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There’s been quite a bit of discussion lately over the application of the tourism tax to the Farmer’s Market in Falls Park in Sioux Falls, one of the best ones held in South Dakota. As noted in the Argus, the Dept of Revenue is claiming they also need to collect a tourism tax solely because of where the Farmer’s Market is held:

The state says because the market is held at Falls Park, a major tourist destination for the city of Sioux Falls, it is subject to the state’s tourism tax and could be subject to three-year’s worth of back taxes.

Randall said Farmers Market vendors in Sioux Falls for years have paid sales tax but not until recently did some of the regular vendors at the Falls Park Farmers Market start receiving letters from the state revenue office alerting them of the tourism requirement.

Read that here.

Considering there are Farmer’s Markets that take place across South Dakota, it seems completely unfair to single this one out based on a location under a park canopy at the far end of Falls Park.  They don’t hit the other Farmer’s Markets which take place in parking lots across the state, including others in Sioux Falls. Just this one which happens to have a convenient canopy for vendors.

It seems to me that the whole tourism tax issue might need to be revisited by the State Legislature, and potentially modified.  The same might be said for how Farmer’s Market participants are asked to pay taxes in general.

Because what’s happening now seems to be an example of an uneven playing field.

Candidates, it’s probably not a good idea to bodyslam members of the media on the eve of your election. From Yahoo News:

This is not the first time Gianforte has clashed with a member of the media. At a campaign event in April, a supporter asked Gianforte his views on how the media could be reined in, the Missoulian reported.

“We have someone right here. It seems like there is more of us than there is of him,” Gianforte responded, after making a strangling gesture with his hands. “I don’t have a simple solution for you.”

Sixty percent of votes in the election have already been cast via absentee ballot. In Montana, any registered voter can request and use an absentee ballot.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued a statement after the incident calling on Gianforte to withdraw his candidacy and urging House Speaker Paul Ryan and the National Republican Congressioinal Committee to denounce its candidate.

Though not in the room when the violence ensued, BuzzFeed News reporter Alexis Levinson was nearby and tweeted her account shortly after the incident.

Read it all here.

Remember, you don’t have to speak with them. But a good, old-fashioned choke-slam is not going to reflect well for you at the ballot box.

This week marked a 1-2 punch against the much maligned Consumer Protection Finance Bureau (CFPB) as not only was the overzealous government agency’s existence argued against in front of the 11-member court of appeals, but President Trump’s presented budget literally guts funding for the agency under the Republican president.

First – the court case:

Theodore Olson, an attorney for financial services company PHH Corp., the plaintiff in the case, sued the CFPB in 2014. He argued Wednesday before six Democratic-appointed judges and five Republican-appointed judges that such a structure gives the CFPB director more power than was intended by framers of the Constitution.

“You have a concentration of power,” Olsen told the judges. In creating the CFPB, he noted, “Congress itself understood and recognized that it was going further than it ever did before in limiting the President’s power.”  A single director who cannot be dismissed without cause, and with a term that potentially outstrips that of the president, limits the chief executive’s authority, he maintained.

and..

he court also could decide against the one-person directorship structure. That would allow the president to appoint a several-member board, like with the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Observers say a definitive decision may not be handed down for more than a year. By then, Cordray will be finishing his five-year term, anyway, and President Trump could appoint a new director.

A governing board would be fine with many in the financial services industry.

“We believe such a structure would allow for a diversity of views and expertise, as well as providing continuity through different administrations, rather than having a regulation yo-yo each time the director changed,” said Joe Gormley, assistant vice president and regulatory counsel for the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), based in Washington, D.C.

Read that here.

And the coup de grâce, the Trump budget proposal:

Currently, the CFPB gets its funding from the Federal Reserve, but Trump’s budget would shift the CFPB’s appropriations process to Congress, a move that other Republicans have long pushed for.

In fact, recently Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., reintroduced the Taking Account of Bureaucrats’ Spending Act that would make the budget of the CFPB subject to congressional appropriations.

