Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Rounds Applauds Committee Passage of Six Year Highway Bill

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Rounds Applauds Committee Passage of Six Year Highway Bill
Protects South Dakota Transportation Priorities

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, today applauded the committee’s passage of a six-year surface transportation reauthorization bill,  the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy (DRIVE) Act.

“A healthy economy is dependent on a strong, safe and vibrant transportation system that allows us to move people, goods and commerce with ease. Roughly $20 billion in goods are transported on South Dakota roads each year. The DRIVE Act recognizes the important role roads in rural states play in our national economy. It will also provide states increased flexibility in making decisions and managing their transportation networks. I applaud my colleagues for working together on a comprehensive, bipartisan highway bill that will provide long-term certainty for state and local governments. This will allow them to plan their transportation projects more efficiently.”

Background: Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy (DRIVE) Act

Fully-funds highway programs for 6 years:

  • The bill reauthorizes the Federal-aid highway program at an increased funding level for six years, from FY 2016 through FY 2021.
  • Maintains formula program structure and increases the amounts each state will receive each fiscal year.

Increases support for core formula programs:

  • The existing consolidated core highway program structure from MAP-21 is maintained, including: the National Highway Performance Program; the Highway Safety Improvement Program; the Surface Transportation Program; and the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program.

Prioritizes bridges and large, nationally-important facilities:

  • The bill dramatically increases the funding that must be spent on projects to maintain and repair bridges off of the National Highway System, as these bridges often struggle to find a reliable funding stream.
  • The bill also shifts additional revenue towards the Interstate System and the National Highway System to address the significant maintenance backlog on those facilities.

Requires Highway Trust Fund transparency:

  • The legislation includes new provisions to improve the transparency of how and where transportation projects are selected and funded, to make certain that stakeholders and the public have faith in the integrity of highway programs and the use of federal tax dollars.
  • The improved transparency provisions will provide to the public better accountability on how the Federal Highway Administration is utilizing their administrative appropriations as well as progress towards achieving national goals and improving federal reviews of highway projects.

Accelerates project delivery and increases flexibility:

  • Building on the reforms in MAP-21, the bill continues to accelerate the project delivery process while protecting the environment and public health.
  • New reforms would improve collaboration between the lead agency and the participating agencies, allow for greater reliance on documents prepared during the planning process, and reduce duplication between agencies involved in the federal environmental review and permitting process.

Expands flexibility and opportunities for infrastructure investment in rural areas:

  • The bill provides increased flexibility to best fit the needs of rural states and local governments.
  • It offers new options to bundle small projects together to increase efficiencies and take advantage of procedures often difficult to utilize for rural projects.
  • It empowers states to work with DOT to develop ways to effectively utilize flexibilities for small projects, including rural road and bridge projects to better respond to community needs.

Funds Federal Lands and Tribal Transportation Highway Programs:

  • The bill increases funding levels for these programs to support maintenance and construction of roads and bridges on tribal and federal lands.
  • The bill also authorizes funds for nationally significant federal lands and tribal transportation projects, recognizing that there is a significant maintenance and repair backlog on these facilities.

Maintains State and Metropolitan Transportation Planning:

  • The bill maintains the statewide and metropolitan planning processes to continue the development towards a performance-based approach to transportation decision making

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Black Hills preparing for invasion of dirty hippies.

@SoDakCampaigns

The invasion of the Black Hills by dirty hippies continues to move forward, and continues to generate news stories over the clashes between the hippie “tribe” and area Native Americans. From the Daily Beast, a story titled “Lakota Warriors Vow to Crush Dirty Rainbow Hippies”:

“We don’t want you here. You have no f—king respect for Lakota people!” the 54-year-old Native American yelled into a mic attached to his truck. His T-shirt bore another message: portraits of warriors who had shellacked the U.S. Army in the Battle of Little Bighorn, alongside the words “Original Homeland Security.”

and…

Swan is not a tribal council representative and does not speak for the Sioux. That isn’t stopping him from fighting the Rainbow Family of Living Light, a counterculture group that’s held annual gatherings in national forests every July since 1972 to pray for world peace—and deliver drugs, nudity and sometimes murder and other crimes in their wake.

and..

Swan said Rainbow Family adherents tried to soften him up by saying, “We’re just like you, [but] the government doesn’t recognize us as a tribe.”

“You’re not a tribe,” Swan added. “You’re fricking fruitcake people.”

Read that all here.

Yes. I’m sure calling themselves a tribe helped to smooth over matters.

