Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Thune, Cardin Submit Business Income Tax Working Group Report to Finance Committee

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Thune, Cardin Submit Business Income Tax Working Group Report to Finance Committee

John_Thune,_official_portrait,_111th_CongressWASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), co-chairs of the Senate Finance Committee’s Business Income Tax Working Group, today submitted the working group’s report to the full committee. The report, developed with the input of the fourteen members of the working group, represents the culmination of a months-long examination of business tax issues in an effort to evaluate the challenges and opportunities posed by reforming America’s business income tax system.

Earlier this year, U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, asked Thune and Cardin to lead the Finance Committee’s Business Income Tax Working Group. Additional working groups were tasked with examining an array of subjects, including the individual income tax, savings and investment, international tax, and community development and infrastructure.

“We accepted this request because we believe that American businesses deserve a better tax system than the current tax code,” said Thune and Cardin. “We view the working group process as a demonstration of the importance that the chairman and ranking member place on enacting tax reform, a goal that we share. We took on the challenge of co-chairing the working group knowing that progress toward real tax reform will not be fast or easy, but rather will entail thoughtful deliberation around a number of very complex and difficult decisions.”

The report includes several principles, considerations, options, and recommendations that are designed to modernize U.S. business taxation to help spur economic growth and job creation, address structural biases in the tax code, and promote American innovation.

In particular, the report:

  • Highlights the challenges related to business tax reform, including potential hurdles to corporate rate reduction.
  • Discusses the effect of reform on pass-through businesses, which make up a majority of U.S. small businesses
  • Addresses major structural issues and options for pro-growth reform, including corporate integration proposals and moving the U.S. tax system closer to a consumption-oriented base
  • Details proposals that promote American innovation, including a strengthened R&E credit, an innovation box, and technology- and source-neutral energy incentives
  • Discusses simplification and other administrative proposals that could help both businesses and charities

A copy of the full report can be found here.

A full list of co-chairs and members of the working groups can be found here.

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Noem Drives Forward Amendment to Protect D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery

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Noem Drives Forward Amendment to Protect D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery

kristi noem headshot May 21 2014 Washington, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem offered an amendment to the Department of Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act late last night to prohibit funds from being used to close the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery, effectively protecting the Spearfish facility from closure through FY2016 if enacted.  The House unanimously adopted the amendment and is expected to vote on passage later this week.

“As one of the oldest fisheries in the country, the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery is a critical piece of living history. It’s disappointing to think we may lose it because of irresponsible bureaucratic decisions,” said Noem.  “While I will continue driving efforts to find a permanent solution for D.C. Booth, I’m hopeful this amendment will pave the way and ensure the economic and educational benefits offered by D.C. Booth are preserved long into the future.”

More than 155,000 people visit the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish each year. The facility currently houses 175,000 artifacts that are open and accessible to the public and researchers from across the country.  Nonetheless, the Fish and Wildlife Service has submitted a proposal to move a portion of the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery Archives located at the Spearfish facility to the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

“D.C. Booth is a very unique hatchery in the fact that it houses the National Fish Hatchery System archive and serves as America’s gathering place for things related to our nation’s rich fisheries past,” said April Gregory, Executive Director of the Booth Society.  “We are incredibly grateful to Rep. Noem for recognizing this rich history and continuing to work to preserve our mission and facility for an additional year and into the future.”

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$15/hr Minimum Wage unsustainable, despite it’s passage in cities.

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I just caught an interesting article from the American Enterprise Institute that should give business owners as well as taxpayers pause. There have been several leftward city councils who have passed a $15/hour minimum wage such as San Francisco, Seattle, and most recently Los Angeles.

The problem with a $15/Hour minimum wage? It’s impossible to sustain:

Every political season, Democrats argue for higher minimum wages. Republicans respond by citing all of the evidence that higher minimum wages are harmful. Democratic voters get charged up and swing voters conclude that Republicans are heartless. It is the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats, but the curse that keeps on afflicting those below the poverty line who lose their jobs because of it.

