Author: Pat Powers

 With the session at our door, now might be a good time to unveil the results of our unscientific polling on the question of a sales tax increase:

  
(Are you trying to give us a hint?)

By a majority over all other choices combined, you said “No, no, and NO!” to any increase in the sales tax in one of the largest responses to a SDWC poll ever.

19% said increase in the sales tax of education was ok. A little over 16% said that they would increase the sales tax for both counties and education. But 52 1/2% put their foot down and said “don’t you dare!”

In light of that sentiment, how do we think this legislative session going to go?

  

The Sioux Falls chapter of Drinking Liberally continues to give us some of the best insight into the workings of the Democrat party that we get in South Dakota.

In their latest post it would not appear that the Democrat faithful are very confident of the party’s ability to produce the candidate promised in the U.S. Senate race:

Faced with their ever increasing voter registration disparity, the South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP) has been all but silent. The SDDP has not offered a plan to reverse the decline.

And…

The SDDP needs a plan and it needs to act on it soon.

Perhaps we can share voter registration ideas over a shot of Tequila at Drinking Liberally tonight. All of our thoughts will seem brilliant I am sure.

In the meantime we await the promised announcement of a Democratic candidate to challenge John Thune. Time is running short. The time to circulate nominating petitions has arrived.

I’m not holding my breath. Tonight I am drinking to Voter Registration and a plan.

Read it all here.

Attorney General Marty Jackley’s 2016 Legislative Package

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that the Attorney General’s proposed legislative package for 2016 will include a request that our Legislature consider and enact the following:

1. Strengthening Human Trafficking Forfeiture laws
Under South Dakota law, a person who is convicted of specific human trafficking and sex crimes forfeits the profits and assets associated with their sex crimes.  These forfeited assets are used to pay for the law enforcement operations and to help victims of human trafficking.  Because many of the law enforcement arrests and prosecutions are conducted jointly with state, local and federal authorities, the Attorney General is requesting that the Legislature allow the forfeiture of these assets and profits used in human trafficking be allowed whether the case is prosecuted in state or federal court.

“State, local and federal law enforcement officers continue to remove sexual predators from our communities during our joint law enforcement operations and investigations.  Predators convicted of human trafficking and related sex crimes whether prosecuted by state or federal authorities should not keep either their profits or assets used to harm young women and children.  Their profits and assets used to commit these sex crimes should go to help victims and support further law enforcement operations saving taxpayer monies,” said Jackley.

2. Improving Sex Offender Registry
South Dakota maintains one of the strongest nationally certified sex offender registries.  There are presently 3,438 South Dakota sex offender registrants.  South Dakota registrants have an over 99% compliance rate.  In the interest of maintaining a registry in which registrants maintain strong compliance, changes including allowing the use of identification cards are being proposed, as well as additional protections including related to immigration documentation.

Several South Dakota reservations, while maintaining their own registry, cooperate and exchange information with South Dakota Sex Offender Registry.  This cooperation better ensures that all communities in South Dakota, whether on or off reservation, have this information available for parents, grandparents and guardians to better protect their children.  The Attorney General is requesting that tribal sex offender qualified offenses be made a part of the South Dakota registry.  South Dakota currently cooperates with the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Lower Brule, Sisseton/Wahpeton and Standing Rock tribes.

“South Dakota is a national leader in maintaining a sex offender registry that helps parents and grandparents make informed decisions to better protect children.  This proposed legislation will expand these protections further with our tribal partners and will assist registrants in meeting their compliance requirements,” said Jackley.

3. Addressing Vehicular Homicide
On July 8, 2013, Ronald Fisher, drove recklessly,  impaired, and at high rates of speed through a Pickstown parking lot killing 25 year old Maegen Spindler and 46 year old Dr. Robert Klumb.  Fisher was tried and convicted for two counts of vehicular homicide for his two victims.  Because vehicular homicide is a Class 3 felony, the Judge was only able to provide a maximum allowable sentence of 15 years for each victim.  Furthermore, because vehicular homicide is not statutorily defined as a “crime of violence,” Mr. Fisher may well only serve approximately nine total years for the deaths of his two victims. Vehicular homicide convictions over the past five years in South Dakota include:  4 in 2015, 4 in 2014, 8 in 2013, 4 in 2012 and 5 in 2011.

“While it is difficult to place a value on the loss of a human life, serving only a 4.5 year sentence for the brutal vehicular homicide of another human being should carry with it more significance and deterrent value to better protect the public,” said Jackley.

4. Protecting fetal body parts from for-profit sale in South Dakota.
Under South Dakota law, the sale or transfer of fetal remains is illegal with limited exceptions.  The law allows donations of fetal tissue or organs in cases of spontaneous abortion and with the mother’s consent.  Although the sale or transfer of fetal remains is generally prohibited by law, there is no specified penalty or crime classification.

Based upon the national reports and concern over the transfer of fetal tissue and remains, it is important to clarify and specify what South Dakota law prevents and permits and the appropriate penalty.  Based upon the significance of the knowing and for-profit sale of fetal tissue, the proposed penalty is a Class 6 felony which is consistent with South Dakota’s classification for partial birth abortion violations.

“It is my hope that all South Dakotans, whether pro-life or pro-choice, would support limiting and deterring the knowing and for-profit sale or transfer of fetal body parts and tissue in our state.  It is my further hope that when the law prohibits specified conduct that we are clear as to what the penalty is when the law is not followed,” said Jackley.

At the time of filing, the prepared Attorney General bills may be viewed at:
http://legis.sd.gov/Legislative_Session/Default.aspx?Session=Ninety-First

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From the Rapid City Journal:

Pennington County voters Tuesday soundly rejected the proposed wheel tax that annually would have added $2.5 million to the county budget for road and bridge projects.