But Trump’s budget goes beyond that, calling for the reduction of the CFPB’s mandatory funding in 2018 and then reducing the CFPB’s budget to almost nothing in subsequent years.

The proposal regarding the CFPB is on page 158 of the 159-page budget, under the heading: “Restructure the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

The proposal would cut the CFPB’s budget by $145 million in 2018, with the cuts increasing to more than $700 million by 2021.

and…

Here’s how the Trump budget proposal justifies the cuts to the CFPB’s budget:

“Restructuring the CFPB to refocus its efforts on enforcing enacted consumer protection laws is a necessary first step to scale back harmful regulatory impositions and prevent future regulatory hurdles that stunt economic growth and ultimately hurt the consumers that CFPB was originally created to protect. Furthermore, subjecting the reformed Agency to the appropriations process would provide the oversight necessary to impose financial discipline and prevent future overreach of the Agency into consumer advocacy and activism.”

As one might expect, Democrats greeted Trump’s CFPB proposal with a cold reception.

Read it all here.

A bad week for the CFPB, but a glimmer of hope to community lenders who have been finding themselves regulated out of business, as well as the consumers they serve.

After his surprising acquittal in the Flandreau Tribal pot growing operation, the accused in the matter is claiming that his prosecution was political…. as opposed to it being because he was involved in an illegal pot growing operation:

A man whose company helped the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe establish a marijuana grow room on tribal property was found not guilty by a Moody County jury Wednesday of conspiracy to possess and possession of marijuana.

Eric Hagen, the president of Monarch America, said following the verdict that he was relieved by the verdict. He accused South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley of ruining his company with a politically motivated prosecution.

“He tanked our company by spreading lies and rumors,” Hagen said. “It was 100 percent politically motivated. This was simply a media ploy for Jackley because he’s running for governor in 2018.”

Following the verdict, Jackley, who was not at the trial, issued a statement thanking the jurors. He said in an interview with Argus Leader Media that the prosecution was not political. He noted that federal officials, including the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office for South Dakota, were also involved, and that federal officials were planning to raid the grow facility.

Read it here.

So, the AG prosecutes the people involved in an illegal pot growing operation, and it’s somehow political? Really?

Sounds to me that prosecuting those involved in the illegal drug industry is what the people of South Dakota pay the Attorney General to do. And the person helping the tribe to grow drugs which are illegal both federally and in the State of South Dakota should be thanking his lucky stars that the jury didn’t think the definition of the crime fit, and let him off.

A politically motivated prosecution? Not so much.

The first hearings are being held in the US House of Representatives this week on what shape comprehensive tax reform will take, and they’re long overdue. While other countries have taken steps to modernize and improve their tax codes, the United States has done nothing. Our current tax code is not only outdated, it has one of the highest tax rates in the world and encourages business investment and job creation overseas.

We need to bring the U.S. in line with the rest of the world. American businesses need an updated tax code that levels the playing field so they can compete with products and services from around the world. One of the best chances for us to do that is the House Blueprint as championed by the White House and Congress, which offers long overdue changes that will foster growth and prosperity for the American economy and workforce.

The House Blueprint creates a level playing field for U.S. businesses. Business tax rates would be more affordable and products made here would no longer be taxed at higher rates than products made overseas, which is similar to other “border adjustment” policies used by over 160 countries. However, the Border Adjustment tax stands as one of the most contentious parts of the House Blueprint, with some in the Senate standing against it.

However, as we’d noted before, as opposed to complaints about the border adjustment tax costing families money, as part of a comprehensive package, the plan could save families nearly $4600 annually.

Proponents of the House Blueprint on taxes note that these tax reforms will help businesses of all sizes invest in their companies and employees, adding American jobs to the tune of 1.7 million new jobs and an estimated 8% increase in pay.

Changes to the tax code are critical to the future of the U.S. And the House Blueprint is the start we need for Congress to work on fixing the imbalance and to better position our nation to grow and succeed.

We have Annette Bosworth in the courtroom for the closing of Eric Hagen's trial.

