Category: Uncategorized

Noem Outlines Agriculture’s Tax Reform Priorities
Congresswoman shares tax ideas with House Ag Committee

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today outlined tax reform priorities for farmers and ranchers during a House Agriculture Committee hearing. 

Noem highlighted efforts to repeal the Death Tax, protect cost-recovery mechanisms in the tax code to help young producers, and develop provisions to help when purchasing land and machinery. 

More specifically, Noem explained:

“Just as the Farm Bill touches every family’s life because everyone eats, tax reform will impact everyone’s life because we all pay taxes in one way or another….

“We know some areas of the tax code disproportionately and unfairly impact America’s agriculture community.  This includes the Death Tax…. That’s why I’ve sponsored legislation to repeal the Death Tax and was glad it was included in the House Ways & Means Blueprint.  

“Additionally, what many don’t quite realize is how highly leveraged agriculture is…. Ensuring there are adequate cost-recovery mechanisms in the tax code is essential to attracting and keeping younger producers on the farm.

“Some use a combination of interest and expensing for operating notes and equipment purchases.  Because land is a principle input for agriculture, ensuring there continues to be a cost-recovery mechanism for land purchases remains a priority. 

“All this said, … [p]rovisions cannot be looked at in isolation. I encourage you to view tax reform as a comprehensive package that is aimed to increase opportunity and growth for Americans from all walks of life.”

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Rounds, Warner Reintroduce Legislation to Provide Financial Stability to Muni Bonds

Allows high quality municipal debt to be classified at a level equivalent to debt issued by corporations

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sens .Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), members of the Senate Banking Committee, today reintroduced bipartisan legislation to allow high quality municipal debt to be classified at a level equivalent to debt issued by corporations. Debt sold by state and local governments is currently excluded from consideration under a rule requiring banks to hold enough high quality liquid assets to fund their operations for 30 days. This exclusion may create a disincentive for banks to hold their positions in the municipal-debt market, potentially making it harder for state and local governments to issue bonds to fund infrastructure projects.

“Access to capital is critical for South Dakota communities looking to finance important infrastructure projects like bridges and roads,” said Rounds. “Our bipartisan legislation would allow banks to count high-quality, investment-grade municipal debt as level 2B High Quality Liquid Assets under federal banking regulations. Doing so will help maintain a healthy demand for this debt and prevent borrowing rates for municipalities from dramatically increasing.” 

“As a former governor, I know firsthand how critical it is for states and municipalities to issue bonds that fund their basic operations, including the construction of schools, roads, and local projects,” said Warner. “We must ensure a continued and reliable access to capital markets for our local governments, and this legislation represents a compromise that achieves that while appropriately balancing concerns for the long term stability of our financial system.” 

Under proposed rules issued by federal banking regulators, debt sold by states and localities isn’t eligible to count as High Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA), which means they won’t qualify as assets necessary for banks to retain under new funding requirements issued following the financial crisis. These requirements ensure that banks maintain a liquidity coverage ratio that includes holding a certain amount of HQLA, but prohibits munis from being considered as HQLA. The rules effectively cabin off an entire category of high quality and highly liquid debt from being considered as HQLA, limiting the incentive for financial institutions to hold these assets and potentially adversely affecting the issuance of such debt by states and municipalities. 

The Federal Reserve recently weighed in on the issue, making limited changes to their previously issued rule. However, the two other regulators involved—the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp—have made no changes to allow the institutions they regulate to count municipal bonds toward their liquidity buffers. The Rounds-Warner bill would categorize certain types of municipal debt as level 2B, on par with certain corporate debt, and would receive a 50 percent equivalent to the liquidity ratio requirement. This action would bring municipal bond debt on par with corporate debt, and help stabilize the municipal securities market.

In addition to Rounds and Warner, the legislation is cosponsored by fellow Senate Banking Committee Members Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). The legislation was previously introduced in the 114th Congress. 

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Caught a news story this morning that was a good reminder that we need new pipelines as much, if not moreso than we need pipe-dreams.

