Category: Uncategorized

Continuing The Workforce Marathon
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

Supplying our employers with needed workforce continues to be a major challenge for our state. Our low unemployment rate is a sign of economic strength, but it also means it’s difficult for employers to add more jobs even if they have the business to justify it.

Still, whenever we face a challenge, South Dakotans roll up their sleeves and work together to find a solution.

One year ago, I challenged all sectors – business, education and government – to work together to address workforce challenges. Using feedback and information gained from six regional workforce summits, we identified the key components of an effective workforce system.

First, we need to prepare our youth to reach their true potential by providing the tools, information and opportunities to guide them in their career decisions.

At the high school level, our Dual Credit Program has provided opportunities for juniors and seniors to enroll directly into college courses. This helps prepare them for their careers, and also provides credits toward both a high school diploma and a post-secondary degree. During the 2014-15 school year, nearly 2,000 students registered for 3,810 courses totaling 11,196 credit hours. Three out of every four earned A’s and B’s.

Second, employers need mechanisms to help them recruit and retain quality workers. Certainly, training is needed to help citizens fill the skilled jobs in our state. At the same time, though, we should recruit workers from outside our state, welcoming new South Dakotans and encouraging the return of those who have left our state.

Toward encouraging local communities to meet their own unique workforce needs, the Community Incentives Matching Program provided 1:1 grant dollars to help implement locally developed strategies.Fourteen grantees received a combined total of $1 million towards their sustainable local initiatives. Workforce strategies ranged from housing to internships and certification and training programs to English as a Second Language classes.

Lastly, the foundation of an effective workforce system must be built around data and a common language. The Department of Labor and Regulation is overhauling its entire SDWORKS job service system. When the overhaul is complete, to make decisions we will have real-time, skill-based supply and demand information, not just historical information. Additionally, the jobs database will use language describing jobs and job seekers in terms of actual skills and experiences, competencies, and preferences, not just job titles. This will allow job seekers, employers and education institutions to make better job matches by using common terminology.

Looking at our progress, many other programs included in our South Dakota Workforce Initiatives are also doing exceptionally well. Collaborative efforts to fill our workforce gaps have grown and been successful. The South Dakota Workforce Initiatives annual report is a testament to the progress we’ve made. Read it at SouthDakotaWins.com.

The challenge of supplying our employers with needed workforce cannot be overcome easily. This is a marathon, not a sprint, but we’re making progress.

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In the last election – two years ago on May 8, 2013, Rick Weiland announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the South Dakota’s U.S. Senate seat.

We’re now 4 months past that in this cycle, and Dems are showing no signs that they’ve got anyone yet.   What do you think their excuse is going to be when they let it go unchallenged again?

Without an attorney or, it seemed, a clue on how to mount a credible defense of her actions, Annette Bosworth stayed true to her script to the end, regardless. From KELOland:

The South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners has voted to remove Dr. Annette Bosworth’s medical license.

It comes after a felony conviction for election law violations.  A judge sentenced Bosworth to three years of probation and 500 hours of community service. She’s been doing that community service by working at an addiction-treatment program on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Read it all here.

Watching it, it seemed an ignoble end as Bosworth kept repeating the same lines we’d heard throughout her entire campaign tenure. And they had been worn threadbare by election day, much less when used as a defense for her actions, which she never really fessed up to.

Just caught this, so I can turn it on while I work at my desk.

http://www.keloland.com/custompages/livecoverage/

 

Thune: Senate Democrats Silence Voices
of American People on Iran Deal
“Unfortunately, extreme party loyalty has prevailed over national security, and now the American people are stripped of an opportunity to make their voices heard …”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) issued the following statement after Senate Democrats blocked a vote on the president’s nuclear concession deal with Iran, effectively silencing the voices of the American people:  

“Just a few short months ago, Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed the American people deserve to have their voices heard on the president’s nuclear concession deal with Iran. But today, a majority of Senate Democrats reversed course completely and refused to vote on an agreement that poses a significant threat to the safety, stability, and security of the American people.

“This is a bad deal. It provides Iran with billions of dollars to fund acts of terrorism in the region while failing to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Even many Senate Democrats who are opposing an up-or-down vote admit this agreement has major problems. Unfortunately, extreme party loyalty has prevailed over national security, and now the American people are stripped of an opportunity to make their voices heard on an agreement that will last long beyond the current administration.”

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Rounds Statement on Democrat Filibuster of Iran Nuclear Concession Deal 

“By refusing to let the Senate take an up-or-down vote on the president’s nuclear deal with Iran, the American people are being robbed a voice in one of the most consequential issues of our time.”

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today issued the following statement on the Democrat filibuster of the Iran nuclear concession deal. Earlier this year, all but one Democrat Senator voted in favor of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, which is based on the principle that Congress should have a say on whether the U.S. should adopt the President’s nuclear deal with Iran.

“By refusing to let the Senate take an up-or-down vote on the president’s nuclear deal with Iran, the American people are being robbed a voice in one of the most consequential issues of our time,” said Rounds. “We are being prevented from voting on a deal that is opposed by bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress and an overwhelming majority of Americans. Meanwhile, Iran continues to be the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world and continues to promote hatred of the West. Just this week, Iran’s Supreme Leader called the U.S. the “Great Satan” and vowed to obliterate our friend and ally Israel in the next 25 years. If we are going to give this regime access to nuclear warheads and nuclear research, new markets for their oil and tens of billions of dollars in cash which officials have admitted could be used to advance terrorism, the American people deserve to know where their elected officials stand on the issue.”

