Today in a press release, the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT organization, sent out a preview of what it is predicting in state and local legislative battles in the year ahead, noting that the anticipate bills contrary to their agenda will be considered in at least 27 states.
In 2016, HRC expects more than two dozen state legislatures to consider anti-equality measures. These include legislatures in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
However, no measure has been pre-filed as of yet for 2016 allowing for the ability to refuse service because of religious objections, as championed as a result of lawsuits against bakers, photographers, etc, for declining to provide services for same sex marriages.
During previous sessions, measures underlining our ability to reject business on a religious basis had been introduced and failed. However, they failed before the US Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states this past June. Which takes lawsuits from those objections from the arena of speculative possibility into potential reality in South Dakota.
State Attorney General Marty Jackley has been up front in saying “Under the law, constitutional rights are required to coexist.” The question is what form that coexistence is going to take in South Dakota as a result of this upcoming legislative session.
With federal law changing to allow states more flexibility, the State Board of Education has announced that it will be re-reviewing common core educational standards, and whether to keep them. (Now maybe we will finally be able to help our kids with math once again):
The South Dakota Board of Education plans to re-evaluate the controversial math and reading curriculum this summer following a massive federal overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law.
and…
The Every Student Succeeds Act was signed by President Barack Obama in December, but it won’t hit classrooms until the 2017-18 school year. South Dakota education officials will start the revision process this summer for the Common Core.
The state reviews curriculum standards on a seven-year cycle. Reading standards were due for review this summer, but math standards weren’t scheduled for review until the summer of 2017. State education board members agreed unanimously to speed up the process, moving up the timeline for math.
“We’re basically going to review the Common Core and review that process this summer,” Schopp said.
Steele, a Republican Representative for District 12 from 2007 to 2014, Thursday night became the first person to announce ambitions for the Southwest District Council seat being vacated by the term-limited Greg Jamison.
“I have gained understanding of the workings of government on the state, county and city levels and believe these past experiences have prepared me for the City Council position,” Steele said in a news release.
and…
A retired tele-communications worker, Steele served as the chairman of the South Dakota House of Representatives Retirement Laws Committee.
From Missouri comes a story that seems to be burning up my facebook feed.
Apparently, a legislator in the “Show Me” state wants to be shown even more. One has introduced a bill to require sex between a Legislator and a lobbyist to be disclosed on lobbyist reporting forms as “a gift.”
A Missouri bill proposed this week would require lobbyists to report sexual relationships they have with lawmakers or their staff, a change the sponsor says would promote transparency.
The bill by Rep. Bart Korman, a High Hill Republican, would define those sexual relations as “gifts,” which now include presents to lawmakers from lobbyists and must be regularly reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission.
and….
Korman’s measure would exclude sexual relationships between lobbyists and their spouses who are lawmakers or staff. Relationships that begin before an individual becomes a lobbyist or serves as a lawmaker or staff member also would be exempt.
The bill says reports on sexual relationships wouldn’t need a “dollar valuation,” which is required for other “gifts” to lawmakers.
Apparently, it’s good to be on the County Commission.
Across the state, County Commissioners were meeting this week and voting pay raises for themselves as part of the new year. Minnehaha County did it. a few other counties did it. And in Pennington County, when there was a package set up to be in line with county employee pay raises, one commissioner decided that she was going to go a little beyond that, as reported in the Rapid City Journal:
In a telephone interview, Petersen said he was unaware he voted for the $250-a-month raise. He said he thought he was backing a $50-a-month raise to $1,300, which was already budgeted for 2016.
“I must not have heard it correctly when the motion was made,” Petersen said. He added that if he knew he was voting for the $3,000 annual raise, he would have insisted on more discussion on the matter.
A source in the Pennington County Auditor’s office confirmed that the motion was for the larger raise.
According to the meeting agenda packet, commissioners were given two options: Vote for the $1,300 per month salary already budgeted for 2016; or vote for “any other amount the Board deems appropriate.”
Hadcock made the motion for the $1,500-a-month pay.
Having previously spent years on the Rapid City Council, I suspect County Commissioner Hadcock knew exactly what she was doing when she made the motion. And instead of the merely ministerial action of approving the $1300 a month salary, she “boosted” it to $1500, giving all Pennington County Commissioners a 20% pay raise.
As I’d mentioned yesterday, State Representative Dan Kaiser has set up camp in Sioux Falls while his son is receiving treatment for leukemia.
One of his relatives has apparently set up a Go Fund me Page to help the Kaiser family with the expenses they’re going to incur as they receive treatment three hours away from home:
My name is Sarah and I am raising money for my totally awesome nephew Jaxon Kaiser and his parents Dan and Laura Kaiser.
Unfortunatley 2016 has started out to be the worst year for them, Jaxon was diagnosed with a type of Childhood leukemia, he is a sweet, fun loving kid who truely cares about everyone he has ever met. He is in for a rough battle but we know he can beat the crap out of cancer. I am trying to raise money for his medical bills and also for his parents to be able to take time off of work to stay with him for his treatments. The closest medical center for children is over 3 hours away from their home, which is where they will be spending a fair amount of time in the months to come.
Dan Kaiser is an Iraq war veteran, and a police officer, as well as a state representative. Laura Kaiser is a former state agent and currently self employed as a priviate investigator.
They are loving parents who would do anything for their childern.
We would be so grateful for any amount you can share with them, as we want to allow them to spend this time with their beloved son and not have to worry about paying bills, or covering what insurance does not.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Kristi Noem today joined the House in passing legislation to repeal the majority of President Obama’s health care law. The bill will now head to the White House for the President’s signature or veto. While the President is expected to veto the legislation, this represents the first time a major repeal of Obamacare provisions has been able to avoid a filibuster by Senate Democrats and reach the President’s desk.