The hippies are also in the Rapid City Journal again today, as their war of words with James Swan continues on, and the Hippies claim that they don’t condone the use of drugs…… but some of their members apparently didn’t get the memo.

And Bonus! They discussed their hygiene habits!:

Members of the Rainbow Family held a question and answer meeting with area residents in Hill City on Tuesday evening to address the concerns that some might have. There was a sense of unease from some residents, who voiced concerns on a variety of topics, including the extent of drug usage at the gathering, how laws would be enforced at the gathering, their general hygiene habits, if they would destroy the forest and whether it would have an impact on the tourism industry that Hill City relies on.

“This is the 44th year we’ve been doing this, if we trashed the forest, we’d have been shut down years ago by the National Service,” Winslow said. “As with any gathering of people, there will be a few dissidents, but call other towns that have hosted us, they’ll all tell you that it was a positive experience.”

He also said the Rainbow Family does not condone the sale or usage of drugs.

and..

James Swan, also a member of the Strong Heart Warrior Society, appeared at the meeting and was visibly angry with the members of the Rainbow Family. He loudly said they were violating tribal land and he threatened to “serve them an eviction notice” and “kick their asses out” if they weren’t gone in 48 hours. He left the meeting without waiting for a response.

and…

In Rapid City and Pennington County, officials have taken a firm hand with Rainbow gatherers so far, instituting a “no tolerance” policy on aggressive panhandling, and urging businesses owners to call police if trouble arises. Several arrests of people who said they came to the area for the Rainbow gathering were made in Rapid City last week on panhandling and drug charges.

Read it all here.

Why do I think this isn’t the last story we’re going to see on this?

The Damaged State Capitol

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If you haven’t caught the twitter feed coming from the Governor’s Chief of Staff Tony Venhuizen, Tony has been documenting much of the damage around the State Capitol grounds from the recent storm in Pierre for Social Media:

And that damage to the Capitol isn’t insignificant. According to the Capitol Journal:

The storm also ripped off as much as 25 percent of the copper flashing from the Capitol Building annex’s roof, officials say.

About 15 square feet of copper was peeled back and thrown to the Capitol’s lawn, said Leah Svendsen who oversees maintenance on the Capitol grounds.

“That copper just kind of peeled off,” Svendsen said. “We’re really lucky that it happened at 3 a.m.”

Svendsen said she doesn’t yet know what the cost of repairing the copper flashing will be but it won’t be cheap or easy.

“It’s hard to find companies that can repair the copper,” she said.

Losing the copper led to some water damage on the Capitol’s fourth floor, Svendsen said, and repairs will need to be made. The roof has since been sealed, she said.

No other damage was reported to the Capitol building, Svendsen said.

Read that here in the Capitol Journal.

I asked Tony last night about the damage to the State Capitol, and “whether the repairs can be covered through existing funds, or will special measures have to be taken to cover the costs?”  He indicated that the structure is covered by insurance, which should alleviate some of the burden taxpayers will have to bear for the storm damage.

I suspect however that the trees are a different story.

The potential problem is that the Capitol Complex building fund is always stretched beyond it’s limits with basic maintenance projects, and a massive storm is going to tax already limited resources.

Former “Press Person” for Corinna Robinson now fighting for Dr. Boz.

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So, I find out today that a one-time self-styled “Press Person” for Corinna Robinson (and I use that very, very loosely) is now fighting for Dr. Boz?

As the admin of a newsy blogsite, one of the things you’re forced to deal with from time to time are people of questionable motives who might think in they’re own minds that they’re quite reasonable, but actually come off to the world at large as nutty web site trolls who serve no purpose.

Case in point are the people from Florida or Georgia or wherever who last year decided to call a countrywide boycott of the SDWC, including a request of one of the people on the Kardashian TV show to boycott this web site (Hilariously, they declined,) after I had the audacity to question why they were sending out press releases for the ill-fated Corinna Robinson campaign.

Fast forward to this morning. After a link from the Bosworth ally with the twitter handle @dakotafreepress tagged me with the following tweet,

I was obligated to take a look, which, took me back to the land of the trolls, and back down the rabbithole, where these out-of-staters are back on the attack in South Dakota, this time against someone else in defense of Annette Bosworth. Here’s the latest passage:

Since 2013, Heidelberger has spent a large part of his time stalking Bosworth’s social media pages, posting stolen items from her office to use against her on his blog and even attacked her children online, encouraging deplorable behavior that has labeled him a Hate Blogger. But for all the things that have been said about him, stupid is definitely not one of them.