Remember the Solar Roadways Video that people were posting a few years back? I admit that I found the concept fascinating, and there were plenty of others who agreed. Many on the left were asking why we weren’t doing this, instead of promoting Keystone XL:

Why weren’t we doing this? Well, a city in Idaho ponied up the cash to run a pilot project and actually tried it. And as they found… it still needs a little work:

An expensive solar road project in Idaho can’t even power a microwave most days, according to the project’s energy data.

The Solar FREAKIN’ Roadways project generated an average of 0.62 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day since it began publicly posting power data in late March. To put that in perspective, the average microwave or blow drier consumes about 1 kWh per day.

and…

Solar FREAKIN’ Roadways has been in development for 6.5 years and received a total of $4.3 million in funding to generate 90 cents worth of electricity.

Read it here.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea, and I think it may have merit. But the science to make it happen on a cost effective basis is many, many years away.

Someday, the technology may catch up. But until then, if we want cheap and plentiful energy in our country, fossil fuels are king. And we actually need those pipelines to bring it to market.

From facebook:

Dusty Johnson Campaign Raises $127,000 in First Quarter

Congressional candidate Dusty Johnson exceeded his fundraising goal for the first quarter of 2017, raising over $127,000.  This added to the $104,000 raised in the fourth quarter of 2016 shows strong support for his campaign.

“The excitement and support we saw in the fourth quarter of 2016 has continued and accelerated,” said campaign treasurer Greg McCurry. “Dusty is receiving support from every corner of South Dakota.”

Dusty continues to receive significant support from donors large and small with 92% of aggregate contributions coming from fellow South Dakotans.   “More than 540 donors, from Yankton to Belle Fourche, are making this campaign a success — thank you!” said Johnson.

Following the announcement Dusty would face a Republican primary opponent, contributions increased significantly with the campaign receiving over 200 individual donations totaling more than $59,000 in the final 3 weeks of the quarter.

Meanwhile, Dusty has kept his so-called “burn rate” to a minimum, finishing the quarter with over $200,000 cash on hand.  

Dusty Johnson, a former PUC Commissioner and Governor’s Chief of Staff, lives in Mitchell with his wife and three sons. He works as an executive for Vantage Point Solutions, a telecommunications engineering and consulting firm.

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A Supremely Qualified Candidate for the Nation’s Highest Court
By Sen. John Thune

After Judge Neil Gorsuch’s recent confirmation hearing, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that he is the right person to replace the late Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court. His resume is impeccable. He graduated from Harvard Law School and Oxford University. He clerked for two Supreme Court justices, including Anthony Kennedy who still serves on the Supreme Court today. He worked in private practice and at the Justice Department. And for the last decade, he’s served on the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals where he’s been widely regarded as a brilliant and thoughtful jurist.

While Judge Gorsuch’s experience makes him exceedingly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, I’m particularly encouraged by the fact that he understands his role as a judge. While he might personally dislike certain laws written by Congress and signed by the president, he knows that it’s his job to interpret the law. He’s a judge, not a legislator. He truly believes that it’s his responsibility to call balls and strikes, not rewrite the rules of the game. It’s that kind of judicial philosophy that benefits the American people, and I think it’s the kind of judge most Americans want on the bench.

It’s because of his experience and judicial philosophy that Judge Gorsuch is supported by people from both ends of the political spectrum. For example, Neal Katyal, acting solicitor general for President Obama, said, “I have no doubt that if confirmed, Judge Gorsuch would help to restore confidence in the rule of law. His years on the bench reveal a commitment to judicial independence — a record that should give the American people confidence that he will not compromise principle to favor the president who appointed him.”

Despite all of his experience and respect among his peers, nothing will be good enough for a vast majority of Senate Democrats who seem increasingly determined to stand in the way of his nomination only because he’s been nominated by a Republican president. Without anything substantial to point to, they are coming up with some pretty creative reasons why they won’t support his nomination. Everything from not agreeing with certain rulings (who agrees with a judge’s every ruling?) to asserting that he’s out of the judicial mainstream, which is just laughable.