# # #

Rounds Cosponsors Legislation to Roll Back NLRB Decision

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) signed on as an original cosponsor to legislation that would roll back the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) “joint employer” decision, which the chairmen of the House and Senate labor committees say “threatens to steal the American dream from owners of the nation’s 780,000 franchise businesses and millions of contractors.” The Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act would roll back the NLRB ruling and reaffirm an employer must have “actual, direct and immediate” control over an employee to be considered a joint employer.

“Once again, this Administration and the NLRB have bypassed Congress with their joint-employer ruling that would have major repercussions for millions of Americans who provide work as subcontractors and hundreds of thousands of franchise owners,” said Rounds. “Under this new standard, franchises could be held liable for the wage and hiring practices of its franchisee owners –removing any incentive for a corporation to sell franchises. Our legislation would overturn the NLRB decision and restore a legal standard for determining who is a joint employer.”

For approximately 40 years, federal labor policies held that two separate employers are “joint employers” if both employers have direct and immediate control over employment terms and working conditions, such as being responsible for tasks like hiring and firing, setting work hours, issuing direction to employees, determining compensation and handling day to day record keeping.

Under a new standard adopted last month by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a case involving Browning Ferris Industries (BFI), a 3-2 partisan majority said that merely “indirect control” or even “unexercised potential” to control working conditions will now make two separate employers joint employers. This new standard will be applied retroactively.

The new standard means that in many more cases multiple employers will have to jointly negotiate working conditions with unions and share liability for labor law violations. As a result, larger business will exert greater control over the smaller employer who actually owns and operates the business, such as stores, restaurants and day care centers. Additionally, fewer employers will parcel out business to local subcontractors, suppliers or subsidiaries, for fear that they will now be liable for the subcontractor’s employment decisions. Millions of employees will also lose the ability to negotiate things like pay, hours and leave time with their direct supervisor, because those decisions will now be made between the larger employer and the union.

Originally introduced by Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senate HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-GA), other original cosponsors of the Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), David Vitter (R-La.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

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South Dakota’s Congresswoman Kristi Noem continues to grab national attention, and was just featured in the Washington Examiner newspaper as one of 11 political women on the move, alongside such other honorees as Carly Fiorina, Jodi Ernst and Amy Klobuchar:

REP. KRISTI NOEM
Republican from South Dakota

Elected to the South Dakota legislature, she quickly rose to a leadership position and gained a reputation for pragmatism and determination. She ran for the House in 2010, attracting Ted Hustead as her treasurer, one of the state’s leading money men, and won (narrowly) against an opponent who had won the two prior elections with more than 70 percent of the vote.

She was quickly chosen as one of two freshmen members to represent her class in Republican leadership meetings.

Now in her third House term, Noem has concentrated on tax policy and trade issues. She holds a seat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

and….

When asked how the candidacies of Clinton and Fiorina would affect the discussion of women’s issues in 2016 campaign debates, Noem said, “Every issue is a women’s issue. There really aren’t women’s issues — just women’s perspective on all issues.” It’s a mistake, she said, to let women be boxed in on certain issues because they are concerned about everything going on in America.

Noem pointed out that women are the majority of voters. They pay the bills and make most family decisions on healthcare. The rapid and continuing rise in the cost of living leads American women to look for a candidate who shares their views and can chart a better path for the nation.

Noem believes that President Obama’s policies have hit women disproportionately hard. There have been, she said, many women-owned businesses that have failed in the past six years. Under Obama, women have lost their jobs, and those who can work haven’t seen wages increase as they should. She thinks women won’t vote for someone who is the most charming, but rather, someone who agrees with them and can solve problems.

Read the entire article here.

“If wishes were fishes, we’d all cast nets into the sea.” – borrowed from a Scottish Nursery Rhyme.

There are many people out there who think educators deserve more money in their paychecks. As Bob Mercer writing for the Rapid City Journal notes today, the Blue Ribbon Panel notes that teacher raises are possible. It’s just that pesky part of paying for it which causes headaches:

Teacher raises are possible in the next few years, a state education task force said on Wednesday, but members left out something important: where the money would come from.

Public school teachers in South Dakota might see their salaries increase $8,000 to $10,000 apiece over the course of three to five years under goals discussed by the governor’s Blue Ribbon task force on teachers and students.

But the panel of educators, legislators and businesspeople didn’t specify the tax package to generate the $80 million to $100 million that would be necessary. The members said they hoped to have financial data at the next meeting on Oct. 1.

and…

Where the task force might head in its deliberations on Oct. 1 isn’t clear. Financial information will be brought back, such as estimates of costs and possible sources of tax revenue.

Some members want changes in the state funding formula. Some want efficiency requirements. Some want school boards to face new limits on the amounts of non-obligated cash that they hold. Some want compensation tied to mentoring. Some want property-tax relief. Some want capital-outlay tax levies on property changed.

Read it all here.

As noted, there’s no shortage of proposals out there for more revenue. You have everything from Paula Hawks advocating for a state income tax since early in her House tenure, and earlier this year, Republican House member Lee Schoenbeck opined over how a proposed summer tourism tax could fill the gap.

But who out there thinks that – especially in an election year – legislators are going to pass $100 million in new taxes for teacher salaries?

Alternatively, I know Lee’s not afraid to propose bold solutions. But will Paula put her name on the sponsorship line for a state income tax, or is she just a lot of talk now that she’s running for Congress?

Paying teachers more is easy. But paying for it is the ultimate question to be faced.

What are your thoughts? Do we need to do it? And Is it going to take a new tax?