In 1989, Heidelberger was the recipient of the Presidential Scholar Award, given each year to just one male and one female graduating senior per state. According to his cousin Aaron, Heidelberger was given a big scholarship to Harvard after earning a near perfect score on the ACT. And, he did attend, briefly. After spending just the fall semester at what is arguably the most prestigious schools in the nation, Heidelberger abruptly left.

He has never spoken about Harvard, nor was he comfortable with his entry in the 1989 Presidential Scholar Yearbook.

I’m not endorsing the accuracy of anything written there, but you can read it if you want. (And you probably don’t want to.)

And there are other pronouncements, such as takedown demands from Heidelberger, more posts how the Floridians are “taking down one hate blogger,” referring to their blind support of Annette Bosworth, and lifting entire blogposts from sites including the SDWC, erroneously referring to a press release from the AG’s office as “an ad,” (because I put a colorful header on it), calls for Marty Jackley to resign, and other silliness in a month long campaign in support of Dr. Bosworth who was recently given a felony conviction for her petition violations.

So, with Corinna Robinson’s loss to Kristi Noem and subsequent evaporation from the South Dakota political scene, these out-of-staters have abandoned Robonson, and taken up the flag of Annette Bosworth?

With that, I’ve probably given it more time than any of it is worth.  And as I’ve said more than once, I can’t wait for the circus to be over.

Update… because I can’t help but dig in.

So, regarding the twitter account that was pushing the story? The @DakotaFreePress twitter account, which appeared in June and claims to be South Dakota related is tied to the dakotazfreepress.com website that was created in March, but seems to have backdated articles to earlier.

But what grabbed me is that the first thing that they retweeted was some of the silliness that I’m talking about above.

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Even more curious, the same (or related) person or people have created another twitter account aping the SDWC name with the same content as on the @dakotafreepress twitter account. In fact, the first post was the exact same re-tweet as the twitter account pushing this story has. On the same day.

Which seems to indicate that the anonymous web site and anonymous twitter account would be working in conjunction with the out-of-state internet trolls, if it isn’t they themselves.

An even bigger reason to just ignore the whole mess.

Implied consent looks to be on the way out in SD

@SoDakCampaigns

Implied consent – the long standing doctorine in South Dakota of automatic permission for a blood draw in DUI cases – has all but been voided by recent court cases:

Twice in the past year, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled unanimously for defendants where blood was drawn without the person’s consent and without law enforcement officers getting a warrant first.

The court’s latest decision came two weeks ago, regarding the arrest of Eric Medicine by a Rapid City police officer on May 3, 2014.

The officer read from a DUI advisement card telling Medicine that any driver in South Dakota “has consented” to a blood draw and next asked that the driver “submit” to the draw.

and…

Jackley said his office has advised prosecutors and law enforcement officers since Fierro that DUI advisement cards aren’t a requirement any longer.

He said that the cards “while used with good intentions may give rise to unintended legal complications.” The preferred action now is to simply request consent.

Law enforcement officers can request warrants electronically from circuit judges and magistrate judges while at the scene of the pending arrest.

Read it all here.

Watch for revisions to the law from the next legislative session.

Keystone XL Pipeline certification public input session scheduled for July 6

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Keystone XL Pipeline certification public input session scheduled for July 6 

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission will hold a public input session on Monday, July 6, 2015, to hear comments about the construction permit certification for the South Dakota portion of the Keystone XL Pipeline proposed by TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, LP. The session begins at 5:30 p.m. CDT in Room 414 of the State Capitol in Pierre and will adjourn no later than 8:30 p.m.

Individuals offering oral comments to PUC Commissioners Chris Nelson, Kristie Fiegen and Gary Hanson should be prepared to follow these guidelines:

  • · A commenter must state his/her name, address and organization, if any.
  • · In order to provide equal speaking opportunity, a five-minute time limit will be allowed for each commenter. A commenter may not yield remaining time he/she may have to another speaker.
  • · Commenters should not read published documents, such as reports or newsletter articles, as part of their verbal comments but rather submit those items to the commission to become part of the public record for this docket.

The PUC will accept written comments at any time, including at the public input session. Public comments must include the commenter’s full name and address and should include the docket number (HP14-001) or the project name, as well as the commenter’s email address and phone number, if available. These comments can be sent to [email protected]; PUC, 500 E. Capitol Ave., Pierre, SD 57501 or delivered to the PUC at the public input session. The comments will be filed in the docket.

An evidentiary hearing for the Keystone XL Pipeline construction permit certification is scheduled for July 27 – Aug. 4, 2015, in the State Capitol in Pierre.

