Category: Uncategorized

Happy birthday to my friend and colleague @SenJohnThune!

— Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) January 7, 2016

You can also wish him Happy Birthday here.

Apparently, it’s good to be on the County Commission.

Across the state, County Commissioners were meeting this week and voting pay raises for themselves as part of the new year. Minnehaha County did it. a few other counties did it. And in Pennington County, when there was a package set up to be in line with county employee pay raises, one commissioner decided that she was going to go a little beyond that, as reported in the Rapid City Journal:

In a telephone interview, Petersen said he was unaware he voted for the $250-a-month raise. He said he thought he was backing a $50-a-month raise to $1,300, which was already budgeted for 2016.

“I must not have heard it correctly when the motion was made,” Petersen said. He added that if he knew he was voting for the $3,000 annual raise, he would have insisted on more discussion on the matter.

A source in the Pennington County Auditor’s office confirmed that the motion was for the larger raise.

According to the meeting agenda packet, commissioners were given two options: Vote for the $1,300 per month salary already budgeted for 2016; or vote for “any other amount the Board deems appropriate.”

Hadcock made the motion for the $1,500-a-month pay.

Read that here.

Having previously spent years on the Rapid City Council, I suspect County Commissioner Hadcock knew exactly what she was doing when she made the motion. And instead of the merely ministerial action of approving the $1300 a month salary, she “boosted” it to $1500, giving all Pennington County Commissioners a 20% pay raise.

While it might work for commissioners in the short run, as they certainly haven’t voted to repeal it, I suspect that it may come to bite them in the tail in the long run.

As I’d mentioned yesterday, State Representative Dan Kaiser has set up camp in Sioux Falls while his son is receiving treatment for leukemia.

One of his relatives has apparently set up a Go Fund me Page to help the Kaiser family with the expenses they’re going to incur as they receive treatment three hours away from home:

My name is Sarah and I am raising money for my totally awesome nephew Jaxon Kaiser and his parents Dan and Laura Kaiser.

Unfortunatley 2016 has started out to be the worst year for them, Jaxon was diagnosed with a type of Childhood leukemia, he is a sweet, fun loving kid who truely cares about everyone he has ever met. He is in for a rough battle but we know he can beat the crap out of cancer. I am trying to raise money for his medical bills and also for his parents to be able to take time off of work to stay with him for his treatments.  The closest medical center for children is over 3 hours away from their home, which is where they will be spending a fair amount of time in the months to come.

Dan Kaiser is an Iraq  war veteran, and a police officer, as well as a state representative. Laura Kaiser is a former state agent and currently self employed as a priviate investigator.

They are loving parents who would do anything for their childern.

We would be so grateful for any amount you can share with them,  as we want to allow them to spend this time with their beloved son and not have to worry about paying bills, or covering what insurance does not.

Thank you in advance.
love and prayers welcome

You can donate by going to https://www.gofundme.com/n8hu7bu4.

Obamacare Repeals Reach President’s Desk

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Kristi Noem today joined the House in passing legislation to repeal the majority of President Obama’s health care law.  The bill will now head to the White House for the President’s signature or veto.  While the President is expected to veto the legislation, this represents the first time a major repeal of Obamacare provisions has been able to avoid a filibuster by Senate Democrats and reach the President’s desk.

“For five years, I have fought for this day,” said Noem.  “This Congress owes it to the American people to take its best shot at repealing the President’s health care law.  Every single health care plan on the exchange in South Dakota saw a double-digit rate increase this year – every single plan. It’s too expensive for families and it’s simply unaffordable for taxpayers.  Rather than targeting the drivers of health care cost increases, Obamacare issued top-down mandates to ensure more people would foot an even larger bill. Today, we sent a signal that this Congress is serious.  It’s time to fix this problem for the American people.”

H.R.3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, repeals the individual and employer mandates, the “Obamacare slush fund,” the medical device and “Cadillac” taxes, among other provisions.  It also eliminates federal funding for Planned Parenthood for one year.  If enacted, the legislation would reduce the deficit by $516 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

H.R.3762 was passed through a budgetary process called reconciliation, which allows Congress – once a year – to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.

Noem has been a vocal opponent of the President’s health care law. As an alternative, she has previously supported legislation that would allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines and allow businesses to pool together in order to purchase more affordable coverage for employees.  She has also supported efforts to offer a tax break to families for health care expenses and expand access to health savings accounts.

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Governor Daugaard has been taking the lead in formulating a way to allow Medicaid Expansion in South Dakota to happen.  He’s been working with the federal government to come up with a plan for expansion if there is no additional cost to the state. The idea is that the change in treatment of Indian Health Service related costs would save the state more money than it costs to expand.

However, not everyone agrees, and some argue that while it might look good on paper, we need to consider the effect on society an expansion of this nature represents.   Watertown State Representative Lee Schoenbeck has been one of the legislature’s strongest voices in opposition to the expansion on that basis.