If Judge Gorsuch is out of the mainstream, why did both of his home-state senators – one a Republican and one a Democrat – support his nomination when he was appointed to the 10^th Circuit? Why did the current minority leader, a Democrat, raise no objection to the nomination? And why did then-Sens. Obama, Biden, or Clinton not raise these concerns when Judge Gorsuch sailed through the Senate with unanimous support?

In the ten-plus years since he was confirmed by the Senate, it isn’t Judge Gorsuch who has changed. It’s Senate Democrats who have changed, and it’s purely because they just can’t get over the 2016 election. 

I truly hope my Democrat colleagues don’t upend America’s 230-year Supreme Court tradition by denying a nominee a simple majority vote out of bitterness from having lost one election. If Democrats successfully wage the first partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee in American history, they will be setting a dangerous precedent based on shortsighted and misplaced anger. The Senate is better than that. I hope my colleagues abandon this approach and confirm Judge Gorsuch, because there is every reason to support him.

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Ag Economy is Crucial to the Future of South Dakota
By Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

Agriculture is South Dakota’s number one industry. More than 2,000 of our state’s farms have been in the same family for 100 years. Our farmers and ranchers play a critical role in feeding and fueling a growing global population. It’s easy to take for granted the ability to have access to high quality food. Without a strong ag community, we would struggle to put food on our families’ tables. In South Dakota, agriculture accounts for more than half of our economic output each year.

Unfortunately, ag income has been declining over the past four years. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), national net farm income, which is a key indicator of the health of the industry nationally, is down nearly 9 percent from last year and nearly 50 percent over the past four years. This marks the fourth consecutive year of decline, and is mainly the result of weak prices for crop and livestock products. As we get into the 2017 season, it looks like producers may continue to see low commodity prices. 

I was recently in Highmore, and had coffee with a group of farmers from around the area. Many of them shared concerns that they would end this year without being able to make a profit. This reflects concerns I have been hearing from producers in communities all across our state over the past couple of years. I share these concerns and I will continue to work diligently to make sure that South Dakota’s producers have access to crop insurance and commodity support programs in the short term. In the long term, only a return to stronger commodity prices will actually provide real relief. Also, with the new administration in place, I believe we can improve the regulatory environment for farmers, ranchers and landowners so burdensome and unnecessary rules don’t hamper production capabilities.

USDA will soon be led by a very qualified individual, the former governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue. During the first day of his Senate confirmation hearing, Gov. Perdue promised to make farmers and those living in rural America a top priority. Gov. Perdue and I both served as governors of our states during the same time period, and I respect his abilities. His leadership skills and knowledge of production ag from growing up on a dairy farm will be helpful as Congress works on the 2018 farm bill. I am excited to work with him to promote our nation’s agriculture industry and provide stability to South Dakota producers.

South Dakota’s farmers and ranchers are resilient. In their difficult line of work, they have to be. The 2017 projections from USDA show a harsh environment for producers unless crop prices rise. This hinges on a number of different factors, including economic growth and an increase in consumer demand for products. I will continue to work to prioritize South Dakota’s ag products in any future trade discussions the administration may hold. In the meantime, I would encourage farmers and ranchers who need assistance to reach out to our office and share your story. As the Senate begins work on the next farm bill, input from producers will be critically important. 

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Saving Families Money with a Pro-Energy Agenda
By Rep. Kristi Noem

If you’re a family making less than $50,000 annually in South Dakota, you likely spend double the national average on energy every year. It’s one of the largest monthly expenses for many, so if we have the opportunity to drive those costs down, we ought to take it.

When former President Obama was first running for office, he outlined an energy agenda that, as he said, would “necessarily skyrocket” electricity rates. Over the course of the next eight years, his administration implemented provisions that made affordable energy more and more difficult to access. His boldest move promised to increase costs by as much as $17 billion nationwide and put a quarter-million people out of work annually, according to some estimates. In South Dakota, analysts believed the plan would force electricity prices to rise 30 percent on average and 36 percent during peak times.

