The General Appropriations Bill passed, and we were revisited from the ghosts of sessions past, as a number of the same clowns votes against the budget again. And they were joined by new legislators who seem to think that by voting against the budget that they and others just spent more than 2 1/2 months working on it’s something other than pure hubris.
Revisiting the post I did last year on the topic – here is just a small sampling of the things that those voting red cast a vote against:
- They voted against our military & veterans – Ellsworth Air Force Base, funding the South Dakota National Guard, the Veteran’s hospital, and County Veteran Service officers
- They voted against supporting South Dakota housing.
- They voted against workforce education, including resources for (again) veterans, new and expecting moms, and disabled people who want to work
- They voted against healthcare facilities, repairing state buildings, paying for claims against the state, or covering employees through the state insurance pool
- They voted against having their own state e-mail account. Or their own laptops. Or their own iPads.
- The voted against libraries, public broadcasting, and having a state radio network that emergency and law enforcement can communicate on.
- They voted against auditing state government.
- They voted against collecting and distributing sales tax to cities.
- They voted against having video lottery, or managing gaming in Deadwood.
- They voted against resource conservation & forestry.
- They voted against the Animal Industry Board, the Dairy Association, the Wheat Commission, the Oilseeds council, the Board of Veterinary examiners, the Corn Utilization Council, and the South Dakota State Fair in Huron.
- They voted against tourism, the arts, wildlife development, all the state parks, and snowmobile trails.
- They voted against every penny that went from the state to tribal relations.
- They voted against mothers and babies in need of public assistance. They voted against anyone in behavioral health settings, those with addictions, they cast a NO vote to supporting the disabled and more.
- They voted against licensing any and all professions.
- They voted against all vo-tech schools and universities, as well as job service offices and services.
- They voted against schools, teachers and students. And libraries.
- These legislators voted against processing rape kits for crime victims, funding 911 calls, putting cops on the street, paying judges to keep order, and the opposed keeping bad guys in jail.
- They voted against regulating utilities.
- They voted against people to keep an eye on how the state spends money.
- They voted against paying state employees.. and well anything for government.
These legislators – Andera, Auch, Aylward, Baxter, Garcia, Hunt, Ismay, Jensen, Jordan, Kayser, Manhart, Mulally, Randolh, Rice, Schaefbauer, Schwans, and John Sjaarda – these clowns voted against every single thing that state government touches.
(Update – here are the goofballs who did the same thing in the Senate: Nays: Blanc, California Carley, Grove, Hohn, Howard, Marty, Nelson, Pischke, and Voight. Do NOT send them back to Pierre, please.)
They can try to claim that it’s some sort of goofy protest vote. But it’s no different than the fools who drive to a protest and then proceed to block traffic. They’re accomplishing nothing, except adding to people’s annoyance factor and disgust over what happens in Pierre.
These guys allegedly ran for office to make the state better.. and then they vote against literally every person in South Dakota and every thing that state government touches.
Just don’t forget that. Especially next June.
Yet another vote that Soye is absent for…
Yeah, what’s up with that. She’s missed most votes this session and not a peep as to why.
I hope someone steps up in the primary
She only showed up to vote for Hansens SB245 and left never to return. She had some votes early, 1st week and then MIA while collecting a state paycheck!!
I don’t believe the LRC pays legislators who are absent for an extended period. Day here and there, yes, but not for extended periods.
I wouldn’t mind a whole fresh slate of representatives for district 9. Senate too.
So much for the much-feared Freedom Caucus. They wait until the last day to try to do something about the state budget. Just how stupid is that?
This message speaks louder than ever before. Why are so many of the far right Anti-South Dakota. This makes me so frustrated especially when my representatives dont support South Dakota and vote no on the appropriations that help south dakota thrive
It’s not a difficult question. About 10 years ago a rich populist started talking about the “deep state” and the “establishment”. Those concepts “trickled down” and these Republican state legislators have taken advantage of Republican voters who bought into that stuff.
Some who voted “no” sit on the appropriations committee so they voted against their own budget that was constructed.
I hope they all lose in the primary. I’m doing my part to make sure at least two of them do.
Well I certainly agree with this post. Why do they even bother showing up? Just phone it in….”If it’s good for South Dakotans, women, children, veterans, aging populations…my vote is no.” No need to come to Pierre. These are people with little imagination for improvement and little interest in making SD a better place to live for all of us.
The usual suspects in the realm of stupidity.
This functions as a pretty good proxy for who the bad legislators are in Pierre. If you vote against the G bill you shouldn’t be a legislator.
I think those who voted NO on the GBill should offer their legislative salary and travel reimbursement back to the taxpayers in South Dakota.
That list represents the cancer killing our state.
Do any of them have any legislation that actually helped a South Dakota citizen that they carried?
It was worse this year than last. In the House they came within 3 votes of not passing the state budget. In the Senate it was only a 2 vote margin. Perhaps there would have been a few show flippers like Pischke that would have saved the day if they’d really been short.
Listening to the 2024 class of House members during the budget floor discussion was disheartening. They so earnestly are either unable or unwilling to have learned anything in their 2 years there about how state government functions. Based on Rep. Sjaarda’s no vote, it wouldn’t even help if they’d all sat in Approps committee the whole time. The least they could have done was put the progress South Dakota has made these last few years on the big 3, (thanks to President Biden’s COVID $$) into perspective and compare apples to apples. Is it too much to ask that our legislators be competent enough to understand that a 90% increase from a base of 50 is still less than a 40% increase from a base of 100? (You have to have listened to Rep. Garcia’s, et al, comparison of SD to neighboring states’ budget increases to appreciate that line).
Ismay was probably too confused on what to do.
Nice to see that not a single elected official from any district with a 28 in it voted for the budget this year. Just remember, not all of us in NW SD our whack-a-doodles.
*are
-coffee hasn’t kicked in yet
Since the names that show up in red on this vote have a record of consistency in voting together throughout the session, I assume a spokesperson for this group (including a similar group from the Senate) will be releasing a statement outlining a reason why passage of the state’s budget was something they could not support, along with their alternative suggestion. Each of them should be able to do so individually, but I don’t think we can expect that after watching their actions the past two years. Please tell me the No Votes know enough about the state budget, having spent two entire legislative sessions fully engaged in Pierre, to be able to explain to their constituents why it couldn’t be supported.
If not, there’s this thing called an election in early June – Please, show up and make your voice known – your No-Voting current legislator just made theirs known…