South Carolina public employees pay for a greater share of their health care and retirement benefits than their counterparts in Wisconsin, where a budget battle over union-negotiated compensation has sparked a nation discussion.

But the battle over public pay and benefits could be coming soon anyway to South Carolina, where public-sector workers – unlike Wisconsin – are not unionized.

New Republican Gov. Nikki Haley told a Lexington Town Hall audience Thursday that South Carolina can not afford the long-term cost of its state employee and retiree health care and pension programs.

But leave it to a reporter to point out the truth - this time in efforts to get readers to realize the lies before a push against state workers begins.

So, before the battle arrives, take a step back and ask: Who’s telling the truth?

• Are state employees in South Carolina overpaid compared to private-sector workers in the Palmetto State?

• Do state employees pay less for their health care coverage than private-sector workers?

• And, finally, is their retirement plan better?

The answers?

No, no and yes.

But, like many things in life, there is nuance to those answers. Take state pensions, for example.

State workers have better pensions, in large part, because they have pensions. Period. Most private-sector workers in the state don’t, and anything is better than nothing.

• Pay? Federal census data say state workers in South Carolina are paid less, on average, than their private-sector counterparts.

• Health care? State workers pay roughly 30 percent of the cost of their health insurance, roughly equal to the national average, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey and data from the S.C. Employee Insurance Plan. That state plan covers state, college, county, city, teachers and other public workers. State benefits also are available to part-time lawmakers.

• Total package, including pension? The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis says that, when you add it all up, the total compensation of public workers, including benefits, is greater than that of those in South Carolina’s private sector.

In large part, however, that is because the state’s 67,798 workers have access to a benefit that most S.C. private-sector workers do not – a pension plan, something former Gov. Mark Sanford, Haley’s mentor, and some lawmakers long have sought to change.

Truth in South Carolina - it does not matter. As long as the "God Party" tells you all there will be no gays, you can have guns and ridicule women for having an abortion, it's all good.

Yeah, and hows does your wallet/pocket book feel? Light? How about your retirement? Flimsy? Keep voting in these people. A comment on my Facebook page explains.

I can tell you the first consequence of this - good teachers will first avoid the state, the ones in place with either retire, leave the state or leave the profession - and the businesses will relocate, starting with the big foreign manufacturers in the Upstate - because unlike these idiots in the State House most of those companies place a premium on good schools. People don't want to pay pensions? fine. They can go back being barbarians on their own dime and time.

Haley is proving to be a follower. Facts don't matter and she'll convince the uneducated to follow suit against themselves.

However, that has not deterred Haley, who like any good pol, can see a parade that is starting to form and wants to get at its front and declare herself one of the movement’s leaders.

“There is no way we can continue to put our head in the sand,” Haley said Thursday. “The current government employees, we’re going to have to look at what we can do. Everybody else is having to sacrifice and cut and, unfortunately, government employees are going to have to be part of that mix.”

However, state workers note they have sacrificed, going years without pay raises and enduring – like private-sector workers – layoffs and furloughs as the state has balanced its recession-hobbled budget.

Have fun wondering what happened. You have one person here telling you. Been doing so for years.