Though Hillary Clinton has made it clear that she is going to play this game, much of the action is coming from around the country, where America’s progressive mayors have taken this form of government price-setting to new heights. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti recently signed legislation that would raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 by 2020. And this move in Los Angeles comes on the heels of Seattle’s and San Francisco’s adoption of the same policy.

The evidence is clear about whether raising the minimum wage is an effective way to help poor people: It is not.

and..

As the chart shows, if every dollar of U.S. corporate profits were allocated to America’s employees, the effect would be to add a bit more than $7 to the average wage. The chart adds interesting perspective to the new policy in Los Angeles. The difference between the $15 Los Angeles target and the federal minimum wage of $7.25 is $7.75. At $7.57, the current value of the expropriationsubsidy is slightly lower. Mayor Garcetti’s minimum wage legislation has, it seems, taken economic populism to its logical extreme—and beyond.

Read it all here.

“if every dollar of U.S. corporate profits were allocated to America’s employees, the effect would be to add a bit more than $7 to the average wage” versus “The difference between the $15 Los Angeles target and the federal minimum wage of $7.25 is $7.75.”

On a national basis, a $15 Minimum wage doesn’t just remove all traces of corporate profits, it creates a deficit of $.75 an hour.  The simple economics of it don’t work.

Regionally, it has the potential of shifting a significant number of portable jobs that can be done elsewhere out of those areas. If such a thing came to pass nationally, I think we have the potential to see job automation and job exporting at a level never considered.

And that’s a bit of the problem with South Dakota’s open-ended minimum wage law. There’s no cap. The sky is the limit.

If our open-ended state minimum wage law survives the inevitable court challenge that will come the first time the inflationary increase kicks in, state business owners – the ones who give the jobs to people – are going to have to make some hard decisions over what’s affordable to do in the course of business, and what isn’t.

Was Roberts’ Obamacare decision better than we might have thought?

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Since it was issued, Justice Roberts’ court opinion on Obamacare has been roiled and vilified by those on the right.

But in today’s on-line magazine “the Hill,” some are arguing that the decision might not be as bad as we think, and the decision may actually hold the promise of reigning in the bureaucracy in a way not previously contemplated:

Several noted scholars of administrative law (see here and here) have noted that Roberts has signaled a general movement away from Chevron and judicial deference to regulatory agencies. If courts do not defer to agencies, then it will be easier for those looking to overturn agency regulations to find a receptive ear in court. Industries looking to overturn future regulations will be sure to cite King v. Burwell in their briefs and argue that the issue they are contesting is of deep significance.

Whether this approach will be successful hinges on how many issues the courts decide are of “deep economic and political significance.” Administrative law experts say that Roberts breathed life into the “major questions” doctrine previously used by the Supreme Court to deny Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco. Clearly, many regulatory questions are not major and do not rise to this level of significance and so the long-term impact may be limited to a small number of cases. But some regulations do rise to this level.

The most obvious regulations coming down the road that have economy-wide significance are the pending EPA regulations regarding climate change. These regulations will also inevitably end up before the Supreme Court sometime around 2018. The major questions doctrine may very well be used as the Supreme Court evaluates the EPA’s final regulations on climate change.

Read it all here.

So, while it may have legalized Obamacare, the court may have thrown down the gauntlet and signaled that they’re going to body-slam the EPA’s regulations on climate change.

What do you think?

Meade County Commissioner under attack for expressing his views

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According to the Rapid City Journal, Meade County commissioner Alan Aker is under a bit of attack by those who dwell on-line after expressing that the recent Supreme Court ruling would cause states to get out of the marriage business. (State Legislators have also noted they were going to bring bills to that effect in SD).

Meade County Commissioner Alan Aker has faced an outpouring of anger and criticism, including a petition to remove him from office, after he used his county Facebook account to predict dire consequences from the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling allowing gay marriage.

The court’s 5-4 decision was announced on Friday, June 26; later that morning, Aker’s Facebook post included his prediction that states will begin to eliminate civil marriage.

“You haven’t gained marriage ‘equality,'” he wrote, “I predict you have ended marriage as a civil institution. One by one, states will remove it from statutes. It will be an exclusively religious institution.”

and..

Reader comments on the post include criticism that Aker misused a public official page, acted unprofessionally and put his own views above those of his constituents.

