Good morning readers!  We’re proud to announce that we have a new advertiser to help us round out 2017, and we encourage you to give a click to their website, and thank Senator Rounds for helping to support manufacturing jobs:

An while you’re at it, make a point to support our other wonderful advertisers such as the South Dakota Bankers Association, Americans for Prosperity, Kristi Noem for Governor, the South Dakota Republican Party, Marty Jackley for Governor, U.S. Senator John Thune, Dusty Johnson for Congress, and everyone else who helps deliver the political news to our elected officials and South Dakota’s opinion leaders.

Interested in advertising here yourself? You can e-mail me here for more information.

Great discussion on expanding rural broadband with @SenJohnThune @kristiefiegen and @paultenhaken today @SDNcomm Thanks to @connectamnow for raising awareness on this issue #ruralbroadband pic.twitter.com/igT353LIsc

— Dan Lederman (@danlederman) November 20, 2017

From Newscenter1 in Rapid City, Attorney General Marty Jackley made a stop to tout economic development in his campaign for Governor:

Speaking on job creation in Rapid City for young college graduates, he stressed how important it was to keep young people in the state. Jackley suggested utilizing the Sanford Lab, and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology’s proposed small business incubator to create high-paying jobs.

Job creation, he said, can only come from businesses and government working together.

“Business and public partnerships – it’s something that the business community wants to be a part of,” Jackley said.

Read the entire story here.

Tax Reform Designed for Agriculture, Says Noem

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – While speaking at the South Dakota Farm Bureau Centennial Convention Saturday evening, Rep. Kristi Noem discussed her fight for a tax code that works better for agriculture. Noem serves as one of the only farmers and ranchers on the House Ways and Means Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over tax reform. During the closing debate on tax reform in the House, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady – a Rapid City native and University of South Dakota graduate – called Noem “a champion of family-owned farms and businesses.”

“Our farm has been in the family for more than a century,” said Noem. “The tax reform proposal we’re working on is designed to help farms across South Dakota last a century more.”

Noem continued: “Many South Dakotans have heard my story. After my dad died in a farming accident, we were hit by the Death Tax, which affected our operation for nearly a decade. I’m thrilled the House tax reform bill would finally get rid of this un-American tax.”

Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform stated Noem’s “hard work and persistence has made our progress to date possible and is our greatest asset in the serious fight to kill the Death Tax once and for all.”

The House tax reform proposal includes a full and permanent repeal of the Death Tax, based on Noem’s Death Tax Repeal Act. It also includes key provisions designed to help farmers and ranchers succeed, including lower tax rates, immediate expensing, and provisions related to like-kind exchanges.

South Dakota Farm Bureau President Scott VanderWal, who testified before Noem’s House Ways & Means Committee about tax reform, stated, “This is a tax reform built for farmers, and Rep. Noem was integral in achieving that. From significantly lower tax rates to repealing the Death Tax, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act is more fair and takes a big step toward rewarding rather than punishing hard work and success.”

“It’s not just the Death Tax that disproportionately impacts South Dakota producers,” saidNoem. “Almost any farmer you talk to will tell you that taxes are too high. We’re going to change that. Through tax reform, we significantly lower tax rates and double the standard deduction, which is going to make a significant difference in the tax bill producers receive. But we also allow for interest deductibility. I fought to get immediate expensing included as well, and we were successful in getting other expensing tools that are critical for highly-leveraged industries like agriculture. This is a proposal designed with farmers and ranchers in mind. It’s designed to keep more money in their pockets.”

During the process of helping to draft the House’s tax reform proposal, Noem has met with hundreds of South Dakotans to discuss the plan – both in the state and in her Washington, D.C. office. The House passed their tax reform proposal in mid-November. The Senate continues to debate their version. Once passed, the House and Senate will go to Conference to merge the two documents before both chambers take a final vote and put the legislation on the president’s desk.

The Yankton County GOP is looking to raise awareness of their Facebook page, and has posted a straw poll at Yankton GOP page – you click “like” to vote for the video of the candidate you prefer:

Check it out here on the Yankton County GOP’s facebook page.

The Marty Jackley for Governor campaign hit my mailbox again this week with a fundraising letter I received a couple of days ago.

2Nd Jackley Letter by Pat Powers on Scribd

But…. I can’t help but think that I’ve seen it somewhere before, about two weeks ago.

In comparing the two, on the front, in making the appeal they’re identical with only one small detail changed. On the front, in the paragraph next to the picture it states “Our campaign budget calls for us to raise $45,000 by December 15th.” This was changed from the prior letter which notes “Our campaign budget calls for us to raise $45,000 by November 30th.”

Similarly on the back, the only difference I can note is a subtle one, which similarly changes the date of the appeal letter. Instead of asking to “Lead the way and help us reach our crucial goal of raising $45,000 by November 30th,” this letter solicits the recipient “Lead the way and help us hit our crucial goal of raising $45,000 by December 15th.”