“For five years, I have fought for this day,” said Noem. “This Congress owes it to the American people to take its best shot at repealing the President’s health care law. Every single health care plan on the exchange in South Dakota saw a double-digit rate increase this year – every single plan. It’s too expensive for families and it’s simply unaffordable for taxpayers. Rather than targeting the drivers of health care cost increases, Obamacare issued top-down mandates to ensure more people would foot an even larger bill. Today, we sent a signal that this Congress is serious. It’s time to fix this problem for the American people.”
H.R.3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, repeals the individual and employer mandates, the “Obamacare slush fund,” the medical device and “Cadillac” taxes, among other provisions. It also eliminates federal funding for Planned Parenthood for one year. If enacted, the legislation would reduce the deficit by $516 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
H.R.3762 was passed through a budgetary process called reconciliation, which allows Congress – once a year – to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.
Noem has been a vocal opponent of the President’s health care law. As an alternative, she has previously supported legislation that would allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines and allow businesses to pool together in order to purchase more affordable coverage for employees. She has also supported efforts to offer a tax break to families for health care expenses and expand access to health savings accounts.
Governor Daugaard has been taking the lead in formulating a way to allow Medicaid Expansion in South Dakota to happen. He’s been working with the federal government to come up with a plan for expansion if there is no additional cost to the state. The idea is that the change in treatment of Indian Health Service related costs would save the state more money than it costs to expand.
However, not everyone agrees, and some argue that while it might look good on paper, we need to consider the effect on society an expansion of this nature represents. Watertown State Representative Lee Schoenbeck has been one of the legislature’s strongest voices in opposition to the expansion on that basis.
This week he’s authored a column on the topic which appeared in the Watertown Public Opinion, is on the Argus Leader’s web site, and has been provided to the SDWC for your reading:
Welfare Expansion Will Make South Dakota Sick
Medicaid is a federally designed welfare program, which Obamacare encourages states to expand. In the 17 states with statistics available on Medicaid expansion, on average 63% more individuals applied for this component of Obamacare than the states had projected. In November we were told this expansion would add 44,000 South Dakotans to the welfare rolls. By December that number had increased to 55,000. Based upon the experience of the other states, South Dakota would likely see almost 90,000 citizens added to the welfare rolls if we do this expansion. Over 10% more of our state’s population that would be looking to the remaining taxpayers for free health care. At least 75% of those new welfare recipients are able-bodied and without dependents.
By Lee Schoenbeck a trial lawyer, mechanic’s kid, and legislator from Watertown, SD
State officials met with then-Obama HHS Secretary Sebelius and said South Dakota would consider expanding this welfare program if we could require the recipients to work. Seems like a reasonable request, the South Dakotans paying for the program have to work. Secretary Sebelius dismissed the request as a non-starter! The Obama administration’s refusal to consider this reasonable requirement is enlightening. It means they don’t care about health care coverage so much as they care about creating unrestricted government dependency. Encouraging pride and some level of self-reliance for welfare recipients through earning the benefits is unacceptable to the Obama administration.
Opposing more welfare is not foreclosing health care coverage, and our family has experience with this situation. When dad was home disabled, mom took a job as a kitchen aid at the local nursing home. I remember mom telling us she did it for the health insurance. For our family, it just seemed like a natural continuation of the teachings of commitment, hard-work, and responsibility that had always been our parents’ lives. Today the politicians would – by their policy positions – preach against those qualities and those actions. They would encourage welfare, instead of work. They would send a message to young people of the value of looking to the government, and not the values our parents taught us.
States that have bought into the Obamacare deal have largely underestimated the number of eligible welfare recipients, many by up to 100%. It’s easy to see why. Free concentrates and creates demand. Run an ad offering free anything, and see how much demand you will create. Now tell people that you have an option for free health care that only requires them to either not work or reduce their work – its not rocket science to understand the consequences. People will adjust their lives and income so that they can qualify for free.
Understand, this is a government welfare program, not a health program. If the goal was health, the federal government would require (or at least let state’s require) that the welfare recipient not smoke, and be on a program to manage obesity – two huge health care cost drivers. But, the Obama administration will not allow these conditions either.
These 90,000 new welfare recipients will have to pay no deductible and no copayment. The financial skin in the game that makes the taxpaying South Dakotan’s think twice about overusing expensive health care resources, doesn’t exist for the Medicaid recipient.
There are some big players in South Dakota exerting pressure on the Governor because they want access to these federal funds, but their gain comes at too great a cost to the citizens of this state. Today the Obamacare advocates describe their new arbitrary mark – taxpayer funded health care for all who keep their earnings below 138% of the poverty level – as the mark where we really are caring and loving. Given their way, in five years that number will be 175%, and if given enough time they will get to where they set out for at the beginning of this Obamacare march – government owned and operated health care.
There is no such thing as free federal money. The brunt of the higher cost of this new welfare program will fall on those current programs that rely on our current Medicaid appropriations – the impoverished elderly in our nursing homes and the severely disabled in our community based facilities – people that really need and deserve our welfare tax dollars. Unlike the Obama Administration, South Dakota lacks the ability to print money or go into debt. The South Dakota legislature needs to bring sanity to this debate.
I heard this afternoon that Republican State Representative Dan Kaiser is in Sioux Falls with his young son at Sanford Children’s Hospital. His son is apparently facing surgery tomorrow for a leukemia diagnosis.
Please keep the entire Kaiser family in your thoughts and especially your prayers for their son’s speedy recovery.
Obamacare Repeals Reach President’s Desk 