Aker has this disclaimer on his Meade County Facebook page: “This page written and paid for by Alan Aker, not Meade County. Commissioner Alan Aker does not speak for the Meade County Commission or other Meade County officials.”

Read it here.

Since this, on-line petitions have come out, demanding that he be removed from office.

I’m not sure how he’s “misused a public official page” that he put up and maintains himself. I think that tends to show the ignorance of the people signing up for the lynch mob.

The thing that’s troubling is that the protest illustrates a ratcheting up of the rhetoric, and seems to imply that Aker is somehow mystically barred from having and expressing opinions contrary to those who support the ruling.  The 14th Amendment may have trumped the first amendment in that instance, but that’s not to say that future rulings are going to go that way when the first wave of “religious protection acts” start hitting the court.

I’d say a little peace and empathy on both sides might go a long way while we sort this out as a nation, but that might be asking a bit much.

Thune’s Office Now Accepting Fall Internship Applications

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thuneheadernewThune’s Office Now Accepting Fall Internship Applications

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) is currently seeking intelligent, hard-working college students to serve as fall interns in his Senate offices located in Aberdeen, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, and Washington, D.C.

Interns in Thune’s state offices will participate in constituent service and state outreach activities, while students in the Washington, D.C., office will have the opportunity to witness the legislative process, give Capitol building tours, and attend Senate votes, hearings, and press conferences. Both in-state and Washington, D.C., internships will allow students to work closely with constituents, sharpen their research and writing skills, and learn a multitude of valuable office skills.

“Students who intern in a Senate office have a unique opportunity to experience our democratic process with a front-row seat to the action,” said Thune. “Interns gain valuable knowledge about both state and national issues and an understanding of the inner workings of a Senate office. I encourage all college students to consider applying for this rewarding experience.”

Thune is chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; chairman of the Senate Republican Conference; and a member of the Senate Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

College students who are interested in interning in Senator Thune’s Washington, D.C., office should submit a resume and cover letter by Thursday, August 6, 2015, to:

Senator John Thune
Attn: Justin Bergeson
511 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

By fax to: 202-228-5429
Or by email to:
[email protected]

College students who are interested in interning in Senator Thune’s Aberdeen, Rapid City, or Sioux Falls offices should submit a resume and cover letter by Thursday, August 6, 2015, to:

Senator John Thune
Attn: Robin Long
5015 South Bur Oak
Sioux Falls, SD 57108

Or by email to:
[email protected]

For more information, please call 202-224-2321.

 

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Attorney General Jackley Calls on Congress to Preserve Authority to Enforce State Data Breach and Data Security Laws

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Attorney General Jackley Calls on Congress to Preserve Authority to Enforce State Data Breach and Data Security Laws

Marty JackleyPIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley and 46 other State and Territorial Attorneys General have asked Congress to recognize the importance of maintaining states’ authority to enforce data breach and data security laws, and their ability to enact laws to address future data security risks.

“South Dakota citizens will always be faced with the challenge of monitoring their personal identifying information. States must be able to protect their consumers and respond to these changes in technology and data collection,” said Jackley.

The letter points out a number of concerns with federal preemption of state data breach and security laws, including:

  • Data breaches and identity theft continue to cause significant harm to consumers. Since 2005, nearly 5,000 data breaches have compromised more than 815 million records containing sensitive information about consumers – primarily financial account information, Social Security numbers or medical information. Full-blown identity theft involving the use of a Social Security number can cost a consumer $5,100 on
  • Data security vulnerabilities are too common. States frequently encounter circumstances where data breach incidents result from the failure by data collectors to reasonably protect the sensitive data entrusted to them by consumers, putting consumers’ personal information at unnecessary Many of these breaches could have been prevented if the data collector had taken reasonable steps to secure consumers’ data.
  • States play an important role responding to data breaches and identity theft. The States have been at the frontlines in helping consumers deal with the repercussions of a data breach, providing important assistance to consumers who have been impacted by data breaches or who suffer identity theft or fraud as a result, and investigating the causes of data breaches to determine whether the data collector experiencing the breach had reasonable data security in place. Forty- seven states now have laws requiring data collectors to notify consumers when their personal information has been compromised by a data breach, and a number of states have also passed laws requiring companies to adopt reasonable data security

The letter urges Congress to preserve existing protections under state law, ensure that states can continue to enforce breach notification requirements under their own state laws and enact new laws to respond to new data security threats, and to not hinder states that are helping their residents by preempting state data breach and security laws.

