The Argus just posted this story, which has the Governor poking back at legislators who would like to see fewer blue badges (government lobbyists) on the 3rd floor as the Senate prepares to make a decision tomorrow whether to banish them from their midst:

“If they differ from my attitude with something, let the ideas win the day. Let the best idea win the day,” Daugaard said. “If those who are afraid to have my attitude or my employees’ attitude be aired then I would say if you can’t defend your ideas, maybe they’re indefensible.”

and..

Sen. Ryan Maher, R-Isabel, brought the rules change last week that would restrict state employee lobbyists from the Senate chamber and adjacent hallway during working hours. He said lobbyists who enter the chamber or look on from the hallway to one side of the chamber have become too much of a distraction to lawmakers that don’t have offices at the Capitol and often work at their desks.

and..

“You don’t learn more by talking and listening less. So I don’t understand the rationale behind the feeling that they should not interact with the executive branch. It doesn’t make sense to me,” he (Governor Daugaard) said.

Senate Majority Leader Blake Curd, R-Sioux Falls, has said lobbyist presence on the Senate floor and in one of the hallways adjacent has at times been “destructive and a distraction” to the legislative process.

Read the entire story here.

What do you think about the war against 2nd floor lobbyists on the 3rd floor? And as I’ve already weighed in on, what do you think about their proposal to shield themselves against lobbyists of all types?

A month or so back, someone was advertising this set of pins made for the Hillary Clinton election night victory party. They just struck me as a bit too cocky, and I love ironic humor, so I had to have them:

I’m surprised I didn’t know about this earlier (not that I’m a $1000 a couple fundraiser attendee LOL). But a friends passed a postcard my way that they had recieved for Attorney General Marty Jackley, who quietly held a big dollar fundraiser in my town of Brookings on January 3rd.

No word on sponsors, attendees, or what kind of haul they made at the event towards Jackley’s gubernatorial campaign.

If you get a postcard or invite for any campaign related events, send it to me. (names will be redacted)

A reader pointed this out from session this week.

What do you see Senator Rusch doing with his left hand that no one else is doing?

It might be a habit from his days as a judge, but the Senator has placed his left hand on the Bible for swearing his oath of office.

Statewide officials usually do this at the time they are sworn in, but as a matter of custom it’s kind of hit and miss with the legislature.

Should this become a custom for the state legislators as well? What do you think?

Repealing Obamacare First Step Toward Replacing it with a Truly Affordable, Patient-Centered Plan
by U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

When I ran for Senate, I ran on the promise to do everything I could to repeal and replace the unworkable Affordable Care Act (ACA) and mitigate the damaging effects it was having on South Dakota families, health care providers and small businesses. After two years and a Republican entering the White House eager to work with us, the 115th Congress has finally begun the process of repealing and replacing the ill-advised law.

The Senate took the first steps recently by passing a repeal resolution, a necessary component that will allow us to repeal the law later this year by a simple majority vote. Meanwhile, the Senate continues to work on a replacement that is affordable, market-driven and truly centered around the patient. These are the fundamental principles that Obamacare has failed to deliver to the American people.

As the repeal timeline is established, there will be a transition period before its replacement is fully implemented. We recognize the need to protect healthcare benefits during this transition. There is agreement that continuation of coverage is an important part of any replacement plan. We anticipate that there will be many options made available for health care design and coverages through this replacement legislation. However, all will include a guaranteed renewal of coverage, portability of coverage and children remaining on their families’ plans until the age of 26. 

Since the partisan law was enacted seven years ago, Americans have been painfully aware of its shortcomings. Supporters of the law promised that premiums would go down. Instead, they continue to skyrocket, increasing 37 percent in South Dakota this year alone. Supporters also promised that those who liked their coverage could keep it, yet since the ACA was enacted nearly 5 million Americans lost the health care plans they enjoyed.

Americans are also left with fewer health care options when seeking coverage. Because insurers are losing so much money on Obamacare, many have left the marketplace altogether. Over half of the Obamacare co-ops have already failed. South Dakota is one of nine states which have only two health care providers offering insurance plans on the exchange. Five more states have only one provider in their state, a dramatic decrease from the pre-Obamacare era. 

Countless South Dakotans have contacted my office to share their problems with Obamacare. One father of three from Rapid City wrote me recently to explain that his family’s premium was rising 357 percent for 2017. “I do not know what my next year will bring,” he wrote, “but I do know that I will likely be unable to afford my premiums or my needed health care.”

Another gentleman, from Sioux Falls, is facing a 47 percent increase in his premium this year, on top of an increase in copays and the deductible. A South Dakota veteran also wrote asking Congress to provide Obamacare relief to small business owners after seeing his premium more than double from $800 a month to more than $1,600 between 2014 and 2016. Hard-working, middle-class South Dakotans “are falling through the cracks,” he pleaded. I couldn’t agree more.

Since the law was being debated in 2009, I have warned that Obamacare is unaffordable and unsustainable, and that it would eventually crumble under its own weight. That is what we are seeing today, and that is why the 115th Congress acted swiftly to begin the process to repeal it. As we continue the march toward repeal, we will also work on a replacement that is truly affordable, patient-centered and market-based.

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Bill to Allow the Release of Certain Booking Photographs Passes Full Senate

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that SB 25, a bill providing the release of certain booking photographs has passed the full Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill on Thursday, January 12.

“The release of criminal booking photographs to the public will result in greater transparency in the criminal process, enhance public safety, and will further assist the media and the public in the proper identification of individuals in the criminal   process,” said Jackley.