The complete docket is available on the PUC website at www.PUC.SD.gov, Commission Actions, Commission Dockets, Hydrocarbon Pipeline Dockets, 2014 Hydrocarbon Pipeline Dockets. The docket is HP14-001 – In the Matter of the Petition of TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, LP for Order Accepting Certification of Permit Issued in Docket HP09-001 to Construct the Keystone XL Pipeline.

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Protesters say common core part of funding problem? Not really. But there are plenty of other causes.

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From today’s Argus:

Thompson and other anti-Common Core advocates tried to make their voice heard at a public forum hosted by the state’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Teachers and Students.

Common Core might be contentious, but task force organizers, including some of the state’s top lawmakers, say it has no place in the ongoing school funding talks with teachers, business leaders and community members.

and…

Thompson and others tried to bridge their complaints, but were stymied by the format, she said. They eventually refused to participate in the discussions, which required attendees to meet in small-groups, answer specific questions asked by the moderator and write responses on sticky notes.

But the Common Core protesters should be heard, Thompson said. The standards create extra costs for local districts, for curriculum materials and technology, she said.

Read it here.

So, here we are again. A bunch of people say its all about common core. Because school funding issues magically came about since the implementation of the school standards developed by states?

Ugh. They sound like a broken record. Protesters say common core part of funding problem? Not really. But they don’t have to look that far to get to the root of it.

The argument over school funding has been around since long before Common Core, NCLB, and every other education initiative or education acronym you can recall. Just a few years ago, schools unsuccessfully sued the state to try to determine what an appropriate level of education funding should be. Not to mention previous studies on school funding which pre-date CC.

Even that lawsuit was an attempt to circumvent some of the attitudes which have kept education funding as a contentious issue over the years. And some of those attitudes are almost schizophrenic.

In many communities, people don’t want to pay taxes adequate to support school needs. “Those darn teachers make too much for working 9 months,” and cries of “There are too many school administrators! They can manage 600 employees instead of 200 if we consolidate.”

Yet they’re the first ones to bleat when their local school is in threat of closure, because school closure is a sure-fire town killer, which dries up the chances of anyone wanting to move to that community.

Contributing to the funding inertia is the state teachers union, SDEA, which can’t decide if it wants to merely bite the hand of the legislature that feeds it, or to declare a fatwa against the Republican majority. Neither one has ever worked so well for them, except to harden hearts to anything coming out of their mouths.

And the legislature isn’t so pure in the debate as well. Has anyone ever calculated the cost of the curriculum mandates thrust upon schools over the years? While simultaneously some of the same legislators place their hand over their heart and declare to the masses (who aren’t paying attention) “I am for local control!”

And we have the ‘long suffering’ school boards who have a tendency in this environment to hoard any additional funds in reserve for the next time a school building explodes, burns down, or is declared a asbestos ridden health hazard unfit for inmates, much less children. More funds for teacher pay? Sorry, that’s going into the sock in the coffee can buried in the yard.

The point of all of this is that when it comes to education funding, its not Common Core. We’re all part of the problem. And we all need to be part of the solution.

Its whether or not everyone can accept giving up part of their kingdom for at least a momentary respite in an age old debate.

Do we want to improve funding for education in this state, or do we want to rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic (again), while schools fall apart, teaching positions go unfilled, and we allow the debate to rage for yet another decade?

The Blue Ribbon Study Group has more meetings to come. We shall see.

Dem’s May FEC Report. Money from National Dems & Teamsters. A bit more in salaries going out…

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The Dem’s May FEC Report is out, and there are a few items on it worth reporting.

Dem May Federal Fec

South Dakota Democrats are still quite dependent on the National party, receiving over $7000 in financial transfusion to prop it up. They also have some cash donated from the Teamster’s DRIVE Pac.

And then there’s the money going out in salaries, which I find the most interesting for a party that has yet to announce it has anointed the long overdue ED yet:

Interim ED Zach Nistler – $100, $172, $1462.12, $1462.13
Ryan Rolfs – $100, $172, $1462.12, $1462.13Savanna Beckman – $397.10, $240.11
Johnathan Chapman – $1321.25
Michael Dupiz – $156.99
Lucy George-Cooper (a.k.a. Weiland Staffer, Rumored to be Paula Hawks’ Campaign person) – $1321.25
Alexander Mader – $418.81
Emily Meier – $277.00

It remains to be seen what these people are doing, but they’re firmly latched on to the SDDP, helping to drain it from $59,113 cash on hand down to $31,681  – a drop of nearly $28K

US Senator John Thune (and guest’s) Weekly Column: Accelerate Customer Service at the IRS

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Accelerate Customer Service at the IRS

By Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

John_Thune,_official_portrait,_111th_CongressThe IRS stumbled its way through tax season, still struggling to try to restore its reputation after its political targeting scandal gravely undermined confidence in the federal tax-collecting agency’s ability to fairly administer tax laws.