To view the letter, please click on the link: http://atg.sd.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=wgQf7tM2hWI%3d&tabid=442

Rep. Hickey Resigns; Governor Invites Public Input

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Rep. Hickey Resigns; Governor Invites Public Input

Daugaard

PIERRE, S.D. – State Rep. Steve Hickey has resigned his seat in the South Dakota House of Representatives. Hickey, a Sioux Falls Republican, has served in the state House since 2011.

“Steve Hickey has been a passionate advocate for his constituents and for the causes he believes in,” said Gov. Daugaard. “I wish him the best in the future.”

Hickey’s resignation, which is effective Sept. 1, 2015, creates a vacancy that will be filled by gubernatorial appointment. The Governor is asking the public to nominate candidates to fill the position.

hickeyThose wishing to be considered for the appointment, or to offer nominations, should contact Grace Kessler in the Office of the Governor at 605-773-3661. Nominations should include the candidate’s name, current address, telephone number and relevant background information.

Hickey represents District 9, which includes northwestern Minnehaha County, including the Hartford, Humboldt, Crooks and the Wall Lake area. The district also includes an area in north and northwestern Sioux Falls, encompassing Southeast Technical Institute, Hayward Elementary School and the Sioux Falls Regional Airport. A map of the district is available on the LRC website at legis.sd.gov/img/Legislative_Districts/09.pdf.

Gov. Daugaard expects to name an appointee this fall.

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Hickey resigning from legislature? Announced to GOP Caucus last night.

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There’s a report out today on Bob Mercer’s web site that State Representative Steve Hickey is resigning.   Apparently I got it last night, but I go to bed too early.

House Caucus,

Effective September 1, Representative Hickey is resigning from the Legislature due to his desire to pursue an education opportunity in Scottland (UK) and for health reasons. His explanation will follow:

hickeyFor a combination of reasons briefly mentioned here, I am resigning my position as State Representative, District 9, effective September 1, 2015. On Sunday, I announced my plans to our church and wanted you to hear it from me personally as soon as possible.

More significant to our family and close friends, after twenty one years, I’m shifting into a Pastor Emeritus-type role at our church here in Sioux Falls. Kristen and I are selling our home in District 9. Beginning September 7 we will be living most of the time near the University of Aberdeen in Scotland as I work toward a PhD in Christian Ethics in the Modern World, or more precisely, the topic of Bonhoeffer and the Surveillance State.

My interest and involvement in Bonhoeffer studies goes back twenty-five years when I studied for a couple years under a leading Bonhoeffer scholar and this is an opportunity extended to very few. For years I’ve been a member of the International Bonhoeffer Society and through my involvement there, in March of 2014, I was encouraged to apply for a scholarship at the University of Aberdeen. Though I did not get that scholarship, the door opened and those who know what it takes to get into a PhD program are aware this isn’t something I’m doing on a whim.

Considering the path I am on toward a lung transplant this window of time to slow down and prepare for the next chapter of our lives makes lots of sense to us. My long-term plan is to teach and write and it is our intention to finish out our lives in South Dakota upon completion of my PhD. My son plans to return to South Dakota when he finishes seminary next spring and my daughters plan is to begin law school at USD in 2016. South Dakota will remain our home long-term and I plan to continue to follow and be involved in South Dakota politics and issues even in my physical absence.

My kids would be quick to tell you one of our family values is “Hickeys cross finish lines.” However the timing of the academic opportunities available to me require that I not finish my third term in the State House. My hope is those in my district understand there are vocational, personal and health reasons preventing a citizen legislator from completing a term. In any case, it has been a high honor to serve people from every political persuasion in my district and the rest of our state and thank them for the trust they have placed in me.

Sincerely,  Rep. Steve Hickey

Please wish Representative Hickey well as he continues his pulmonary battle & this education opportunity.

Thanks,  Leader Gosch