In addition to being costly, many questioned whether President Obama’s regulatory actions were within the Executive Branch’s authority. As a result, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the administration’s proposal and Congress passed legislation to stop it, although President Obama chose to veto that effort.

I believe our energy challenges can be solved, but the answer is innovation, not regulation. I’ve been very encouraged by the Trump administration’s actions on this front. In late-March, President Trump signed new Executive Orders to roll back many of the Obama administration’s overreaching energy regulations and I was honored to join Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke hours later as he signed Secretarial Orders reflecting that same agenda. Their actions help clear a path so market-driven ideas can lead the way forward.

By prioritizing innovation, I’m optimistic we’ll see lower costs, a revved up economy that supports good jobs and higher wages, and a decrease in our reliance on foreign energy from volatile regions of the globe. I’m also hopeful that by allowing innovation to lead, we’ll be able to strike a balance between energy production and environmental protection in a way that doesn’t cripple the economy.

There is almost no profession that values the sustainability and integrity of the land than a farmer or rancher. Our livelihoods depend on it. During planting season when I was a kid, I remember climbing into the tractor to take over for my dad and almost always finding a tiny, purple prairie pasque inside. My dad loved that flower and told me countless times how special it was, as it seemed to grow best on native grasslands. It’s an image I don’t forget.

American ingenuity can address even the toughest challenges, but I don’t believe the government is the best facilitator for that innovation. Instead, we need to give folks the freedom to pursue smarter technologies and finally drive down energy costs for South Dakota families.

Juvenile Justice Reforms Showing Promising Results
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

This week, the juvenile justice reform oversight council released its first annual report. The report encapsulates the progress made in the first full year of implementation of the 2015 Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Initiative.

Before the 2015 reforms went into effect, South Dakota had the second highest juvenile commitment rate in the country and was 188 percent above the national average. This ranking was not explained by a higher rate of juvenile violence. In fact, South Dakota’s juvenile violence arrest rate was just one-third of the national average.

Our high commitment rate was driven by nonviolent offenses. Seven of every 10 youth committed to the Department of Corrections in 2013 were sent to them for misdemeanor offenses, probation violations and “status offenses” – violations which, if committed as an adult, would not even be considered crimes. The status offenders were removed from their homes and sent to the Department of Corrections solely for disciplinary reasons, not to rehabilitate them.

The 2015 reforms restored the Department of Corrections to the role it was designed to fulfill – a correctional entity for serious or dangerous offenders. Now, only those juveniles fitting that description can be committed.

However, just because a non-violent youth isn’t committed to DOC does not mean that he or she will not face consequences. Just like Newton’s third law of motion, there is an equal and opposite reaction for every action. Every time a juvenile misbehaves, there is an appropriate response to that behavior. The reforms established a graduated response matrix to help address bad behavior and incentivize good behavior.

In addition to the response matrix, the juvenile reforms provided a number of effective programs for youth offenders, including community-based programs to address substance abuse, antisocial tendencies or challenges within the family. The programs allow youth to get the help they need without being removed from their homes.

While I realize it is easier to incarcerate misbehaving youth, it comes at the expense of the child. Our Midwestern work ethic doesn’t urge us to do things the “easy” way – in South Dakota we do things the “right” way. Addressing behavioral concerns in the community allows juvenile offenders to remain in school, gain employment and avoid future delinquency.

As the numbers indicate, the reforms are working. Since the passage of the reforms, new commitments to DOC have declined 43 percent and the number of recommitments has declined 62 percent, from FY 14 to FY 16. Nearly 70 percent of diversions from the juvenile justice system during that time period were completed successfully, and 94 percent of youth completed their term of probation.

It is still very early, and it will take some time before we see the full impact of these reforms. Still, early indications are hopeful, and I am committed to executing these new policies well. The system may not be perfect, but the data shows that we can successfully and efficiently discipline juveniles in the community.

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The political winds keep shifting and swirling, with comings and goings. So, based on the happenings of the past couple of weeks, here’s an update of who we’re seeing in the running for the Republicans nominations for statewide races: