Author: Pat Powers

There was an interesting comment in another post from State Representative Lee Schoenbeck, which could be a preview of one of the big legislative battles coming up next month in the State Legislative Session:

Lee Schoenbeck – December 23, 2015 at 3:53 pm

good discussion – I am concerned about what this Medicaid/Obamacare expansion will mean for both our state, and our party. If expanding the welfare rolls by adding 10% of our state’s population passes in an overwhelmingly GOP dominated legislature, there will be a lot of us asking: what’s the difference? And that will be a future challenge for the GOP in organizing and recruiting. 

I would really be surprised if it didn’t affect the enthusiasm of the people we ask to go out and organize and sell tickets to our large network of Lincoln Day Dinners.

Read that here.

Lee seems to think the Medicaid expansion represents a line in the sand for the soul of the GOP.  And let’s not forget about possible tax increases for education and county wants. 

Could the 2016 session be a battle royale on the GOP side of the aisle?

Belle Fourche Resident Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges

PIERRE, S.D.- Attorney General Marty Jackley announced that Heather Plunkett, 31, Belle Fourche entered a plea of guilty today to one count each of the following: possession of marijuana, less than 2 ounces, class 1 misdemeanor, possession of drug paraphernalia, class one misdemeanor and ingesting substance other than alcohol, class one misdemeanor.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 5, 2015 at 1:30 p.m. (MST) at the Butte County Courthouse.

(Note: Original release from the AG’s office had both persons pleading guilty today. Ryan Plunkett did not plead today. He had previously pled to the possession of marijuana charge and received a suspended jail sentence.)

from KELO:

The state Public Utilities Commission denied requests Tuesday to throw out the pipeline project. Opponents argued that President Barack Obama killed the pipeline in November.

William Taylor is an attorney for TransCanada Corp. He says TransCanada remains committed to the project, which could be revived under the next president.

Read it here.

Just like CBS’ Survivor – outwit-outplay – outlast. The Keystone pipeline might just yet prevail against difficult odds, no matter how much Obama has stacked the deck against it.

From the Argus Leader, apparently Democrat Mayor Mike Huether isn’t getting everything he wants for Christmas, as a handpicked committee is still saying no to giving him permission to raise tourism coffers for pet projects:

Almost immediately the fund was targeted as an opportunity to fund other projects, though. Cindy Huether, the mayor’s wife, inquired about the possibility of using the money to build the Huether Family Match Pointe tennis center. Members of the Convention and Visitors Bureau-Business Improvement District board, which oversees the fund, said the project wasn’t an eligible use for the money.

Huether declined to comment Monday on the review committee’s recommendations, saying he needed more time to review them.

Steve Westra, chief operating officer for hotel owner Hegg Companies and a vocal critic who has questioned the need for the review, said the review committee was an unsuccessful “money grab” by the mayor. He said he appreciates that the committee isn’t recommending capital spending as a legitimate use for the fund.

“(The mayor) has taken several runs with trying to use dollars outside of what it’s intended for,” Westra said. “We get the sense that the mayor sees it as a road block.”

Read it here.

More on the Hawks story from Kelo/AP:

Recently, a conservative blog has commented on the lack of activity from Hawks’ campaign. Hawks says she intends to “do what it takes to be a competitive candidate in this race.”

Read that here.

What’s this “a conservative blog” stuff, Associated Press? It should properly be noted as “THE conservative blog, dakotawarcollege.com.”

Hmph. No love from the Mainstream media for a fellow journalist.

In today’s Argus, political reporter Dana Ferguson was making note of the dire straits the South Dakota Democrat party faces in upcoming elections, as Dems try to put a happy face on it.

The deficiencies raise questions about whether the party has enough of an organization in place to be a factor in Pierre or next year’s statewide elections.

“The Democratic party is shrinking. It’s dismal,” said Jeff Barth, Minnehaha County Commissioner and former Minnehaha County Democratic Party Chairman.

and..

The percentage of registered Democratic voters has gradually slipped away since 1978 when Democrats held a slight majority over Republicans. That was the only time in recent history that South Dakota Democrats outnumbered Republicans in a general election.

Read it all here.

I believe a subheading the Argus used in the article involved the word “bleak.”

Drinking Liberally Sioux Falls continues to bring us data into the state of the State Dem party – insight that you don’t hear from other state blogs residing on the other side of the aisle.

What we’re hearing is something that dem party bosses are not eager to discuss, and forgot to mention to the Argus for today’s article – that they’re on life support and half of their monthly expenses have to be covered by the national party:

Nick Nemic, the Hyde County Chair, was there to cast his one vote for his County’s 236 registered democrats. Tom Katus, a Pennington County Party officer, was there to cast his one vote for the 16,608 registered democrats he represents. I was there as a Legislative District co-chair to cast my one vote for the 5427 registered democrats in District 9. Why does the guy representing 236 democrats get the same vote as one representing 16,608 democrats, or one representing 5427 democrats you might ask? The answer is that it is the way the SDDP rolls.

And..

Based on the success the SDDP and its candidates have enjoyed in recent elections, I leave it to you to judge whether or not the rural dominance of the SDDP is an effective political structure. It could be argued that the current $7500.00 monthly subsidy it receives from the National Democratic Party, which meets half of the SDDP’s monthly expenses, keeps the current leadership from needing to broaden its support. Meanwhile, Democratic registration in South Dakota fell to a new 43 year low of 168,000 last week.

