratic state Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum: "It demoralizes our educators when the governor says negative things about education progress. The facts defy what he said in his speech about our public education system."

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Senate Minority Leader John Land, D-Manning: "He wants to compare us to North Carolina, Georgia and Florida in regard to taxes, but you look at what those states have done for education over the years, that's why they have the jobs. Jobs are going to where you have an educated people. We're not educating our people in South Carolina."

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Rep. Doug Jennings, D-Marlboro: "I thought it was big on ideas, but short on specifics, which seems to be his style. It was most noteworthy for what it failed to mention, which was any suggestion as to how we tackle some of the problems we have in this state, such as the job losses and what specifically Commerce is doing and what we can do to help Commerce with economic development."

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House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston: "I was particularly pleased to hear him talk about tax restructuring, more than just the income tax. We need to take a look at the entire tax code. Several of us have proposals out there that deal with different aspects of the tax code. What I would love to see happen, and what I think he was alluding to, is bringing all of that together so that we have a general conversation about the tax structure in South Carolina so we can make the overall structure fairer for everybody."

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Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence: "I thought the governor laid out a wonderful road map for us insofar as restructuring government, making it more efficient, more accountable to the people of the state. He told us how to do that. He said we need to combine the agencies, we need to put more agencies in his Cabinet."

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House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville: "Certainly no surprises. ... His two top priorities were jobs _ expanding jobs, job creation _ and restructuring. Those are things that we are working on. The House has consistently made it our business to be pro-business."

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Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer: "He's continuing to think outside the box in reducing the size of state government and urging the General Assembly to find every way it can to save taxpayer dollars that are so precious right now. And I'm excited about biking across the state. ... Not only are we going to reduce the size of state government, we're going to reduce the size of people in South Carolina."

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