I’ve got a few things in Pierre that I’m going to be working on this next week, as well as following SB190.
I’m going to spending a good chunk of the week at South Dakota’s State Capitol – our cradle of democracy. (Unless you care to refer to it as South Dakota’s sausage factory, with all the lips and beaks you can grind.)
So, I’ll plan on writing you all from Pierre.
According to Johnathan Ellis, There’s a Democrat group of drinkers who quit their current drinking location because the bar also has a lingerie night:
Drinking Liberally, a Democratic group that often gets together on Fridays for adult beverages and political talk, is moving from Wiley’s to 18th Amendment starting this Friday. The reason for the move is because of “sexual insensitivity” regarding some of the promotional materials at Wiley’s.
So, drinking good, promotions for the businesses they drink in, bad.
They must also abandon libraries whenever the Sports illustrated swimsuit issue comes out. And television whenever it’s not turned to PBS.
Am I the only one doing an eye roll?
AFP S.D. Applauds Legislature On Stopping Penny Sales Tax
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Today, Americans for Prosperity South Dakota is applauding the State House Affairs Committee on their vote to stop the penny sales tax. Over the past few weeks AFP South Dakota has actively engaged the legislature on the issue, launching a major patch-through phone call campaign and mobilizing its network of in-state activists to contact legislators to stop what could have been the largest tax increase in state history.
AFP South Dakota State Director Ben Lee released the following statement:
“We congratulate the State House Affairs Committee on standing up for South Dakota middle class families everywhere and defeating the penny sales tax. If every city participated, it would have been the largest tax increase in state history. At a time when many South Dakota families are still struggling to make ends meet, a new sales tax just wouldn’t have been fair,” AFP South Dakota State Director Ben Lee said.
Thankfully, today legislators did the right thing for middle class workers across our great state. We thank the many activists who contacted their legislators to be sure South Dakota remains a beacon for freedom both here and around the country,” AFP South Dakota State Director Ben Lee said.
Legislators who voted to stop the bill have the appreciation of the chapter’s thousands of activists, staff and volunteers as well as the appreciation of other organizations speaking out against the measure.
According to reports this morning (This one from the Argus/Associated Press), Rapid City Mayor Sam Kooiker is going for a third term:
Sam Kooiker announced this re-election campaign Thursday.
The 40-year-old Kooiker says if re-elected he plans to improve race relations and resolve long-standing issues the city has faced in complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He says he also will continue his focus on the improving city’s infrastructure.
His second race for the office was a repeat against then Mayor Alan Hanks, with Kooiker coming out victorious. His third race, and second as mayor was against challenger and State Senator Mark Kirkeby.
There’s no word as to whether Kooiker will face a challenger in this years’ contest, which will be decided this June.
Our political system is rigged and so is our government. We need to “take it back.” @RBReich sums it up very well: http://t.co/Htd3KhjrYg
— Rick Weiland (@RickWeilandTIB) March 5, 2015
Or maybe South Dakota just isn’t into Rick Weiland.
Apparently if you’re hired to defend someone the Tribe is good and mad at, you get the honor of being shunned:
A South Dakota tribe has barred a Rapid City-based defense lawyer from entering their land.
Oglala Lakota Tribe officials passed a resolution banning Rapid City lawyer Patrick Duffy from the Pine Ridge Reservation, after Duffy hired on to defend a Philip man charged with disorderly conduct for behavior toward Native Americans at a hockey game.
Tribal public information officer Kevin Yellow Bird Steele confirmed Thursday that the tribal ocuncil approved the resolution submitted by the Pass Creek District representatives on Feb. 24. He referred further inquiries to representatives from the district, who couldn’t be reached for comment.
I’m scratching my head at this one, as Duffy, who defended accused legislator Dan Sutton several years ago, is not someone you’d consider a right-winger. In fact he’d be the opposite.
Did Duffy deserve the evil eye from the tribe? Or is this a whole lot of silliness?
AFP South Dakota Launches Patch-Through Call Campaign Against Sales Tax
Calls Inform South Dakotans of Penny Sales Tax Measure, Offer To Connect Citizens Directly To Legislator’s Office
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Today, Americans for Prosperity South Dakota launched the latest installment in its campaign against the Penny Sales Tax proposal being considered by the State House Affairs Committee. AFP SD will be launching robocalls aimed at members of the State House Affairs Committee. The calls will inform South Dakota families of the Penny Sales Tax proposal and offer to connect them directly to their legislator’s office in order to urge a “no” vote on the sales tax measure, Senate Bill 135.
Fighting the Penny Sales Tax has been among AFP SD’s highest legislative priorities. Earlier, AFP SD had taken to talk radio to discuss the legislation, and engaged its network of statewide activists, asking its members to send a letter to their legislator in order to stop the sales tax increase.
“With all the talk about the gas tax, no one seems to be talking about the Penny Sales Tax, but make no mistake, this bill has serious consequences. A one-penny sales tax sounds small, but could add up to over $150 million in new taxes if every city implements it.”