This could be a directed strategy, to hit people who haven’t donated with a reminder, but I would have thought it might be something with more alternative text than pushing their campaign budget goal back 2 weeks.

And the campaigns roll on…

A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity
By Sen. John Thune

One of the main reasons I wanted to join the Senate Finance Committee was for the opportunity to reform and modernize our wildly outdated tax code. Fortunately, that once-in-a-generation opportunity has finally presented itself, and I’m excited by the momentum in Congress that is getting us closer to delivering a pro-growth tax reform bill to the president that will directly benefit middle-income South Dakota families.

The U.S. tax code is like a time capsule. It’s stuck in 1986. More than three decades have passed since Congress has taken a hard look at reforming it. Think about everything that’s changed in the last 31 years. The United States has elected five new presidents, of which three served a full eight years. The internet was invented. For me personally, I’ve watched my daughters grow up, and I now have grandchildren. If that doesn’t put this into perspective, I don’t know what will.

There are a lot of reasons to support the Senate tax reform plan, but I’m particularly interested in all of the positive things it would do to provide relief for middle-income families. First, it doubles the standard deduction for individual and joint filers, which would reduce the tax burden on families. Since fewer people would need to itemize, it would simplify the code, too. Doubling the standard deduction means the first $24,000 of a family’s income wouldn’t be subject to federal income tax. For a family that earns less than $24,000 per year, they wouldn’t pay any federal income taxes at all.

Specifically in South Dakota, the Senate tax reform plan, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of the initial plan, would result in a $2,528 boost in after-tax income for middle-income families and more than 2,700 new full-time jobs for South Dakota workers.

The Senate tax reform plan doubles the child tax credit to $2,000 and expands eligibility, which would help folks who are raising a family and trying to make ends meet. The plan also fulfills one of the most fundamental goals we set out to achieve: It lowers federal income tax rates for all levels of income earners in South Dakota, including those in the bottom-to-middle brackets.

The plan would also reform the tax code for U.S. businesses. For too long, we have been losing jobs to overseas competitors, in part because our businesses pay some of the highest taxes in the industrialized world. This plan would make U.S. businesses more competitive, which would create jobs and increase wages for American workers.

Over the last five years, tax reform has really been a bipartisan issue. During Democrat and Republican administrations, and under Democrat and Republican chairmen of the Finance Committee, we’ve held nearly 70 hearings on tax-related issues. Two years ago, I worked with Sen. Ben Cardin, one of my Democrat colleagues who also serves on the Finance Committee, on a bipartisan proposal to reform the business side of the tax code. This year alone, I’ve introduced multiple bipartisan tax reform proposals, including one that’s cosponsored by the top Democrat on the Finance Committee.

I remain hopeful that bipartisanship will prevail here, too, and that by the end of this process, my colleagues will see the benefits of this plan and realize the real winners of pro-growth tax reform are middle-income American families.

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Thankful
By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

This Thanksgiving, as we get together with family and friends, Jean and I would once again like to send our warmest wishes to all South Dakotans. During this festive time of the year, let’s not forget that the first Thanksgiving was a time to thank the good Lord for all of our blessings. I am especially thankful for the opportunity to be able to work on your behalf in the United States Senate. Even when the debates on Capitol Hill get contentious, working for the people of South Dakota is a privilege that I’ll never take for granted.

I’m also thankful for the love and support of my family as I do this job. I truly would not be able to do it without them. We’re looking forward to spending Thanksgiving together at our house in Fort Pierre with many of our immediate and extended family members, including a few of our eight grandkids—we have to share them with their other grandparents sometimes! With such busy schedules these days, quality time with our family is the biggest blessing Jean and I could ask for.

Earlier this month, we celebrated Veterans Day. It is because of the men and women who serve, and their families who support them, that all of us are able to freely celebrate the holiday season with those we love. I’m incredibly thankful to our military community and our veterans for all they do and have done to protect our freedoms, and I pray for those who will be spending the holidays apart from their families. We can never repay them for their service and sacrifice, but as a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, I’ll continue working on legislation to improve the quality of life for South Dakota’s veterans and members of the armed forces, along with their family members.

Especially during the holiday season, I encourage South Dakotans to find ways to give back to their communities. There are food pantries and churches in nearly every town collecting donations, so that all of our neighbors are able to put a good meal on their Thanksgiving table. Monetary donations and food donations are both helpful, and as winter in South Dakota sets in, coats and other cold-weather clothing items are needed for kids, teens and adults. A number of volunteer organizations, charities, churches and even many local businesses hold coat drives every year, starting around this time.

As we gather with our loved ones to give thanks and count our blessings, let’s also say a prayer for those who are having a hard time this year and for those who are unable to spend the holiday with their families. Jean and I wish all South Dakotans a very happy Thanksgiving and holiday season.