With the 2015 tax-filing season fading in the rearview mirror, now is the time to look to the road ahead and make serious repairs at the beleaguered federal agency.

A look under the IRS’ hood exposes systemic troubles that continue to throttle quality taxpayer services. Even 16 years after Congress passed sweeping taxpayer rights laws, a culture of mismanagement continues to steer the IRS away from sorely needed public redemption. Instead, misguided decisions and more violations of taxpayer privacy clog its core mission to serve the taxpaying public with integrity.

Consider that wait times nearly doubled for calls placed to the toll-free hot lines during the 2015 tax season, according to the IRS’ internal watchdog. And for taxpayers whose calls made the connection, the IRS would answer only “basic” questions. What’s more, the National Taxpayer Advocate also reported in January that the IRS would not answer any tax law questions for the 15 million taxpayers who file after the April 15 deadline. And yet the IRS prioritized $60 million in bonuses to its employees.

It’s time to flush out a mindset of self-service and retool the agency with quality customer service.

It’s even harder for taxpayers to swallow gross mismanagement that includes hours on the taxpayer dime devoted to union activity, federal employees who remain on paid administrative leave for years without doing their jobs, and federal workers whose tax delinquency adds up to $3.5 billion.

These are head scratchers that taxpayers and good-government watchdogs (like us) are itching to see fixed.

No doubt, the IRS has a tall order to fill, processing nearly 150 million tax returns and receiving 100 million phone calls each year. Tasked with an increasingly complex federal code, the IRS also bears the burden of implementing expansive tax law changes that go above and beyond revenue collection to administering dozens of complicated new provisions created by Obamacare.

What’s worse, the Government Accountability Office found that the IRS sent out $5.8 billion in fraudulent tax refunds in 2013. Considering the recent massive data breaches at the IRS and Office of Personnel Management, the federal government is clearly facing a steep curve to thwart cyber crimes that put sensitive personal information at risk of piracy.

Taxpayers sacrifice substantial shares of their hard-earned money to finance public services for the public good.  Our system of voluntary compliance depends on the IRS responsibly collecting taxes and administering federal tax laws with integrity and fairness. The last thing the IRS ought to be doing is squandering tax dollars or leaving taxpayers vulnerable to identity theft.

Basic principles of good government should be the rule, not the exception. This includes shielding taxpayer information, treating individual taxpayers with respect and professionalism, and providing first-rate customer service. So when the IRS underperforms when it comes to these fundamental functions of its mission or the taxpaying public perceives unfair bias in its performance, it is clear the IRS needs a new map to get back on track.

Law-abiding taxpayers play by the rules and expect the same in return.  The IRS needs to get serious about mending fences and rebuilding trust with the taxpaying public.

Building from bipartisan reforms enacted in 1988, 1996, and 1998, we just introduced new legislation that would root out misconduct and restore sagging credibility caused by poor customer service and violations of taxpayer rights.

Our Taxpayer Bill of Rights Enhancement Act of 2015 sends a strong signal to those entrusted with administering the nation’s tax laws. The IRS needs to remember that it conducts the people’s business when it enforces and administers the nation’s tax laws. Our bill shows that Congress means business when it comes to tax fairness and taxpayer privacy.

Take a look at a few points of interest on our legislative route to upgrade taxpayer service at the IRS. Our bill would:

  • establish a statutory requirement for the IRS commissioner to ensure that IRS employees abide by the “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” adopted last summer by the federal agency;
  • update termination requirements for misconduct by an IRS employee who violates the “10 deadly sins” originally in theIRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, clarifying that abusing official actions for political purposes qualifies as a job-losing offense;
  • increase criminal and civil penalties for the unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information, forbid use of personal email accounts for official business, and install confidentiality firewalls for government contractors; and
  • enhance accountability by requiring timely updates to victims of alleged wrongdoing by IRS employees.

America can’t afford to have taxpayers lose faith in their government’s ability to fairly administer revenue collection.  Enforcing meatier taxpayer rights at the IRS will help flesh out better customer service and move toward fixing bone-deep grievances.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, championed the 1988, 1996, and 1998 taxpayer rights laws currently on the books. Sens. Grassley and Thune currently serve together on the Finance Committee and are joining forces to make the right to quality service a high priority at the IRS.

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