In other news coming out of the meeting, Ann Tornberg promised the SDDP would have a candidate to challenge John Thune for the US Senate seat next fall but she refused to say whom. We will just have to have patience.

Read it here.

They get $7500 a month to keep the lights on?  I think that’s something we knew from looking at their FEC reports, but this is a rare admission that they’re on life support.

And better yet, “Ann Tornberg promised the SDDP would have a candidate to challenge John Thune for the US Senate seat next fall but she refused to say whom…”.

I’m getting the distinct impression that even Democrats have stopped buying Ann’s company line of B.S., and are consigning themselves to being skeptics, there’s more than a chance they may NOT manage to dig up a warm body for US Senate, and the Dem state party organization may be in free fall at this point.

Noem: EPA Must be Held Accountable for Breaking the Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Kristi Noem today released the following statement after the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the EPA violated federal law in promoting the agency’s controversial “waters of the United States” rule on social media:“The ‘waters of the U.S.’ rule could be the largest federal land grab in our lifetimes. Ranchers have raised concerns. Farmers have raised concerns. Homeowners, construction teams, and state governments have all raised concerns, and yet, the EPA has pushed the rule forward,” said Noem. “When they couldn’t find enough supporters, the EPA resorted to what the GAO calls ‘covert propaganda’ to create the illusion of grassroots backing. Not only did that violate the public trust, but they broke the law. The EPA must be held accountable for their actions.”

The GAO found that the EPA’s use of Thunderclap, an application that allows a social media message to be shared across multiple Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts, was an unauthorized use of the EPA’s appropriations. It also found the agency in violation of a grassroots lobbying prohibition. To read the full GAO analysis, click here.

I was poking around to see if Paula Hawks’ invisible campaign had bubbled up and shown any signs of life this month, and I was pointed back to something I’d written about earlier, where announced she was going to introduce a “Bernie Sanders-eque” resolution this next legislative session on college debt.

What has me revisiting the topic was one of the damndest misconceptions I think I’ve ever heard uttered from an elected official. I’ve been around 27 years, so that says it’s pretty darned goofy.  From SDPB Radio’s website, the Paula Hawks theory of economics:

“Those kids who are choosing not to go to college because they can’t handle the debt or because they can’t secure the loans are stymied in their approach to economic development for themselves, and that slows down the process of economic development for everybody,” Hawks says. “And those kids who are finishing college and are saddled with that debt are not contributing to economic growth in South Dakota, because they can’t buy houses, they can’t buy cars, they can’t pursue their dreams and their ideals and what they hoped for having gone through college and being promised a great job with a great pay.”

Read that here.

I think there’s a lot wrong with that statement we can examine. but first and foremost, her claim of college students “having gone through college and being promised a great job with a great pay.”

Who promised anyone “great jobs?” I mean, seriously?  I had previously known of no one at SDSU when I attended who walked into my classroom and said “Here’s a great job for you, and here’s a great job for you, and so on.”   Clearly, I should have gone to Paula’s classes, because hers came with the magic job fairy who skipped over the political science department.

Paula’s theory of economics ignores the fact that in the real world, going to a school generally doesn’t promise you anything. Anything at all.  Attending a college or university is not a guarantee of a darned thing.  What does it mean? It means that on average, your economic opportunities are greater. As you can see from this chart…

… on average, the more education you have, the less likely you are to suffer from unemployment, and the more likely you are able to attain a higher salary.  But, again, I don’t see anywhere where it promises anyone anything, despite her claims of people “being promised a great job with a great pay.”

Attending College provides an education, which is never a bad thing. And it opens up doors for opportunity. There may be jobs here and there. Or not, and to take a job, you have to travel away from your home, or across the country.

There is no societal responsibility on whether you take a certain kind of job. Whether to take an opportunity is up to the individual. You might take a mediocre job and try to move up in pay and responsibility. Or you do something until you can find something better. Or you can’t find a darn thing in your area, and you’re delivering pizza because you want to live in the area. That’s kind of up to you.

Paula Hawks may believe as she’d stated that people were promised things. But those of us who live in the real world know generally, no one has promised anyone anything. And it’s up to each of us to take opportunities, or to make our own.

That’s what people used to believe in America.  Maybe it’s time they – including Paula – need to start considering the concept again.

In a legislative forum recently in Pierre, the District 24 legislators met with the Pierre School Board, and discussed several topics, including teacher salaries.

The biggest question, where to find the money for it, faces a hurdle, as Rep Tim Rounds points out. They just raised taxes:

One of the biggest concerns for the Pierre School Board was finding the $75 million.

“I think one of the biggest questions is whether you would support that $75 million being new revenue,” said Pierre School District Superintendent Kelly Glodt.

That, state Rep. Tim Rounds said, would be an incredibly tough sell.

“You have to understand that this legislature passed a massive tax increase last year,” he said.

Rounds was referring to a bill passed last year that raised some state taxes to pay for highway maintenance. Asking the same group of overwhelmingly conservative lawmakers to increase taxes again, he said, may not work.

Read it all here.

Can legislators find that loose change in the couch? Or are we going to see a penny sales tax? And if so, who will put their name on the line for it?