— James Nord (@Jvnord) May 24, 2017

Noem Applauds DOE for Revoking Deep Borehole Field Test Proposal

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today applauded the U.S. Department of Energy’s announcement that the agency “does not intend to continue supporting the Deep Borehole Field Test project.” Locations in Haakon and Spink counties were considered as sites for the testing, but significant concerns were raised by Rep. Noem and community members regarding the potential for these sites to house future nuclear waste.

“Like many South Dakotans in Spink and Haakon counties, I was deeply concerned about doing testing in our backyard to determine whether deep boreholes could store nuclear waste,” said Noem.  “I am grateful to the Trump administration for hearing the concerns raised by these communities and subsequently withdrawing consideration of this proposal.”

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Attorney General Marty Jackley is announcing tonight a large fundraising event coming up on June 8th, featuring two professional sports athletes from South Dakota.

Mt. Vernon native Chad Greenway, and Mitchell’s favorite son Mike Miller will be appearing at the fundraiser at CJ Callaways on the 8th to help Jackley raise money for his Gubernatorial campaign.

Could be an interesting night! Stay tuned.

This week KSFY News had a story about how the backers of one pro-pot legalization measure was not happy with the other pro-pot legalization measure being prepared for the ballot.  And they’re mad at the Attorney General too:

“Signer beware” is the message from a pro-pot organization in South Dakota that’s hoping to bring the issue of marijuana legalization to the ballot next year. New Approach South Dakota isn’t talking about the two petitions they have circulating to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational purposes – they’re talking about a separate effort that would accomplish the same thing, but with some major differences.

According to the Attorney General’s explanation, differences like a lot less tax revenue for the state and a whole lot less regulation of the drug, but New Approach isn’t happy about their AG explanation.

Read that here.

“New Approach,” the group fronted by former Democrat District 19 House candidate Melissa Mentele is complaining about the pot legalization measure from the John Dale and his group “Cannabis Consumers for Liberty (CC4L)” competing against her own, bemoaning it’s “less tax revenue for the state and a whole lot less regulation of the drug.”

I’m forced to ask the obvious: “Is she kidding?”  Both are about legalizing drugs.

I’m not going to get into the weeds on which pot legalization measure is the worse measure, the CC4L measure which mandates April 20th as “pot day” at South Dakota State Parks, or the New Approach measure which mandates that all non-violent pot sentences be re-worked:

I did ask Attorney General Marty Jackley for his thoughts:

As Attorney General, it is my position that the legalization of marijuana creates significant public health and safety concerns.   If research determines there is a medical value in marijuana or its derivatives, it should be prescribed by a physician and dispensed by a pharmacist just like any controlled substance.

My office is required to prepare a fair and concise explanation for proposed ballot measures and to defend such measures if passed and challenged in court, whether I agree with them or not.  In the proposed marijuana measure that includes reviewing previous criminal convictions, I have set forth “Because its full scope and effect are unclear, judicial or legislative clarification will be necessary.  A court may find provisions of the measure unconstitutional.”  I would point out that Article IV, Section 3 of our State Constitution vests the authority and discretion for criminal sentence commutations with the Governor.

There is currently a national drug epidemic that is also affecting South Dakota, rather than weakening our State laws, I encourage us to focus our efforts and resources on strong enforcement against drug traffickers and prevention efforts especially for our youth such as “No Meth Ever” and the anonymous texting “Standup Project.”

Whether it is the CC4L measure promoting a state park recognized Pot Day, or the pot related get-out-of-jail free cards New Approach wants, both measures are so phenomenally awful, that forget any impending campaigns, anyone who signs the petitions to put them on the ballot should be questioned for not having the sense that God gave them.

When it comes to both pot and pot petitions, the best course of action is to “Just Say No.”

I’m kind of wondering if I need to place an “unclassified” sign around my neck, as the South Dakota Democrat Party seems awfully concerned about classifying everyone into groups, so they can designate their social worth and possibly give some special privileges based on which class they belong to.