In case you wanted to read the Attorney General’s demand letter requesting the repayment of $603,000 in COVID funds to the State of South Dakota from Senator Jessica Castleberry – as well as the Supreme Court opinion noting that legislators could not accept those funds – the documents are available below:
MJJ Letter to Sen. Castleberry Re. Little Nest Preschool by Pat Powers on Scribd
It seems the folks in Pierre, when they were handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID funds would have established some qualifying criteria before writing the checks. Obviously Legislators cannot financially benefit from the actions of State Government while they are serving. I think there was a lack of discretion and administrative finesse in the Governors office which has created this embarrassing situation. I don’t know what led Senator Castleberry to file a request for funding to the Little Nest PreSchool, which she apparently owns and is not incorporated. She should have known better.
This isn’t the fault of the Governor’s office. It was reported (on KELO) in October 2020 that they were fielding queries as to whether the lawmakers’ businesses would be eligible for the funds, and the SD supreme court issued an advisory: the answer was NO.
The Senator applied for the money anyway. She says she hired independent legal counsel. Does this person have a law license?
Given how minimal the legislative pay is, she should have resigned from the senate and then applied for the money.
Is this because she is a sole proprietor and not an LLC/CORP?
I think the notion that a legislator as part of an LLC can receive funds for employees etc, but a sole proprietor cannot defies credulity.
This is a HUGE can of worms.
^It appears that either way was not allowed (sole proprietor or owning an llc). Moot point.
The point to consider is if these funds came directly from the federal government she wouldn’t have broken any rules. Because the federal funds were distributed through a state program, she broke the rules. Seems like a spirit of the law vs letter of the law issue. These funds were not appropriated by the state legislature nor was distribution determined by legislative action to my knowledge.
No idea what the Senator did or didn’t know, her counsel, or any other information that led her to making the decision she did to take the substantial amount of funds. It doesn’t appear that she did any sort of “self dealing” to get these emergency funds although it does appear she broke the letter of the law.