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Blessed, Honored, and Thankful
By Rep. Kristi Noem

 The story of the first Thanksgiving is one you’ve probably heard (some version of it anyway). But I recently came across what happened a couple of years later when the second Thanksgiving was celebrated. The pilgrims had faced a tough drought that year. It hit their yields pretty hard and food became scarce. The colony’s governor called for a fast to preserve resources. When the fast was finally lifted, the pilgrims gathered together and the thanksgiving feast began.

I imagine their meal was hardly the spread many of us have today, but there’s something neat about the fact that this tradition of gratitude has lasted through the generations.

While we don’t face a food shortage as the pilgrims did, South Dakota does understand the impact of a drought. It’s made for a really rough harvest in much of the state this year and forced many families to tighten their belts a bit.

I became the general manager of our farm in the mid-1990’s, so I’ve been through years like this. They were tough. But looking back, I know we had so much to be grateful for. We built a lot of efficiencies into our operation during those lean years (to be fair, we had to). It forced us to diversify our operation, which led me to start a hunting lodge – an experience I still appreciate today. The long days could be grueling, but there’s a part of me that misses them now. We worked hard, but we worked as a family. And those memories mean the world to me.

My day-to-day life looks different today, but I still count the blessings. I get frustrated by Washington a lot, but I never take for granted the responsibility you’ve given me.  I’m honored beyond belief to represent South Dakota. I’m grateful for the love and compassion so many have shown. I’m grateful for those who are willing to talk with me about the things we disagree on. I’m grateful for every win we achieve and to share the experiences of South Dakota with folks from across the country. I’m grateful to be able to travel the state almost every week and to spend time with people I might not have had the chance to otherwise connect with.

When you’re in the thick of things, it can be hard to see the blessings that are right in front of you. I recognize that. But taking the time to acknowledge those blessings can really shift a person’s perspective. My mom is a big fan of Willie Nelson, and I loved how he put it: “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”

Like many families, we take time to count our blessings at the Thanksgiving table every year. Part of me has always wondered if the pilgrims shared that tradition too. While so much has changed over the last 400-plus years, I wouldn’t be surprised if the conversations around the Thanksgiving table were actually quite similar: I’m grateful for family, for a home, for freedom, for what we could harvest despite the drought.

From Bryon, Kassidy, Kennedy, Booker and I, we wish you a blessed Thanksgiving.

138 Thanksgivings Ago
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard: 

Linda and I are thankful for many things this year. We are thankful for our children and grandchildren, for the friends old and new we’ve made across the state, and for the opportunity to serve as governor and first lady.

I am also thankful for a Yankton dinner table conversation that took place 138 Thanksgivings ago. John Andrews recounted the story in a South Dakota Magazine article released prior to South Dakota’s 125^th anniversary of statehood.

A few of Dakota Territory’s most prominent leaders gathered around the dinner table that Thanksgiving Day in 1879 to do more than break bread. The home belonged to a local Congregational minister, Rev. Stewart Sheldon, and among his guests were territorial Gov. William Howard, U.S. Attorney Hugh Campbell, General William H.H. Beadle, Edward P. Wilcox and his brother-in-law Rev. Joseph Ward.

The conversation began around a school lands question. The men present wanted to ensure school lands would be valued and sold at a high enough price, at no less than $10 per acre. Some residents thought the land should be sold for $2.25 per acre to a large syndicate. This was of particular concern to General Beadle who was the superintendent of public instruction.

As they discussed the issue, the idea arose to divide Dakota Territory into northern and southern portions to protect the value of the lands, and to make the southern part of Dakota its own state. It is believed this was the conversation that sparked serious statehood efforts, as these men spent the next few years leading the movement.

Nearly 10 more years passed before South Dakota became its own state. It took three bills passed by the territorial legislature, two constitutional conventions, two votes from the people and two congressional bills. Finally, a newly-elected president with Republican majorities in Congress signed South Dakota into statehood. As Andrews noted in his article, the dinner discussion served as a catalyst of the statehood movement. As he put it, “We owe a debt of gratitude to the men who shared ideas around the Thanksgiving table and committed themselves to creating a new and better home.”

Considering where our state is today, I think that’s true. There’s no better place to live, work and raise a family. In fact, Site Selection named South Dakota as the number one state for achieving the American dream. With our low tax burden and reasonable regulatory environment, you can make a good living in South Dakota and you can rest assured that your tax dollars are being well managed. We have balanced the budget every year since statehood and our sound financial practices are affirmed by all three credit rating agencies, which have awarded us with AAA status. We also have a high quality of life: an abundance of outdoor recreational opportunities, safe communities, good schools and post-secondary opportunities, and clean air and water.

More than anything though, our state is made up of good people. South Dakotans are friendly, humble and hardworking. Here, we still hold open doors, say hello to passing strangers and shovel our neighbors’ driveways. For these things and for the individuals who made South Dakota what it is today, we have reason to be very, very thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving, South Dakota.

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