Gov. Nikki Haley to South Carolina Republicans: Pay for your own primary

UPDATE: The South Carolina legislature voted Wednesday to override Haley's veto, so public funds will help pay for the state's primary election in 2012.

South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed a spending bill from the state legislature Tuesday that would have allowed taxpayer money to help pay for next year's Republican presidential primary elections.

Haley, who was elected in 2010, has warned since March that she would not allow public financing for the election, citing the state's history of leaving the primaries up to the party. Traditionally the first state in the South to hold a primary, South Carolina used public money to fund the Republican and Democratic primaries for the first time in 2008.

"We are going to have the best South Carolina presidential primary we have ever had," Haley said, according to AP. "And we're going to do it in the way that it was intended to be--which is with private funds where each party goes and raises the money that they're supposed to raise."

The bill would have allowed the South Carolina Election Commission to spend $680,000 toward the estimated $1.5 million cost of next year's elections.

Haley's decision was part of a series of vetoes that included cuts to state eduction programs, public broadcasting and an arts commission. The legislature is currently looking into attempting to override the vetoes--a move that would require a two-thirds vote in both of the state houses.