With all precincts counted, 59.6 percent of the voters said “no” to the tax, while 40.4 percent voted “yes.” Turnout was 15.3 percent of registered voters.

Read it all here.

I’m betting the RV population had little to do with putting this measure over the top by this kind of margin. This was the kind of rejection reserved for Democrats!

Both Congresswoman Kristi Noem and State Rep Jim Bolin were featured in an Argus Leader article yesterday on people to watch in 2016 because of their elections this year:

Lederman had two more terms in the Senate, and Bolin said he would not have challenged his friend in a primary. But with Lederman gone, the calculus changed. “The odds are that I will,” he said. Bolin has been a worker bee for the state Republican Party. A conservative, Bolin has also parted ways with the governor on some key issues, which could explain why he wasn’t appointed to the seat. A primary between Bolin and Shorma would be one of the most watched in the state, pitting a veteran lawmaker against a newcomer who has the backing of the governor.

And..

When she first ran for the U.S. House in 2010, Kristi Noem predicted that she would only serve 10 years. While a successful re-election in 2016 wouldn’t bring her to the end of that self-imposed limit, it is the last election before the governor’s seat opens in 2018. To set the stage for a historic 2018 campaign for governor, Noem needs a convincing win in the 2016 House race against Democrat Paula Hawks. An overwhelming victory would make her an early favorite, and she last reported having $1.3 million in the bank, money which could be deployed in a race for governor. 

And… 

Some of her supporters are pushing her in that direction, and a big victory in this year’s House race would have all eyes on her as she makes a decision for 2018.

Read it all here.

They are correct, the Bolin contest will be interesting to watch, and an expected Noem victory could set the stage for her entry into the 2018 gubernatorial race.

From Facebook:

  

Former Congresswoman and potential 2018 Gubernatorial Candidate Stephanie Herseth Sandlin was mentioned yesterday at the Insider Trading Report website for grabbing 500 shares of stock with her employer, Raven Industries:

Raven Industries Inc (RAVN): Stephanie Herseth Sandlin , Gen Counsel & VP Corp Dev of Raven Industries Inc purchased 500 shares on Dec 30, 2015. The Insider buying transaction was disclosed on Dec 30, 2015 to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares were purchased at $15.77 per share for a total value of $7,883.00.

The company shares have dropped 36.88% in the past 52 Weeks. On December 29, 2014 The shares registered one year high of $25.95 and one year low was seen on December 18, 2015 at $15.07. The 50-day moving average is $17.14 and the 200 day moving average is recorded at $18.21. S&P 500 has rallied 1.33% during the last 52-weeks.

Shares of Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN) appreciated by 3.41% during the past week but lost 4.06% on a 4-week basis. The shares have outperformed the S&P 500 by 0.63% in the past week but underperformed the index by 2.7% in the last 4 weeks.

Read it all here.

Instead of New Years’ Eve, in South Dakota should we be calling this Campaign Eve?

Petition circulation kicks off tomorrow, and within a few weeks’ time, we’ll get to see who we have running for what office. If you’re considering it yourself, take a moment to read what I put together a couple of days ago to help you not to screw up your petitions.  (We don’t need anymore budding Bosworth’s, do we?)

The other thought that came to mind was the fact that Democrat Party Chairwoman Ann Tornberg had been promising for most of the year that Dems would have a candidate for US Senate. And yet we still hear crickets.  Any potential Dem challenger has managed to skip the entire preceding year where US Senate candidates typically scramble to meet people, raise their name ID and try to bring in cash.  Now, instead of noting the missed opportunity of days that they missed, starting tomorrow, we’ll have to start counting down the days they’re not out there gathering names on petitions to run.

If you can’t tell, I’ve been pretty doubtful that Democrats could live up to Tornberg’s boast that they had someone to run. And I still am.

With Tornberg so far unable to produce all these people she claims will be running, the downside for the leader of the Democrats is that with all of her continuous and boastful claims of Democrats running people in all statewide and in just about all 105 legislative races, she’s placed her credibility on the line.   She risks her name becoming an adjective for failure.

Truly, all of us who prognosticate on the future of the political scene do it without the benefit of knowing what events will occur in the intervening 11 months until the election.

You never know, we could experience the Rapture, and God could decide to leave the Liberals behind on a devastated and depopulated planet. With Democrats shifting further to the left in a conservative South Dakota that’s decidedly moved towards the right, that might give them a fighting chance to field candidates and win elections.

But short of that happening, I feel pretty secure in stating that Republicans are going to have a pretty good year in South Dakota in 2016.

Whether Democrats are able to find a warm body to take on John Thune for the US Senate is immaterial as to whether he, Kristi Noem, Chris Nelson, and a vast majority of Republican Legislators are going to win office in 2016.

In most instances, the races are inevitable, or they have already been won.

John Thune is featured in the Argus Leader talking about what the Senate has accomplished in the last year, as well as what we can see coming up in 2016:

The state’s senior senator spoke with reporters from Argus Leader Media to outline his office’s legislative successes and Congress’ accomplishments in 2015. Among them was the first comprehensive highway funding bill in 10 years, the first major overhaul of federal education policy since 2002 and trade agreements with Asia and Europe.

His office also ran political cover for the expansion of the Powder River Training Complex, which increases training opportunities for bombers at Ellsworth Air Force Base, making the base more relevant in the event of another round of closures.

and..

“There’s a whole long list of fairly consequential legislation that finally moved,” Thune said.

Congress also passed legislation that added new requirements to the country’s visa waiver program. That program allows visitors from 38 countries to travel to the United States without first having to obtain a visa. The program makes it more convenient for U.S. citizens and the citizens of the 38 countries who participate to travel internationally.

Read the entire story here.