This week he’s authored a column on the topic which appeared in the Watertown Public Opinion, is on the Argus Leader’s web site, and has been provided to the SDWC for your reading:

  Welfare Expansion Will Make South Dakota Sick

Medicaid is a federally designed welfare program, which Obamacare encourages states to expand. In the 17 states with statistics available on Medicaid expansion, on average 63% more individuals applied for this component of Obamacare than the states had projected. In November we were told this expansion would add 44,000 South Dakotans to the welfare rolls. By December that number had increased to 55,000. Based upon the experience of the other states, South Dakota would likely see almost 90,000 citizens added to the welfare rolls if we do this expansion. Over 10% more of our state’s population that would be looking to the remaining taxpayers for free health care. At least 75% of those new welfare recipients are able-bodied and without dependents.

State officials met with then-Obama HHS Secretary Sebelius and said South Dakota would consider expanding this welfare program if we could require the recipients to work. Seems like a reasonable request, the South Dakotans paying for the program have to work. Secretary Sebelius dismissed the request as a non-starter! The Obama administration’s refusal to consider this reasonable requirement is enlightening. It means they don’t care about health care coverage so much as they care about creating unrestricted government dependency. Encouraging pride and some level of self-reliance for welfare recipients through earning the benefits is unacceptable to the Obama administration.

Opposing more welfare is not foreclosing health care coverage, and our family has experience with this situation. When dad was home disabled, mom took a job as a kitchen aid at the local nursing home. I remember mom telling us she did it for the health insurance. For our family, it just seemed like a natural continuation of the teachings of commitment, hard-work, and responsibility that had always been our parents’ lives. Today the politicians would – by their policy positions – preach against those qualities and those actions. They would encourage welfare, instead of work. They would send a message to young people of the value of looking to the government, and not the values our parents taught us.

States that have bought into the Obamacare deal have largely underestimated the number of eligible welfare recipients, many by up to 100%. It’s easy to see why. Free concentrates and creates demand. Run an ad offering free anything, and see how much demand you will create. Now tell people that you have an option for free health care that only requires them to either not work or reduce their work – its not rocket science to understand the consequences. People will adjust their lives and income so that they can qualify for free.

Understand, this is a government welfare program, not a health program. If the goal was health, the federal government would require (or at least let state’s require) that the welfare recipient not smoke, and be on a program to manage obesity – two huge health care cost drivers. But, the Obama administration will not allow these conditions either.

These 90,000 new welfare recipients will have to pay no deductible and no copayment. The financial skin in the game that makes the taxpaying South Dakotan’s think twice about overusing expensive health care resources, doesn’t exist for the Medicaid recipient.

There are some big players in South Dakota exerting pressure on the Governor because they want access to these federal funds, but their gain comes at too great a cost to the citizens of this state. Today the Obamacare advocates describe their new arbitrary mark – taxpayer funded health care for all who keep their earnings below 138% of the poverty level – as the mark where we really are caring and loving. Given their way, in five years that number will be 175%, and if given enough time they will get to where they set out for at the beginning of this Obamacare march – government owned and operated health care.

There is no such thing as free federal money. The brunt of the higher cost of this new welfare program will fall on those current programs that rely on our current Medicaid appropriations – the impoverished elderly in our nursing homes and the severely disabled in our community based facilities – people that really need and deserve our welfare tax dollars. Unlike the Obama Administration, South Dakota lacks the ability to print money or go into debt. The South Dakota legislature needs to bring sanity to this debate.

I heard this afternoon that Republican State Representative Dan Kaiser is in Sioux Falls with his young son at Sanford Children’s Hospital. His son is apparently facing surgery tomorrow for a leukemia diagnosis.

Please keep the entire Kaiser family in your thoughts and especially your prayers for their son’s speedy recovery.

Secretary of State Certifies 5^th Ballot Measure

Pierre, SD – Today, Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced that An initiated measure to Revise State Campaign Finance and Lobbying Laws, Create a Publicly Funded Campaign Finance Program, Create an Ethics Commission, and Appropriate Funds was validated and certified to be on the November 2016 general election ballot as a ballot measure the citizens will vote on. The sponsor turned in 24,532 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office. An Initiated Measure requires 13,871 signatures from South Dakota registered voters. Once the signatures were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office, a 5% random sampling was conducted. It was determined that 73.8% or 18,122 of 24,532 signatures were in good standing. This will be Initiated Measure 22.

This is the fifth initiated measure to be approved by Secretary of State. A total of 8 measures were submitted for review. This office will continue the signature validation process of the remaining 3 measures in the order they were submitted to the Secretary of State. A total of 275,000 signatures were submitted among all petitions.

Those looking to challenge the Secretary of State’s certification of a ballot measure have 30 days from the date they are certified, which would be February 5, 2016.

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!

Tonight, a notice went out to members of the media from Heather Plunkett announcing her resignation as Butte County State’s Attorney:

Good evening everyone.  I filed my letter of resignation with the Butte County Auditor and it has been submitted to the Butte County Commission for review.

Very Truly Yours,
Heather L. Plunkett

Plunkett had been arrested and pled guilty on December 23rd of 2015 to possession of marijuana, less than 2 ounces, possession of drug paraphernalia, and ingesting substance other than alcohol. All were misdemeanor charges.  At the time she had offered her apology and initial statement on her arrest, but noted that she would make her intentions concerning her position as State’s Attorney.