“Study after study has shown that sales taxes hurt middle-class families the most. At a time when many South Dakota families are still struggling to make ends meet, a new sales tax just isn’t fair,” said Americans for Prosperity South Dakota State Director Ben Lee.
The phone call script is below:
Hi! This is Ben Lee from Americans for Prosperity, with an urgent tax increase alert. Tomorrow, the legislature will vote on a bill that will open the door for a massive sales tax increase. Press ONE to be connected to your legislator to tell them: South Dakota can’t afford higher sales taxes! Again press ONE to be connected to your legislator to stop the sales tax increase, Bill 135. Americans for Prosperity can be reached at 866-730-0150.
Bipartisan, Bicameral Federal Impact Aid Bill Introduced to Streamline and Improve Program
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Reps. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and Rick Larsen (D-Wa.) introduced their bipartisan, bicameral legislation to modernize and streamline the federal Impact Aid program, which provides payments from the federal government to local school districts to make up for local taxes lost on account of federal land within their school districts, such as military bases and federal land like Indian Reservations or federal grasslands.
This bill will improve the federal Impact Aid program’s efficiency in a variety of ways, including permanently simplifying payment calculation for federal property, resulting in the ability for school districts to receive timelier payments. In recent years, districts have experienced a delay in receiving timely payments due to delays in the process for calculating land valuation, which puts additional financial burdens on already cash-strapped school districts. The Local Taxpayer Relief Act would also improve the Impact Aid program to ensure schools that have consolidated that were previously eligible continue to be eligible for Impact Aid.
“School districts need certainty from the federal government about what to budget for annual Impact Aid revenues,” said Thune. “The bipartisan, common-sense changes included in our bill make the Impact Aid program run more efficiently and ensure that school districts with federal lands will receive timelier payments. While I was pleased that Congress acted at the end of last year to extend the simplified payment calculation formulas to accelerate Impact Aid payments, we need to make these improvements permanent by passing our legislation to reauthorize the entire Impact Aid program.”
“Hawaii educates over 13,000 students whose parents serve in our military,” said Hirono. “Federal Impact Aid provides Hawaii’s communities with resources to help serve our students, and the bill my colleagues and I are introducing today will help the Hawaii Department of Education get those resources more quickly and efficiently. As a proud graduate of Hawaii’s public school system, I am committed to ensuring that all Hawaii students receive a quality education.”
“In the past, bureaucratic red tape has delayed critical Impact Aid payments to South Dakota schools, making it difficult to meet needs of South Dakota’s young people,” said Noem. “The concepts in this bipartisan legislation will help cut through that red tape and continue to deliver critical education dollars to our schools more quickly and efficiently – now and long into the future.”
“Impact Aid provides critical support to schools in my district to make sure students have the best opportunities to succeed today and in the future. This bipartisan bill ensures permanent, on-time payments for school districts where federal activity like military bases limits funding available to public schools through property taxes,” Larsen said.
Created in 1950, the Impact Aid program is the oldest federal education program and represents a commitment to reimbursing districts that host non-taxable federal property activities. This bill improves this program for the 1,300 impacted school districts that educate more than 11 million children across the country without increasing government spending,
In 2012, Congress included a provision in the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to end the highly subjective “highest and best” formula. The “highest and best” formula attempted to determine the “real value” of federal property, which created a highly inefficient payment formula that was subject to local interpretation by assessors on the value of taxable property adjacent to eligible federal property.
In December of 2014, Congress included a provision in the FY 2015 NDAA to extend the simplified payment calculation process for federally impacted schools for three years, resulting in timelier payments to school districts.
The Local Taxpayer Relief Act would reauthorize the Impact Aid program and make permanent the NDAA provision simplifying the payment calculation process.
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Hang on if the site isn’t loading for you, or other weirdness. I’m doing some housecleaning, back end upgrades, etc.
I had a couple of errors that were generating some HUGE error logs. and getting rid of 2 gigabyte error files helped pep things up considerably. While I’m at it, I’m doing some more housecleaning, installing a few things I was having trouble with, and starting work on updating to a more dynamic header.
After getting back from down South, I’ve been spending a bit of my time lately working on Senate Bill 190, specifically with mind to amending the measure which was written by insurance companies. We had phenomenal coverage in the Argus Leader this morning, with an above the fold, top of the page story.
The bill had huge problems, because as the measure was written by insurers, only 2 people in the entire state could provide reimbursable services to the over 850 estimated kids with Autism, and it capped those services at levels lower than what was recommended by the legislature’s own study. (The bill also has other problems, but sometimes you need to pick your battles).
There was good testimony from parents, including my better half. And testimony from insurers which ranged from some that I thought as productive and good to utterly contemptible.
But in the end, legislators cut to the quick, and recognized that limiting services to 2 people in the state was not very productive, and they went for the limits recommended by the study. They asked good questions, and generally had a genuine concern for the bill doing as it should – helping disabled kids.
In other words, sometimes these guys representing us in Pierre can get it right.
And House State Affairs did a commendable job this morning, as they passed an amended Senate Bill 190 on a near unanimous basis, and sent it to the House floor.