The bill would allow routine criminal booking photographs to be defined as a public record under South Dakota law. The statutes would not require a law enforcement agency to reproduce a criminal booking photograph older than six   months.

Furthermore, an agency requested to provide or reproduce a criminal booking photograph would be entitled to recover reasonable retrieval and reproduction costs.

This legislation was a result of the work of the Attorney General’s Open Government Task Force, which included members of the media, law enforcement and municipal organizations.

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A Health Care System That Works for South Dakotans
By Sen. John Thune

The Republican-led Congress heard the American people loud and clear on Obamacare. The law is broken beyond repair, and Americans are looking for a better, more patient-centered approach. According to a recent poll, eighty percent of Americans want to see the law substantially changed or repealed and replaced entirely. In South Dakota alone, I’ve heard from hundreds of people who have been negatively affected by Obamacare, and it is heart wrenching to read some of their stories.

One person in particular told me the premium for his family’s health insurance spiked by 357 percent this year. Stories like this one are why South Dakotans are upset and why they feel let down by a political party in Washington that sold them a lemon of a health care system. Obamacare was supposed to drive down costs, but premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed. It was supposed to increase choices, but some Americans have been relegated to a single option for coverage. That’s not choice, and it’s not affordable either.

The law isn’t working, and the sooner my Democrat colleagues accept that reality, the sooner we can move toward a health care system that actually works for the American people. Democrats have been so focused on the number of people they claim have signed up for Obamacare that they forget about the millions of Americans who lost the coverage they had and liked before the president signed the bill in the first place. They also forget that when it comes to Obamacare, “coverage” and “affordability” aren’t exactly synonymous. The deductibles for some plans are so high that it’s hard to even call it coverage at all.

That’s why Republicans have for years pledged that when we had majorities in both houses of Congress and a willing partner in the White House, we would repeal this failed law once and for all and replace it with common-sense reforms that put the American people first. Congress has already taken some important first steps that have laid the groundwork to fully and finally repeal and replace Obamacare, but there’s more work ahead.

It’s important to know that when we send a repeal bill to President Trump, we won’t be pulling the rug out from under the American people. Our plan will include a transition period to protect Americans with existing Obamacare coverage from being left high and dry. While we’re still determining how long that transition period should be, Republicans are unified in our goal to repeal Obamacare, which is why we’re using it as a starting point.

When it comes to replacing Obamacare, you’re not going to see Republicans roll out a massive government-knows-best bill that takes over the nation’s health care system. Democrats tried that with Obamacare, and it failed miserably. Republicans will work toward replacing Obamacare with step-by-step reforms that actually lower costs and increase access to care. It’s what the American people deserve and have been asking for, and I hope Democrats join us in working toward this important goal as well.

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Nothing Less than a Miracle
By Rep. Kristi Noem

March 4, 1797, marked one of the most important days in American history: the inauguration of our second president and the first transition of power. In the two-plus centuries since, more than three dozen men have stepped aside as George Washington did, watching as their successor placed his hand upon the Bible and promised to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  While the inauguration ritual can seem ordinary to us today, President Ronald Reagan reminded America during his 1981 inaugural address that “this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.”

January 20, 2017, will mark the first time I get to observe this “normal miracle” up close. I’ll have the opportunity to sit behind President-elect Trump on a stage built at the doorstep of the people’s legislative house, the U.S. Capitol, as Chief Justice Roberts administers the 35-word Oath of Office.  It’s a rare meeting of the federal government’s three branches and a powerful symbol of our constitutional government.

Behind us, five American flags will be hung.  At the center, our current flag with 50 stars to represent the Union the president-elect will lead today.  To the left and right, flags with as many stars as there were states when New York – President-elect Trump’s home state – joined the Union, pointing us back to our roots as a republic.  At the far left and right, flags symbolizing our small, yet united, beginning, with 13 stars shaped to form an unending circle.

From this stage to the ceremony itself, Inauguration Day is a moment of unity, joining the past with the present, the states with the federal government, the Executive Branch with the Legislative and Judicial, Republicans with Democrats.

For many, 2016 was one of the ugliest elections of their lifetime.  But as divided as we may feel today, America is still rooted in a truth John Adams expressed during his inaugural address: we have a government where those writing and executing our laws are fellow citizens that have been selected “by their neighbors.” This is a government in which we, the people, govern ourselves.  It’s a government, not administered by those who were born into power, but by those who were chosen by their neighbors to lead.

As President-elect Trump places his hand on the Bible, the history of America will be laid out before him.  From the stage, he’ll be able to see the Lincoln Memorial, a striking symbol of the leadership required to unite a nation.  He’ll see the World War II Memorial, which represents America’s power when we work as one while also reminding us all this freedom we enjoy comes at a cost.

Most prominently, the president-elect will see our monument to America’s first president, the man who is often credited with asking: “What is most important of this grand experiment, the United States? Not the election of the first president but the election of its second president. The peaceful transition of power is what will separate this country from every other country in the world.”

As I take in this same view on Inauguration Day, George Washington’s example of leadership will not be lost on me.  I can’t possibly express how humbled I am to take part in this historic event. After all, it really wasn’t that long ago that I would have been getting ready for calving season, never dreaming I’d be attending a presidential inauguration, sitting in awe of this American routine that is nothing less than a miracle.

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Amazon’s Big Step In The Right Direction
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

South Dakota is a state with a low tax burden. We are one of only seven states without a personal income tax. We also have no corporate income tax, no business inventory tax, no personal property tax and no inheritance tax. People who live here get to keep more of their earnings.

We are a state that instead relies on a sales tax. Unfortunately, sales tax revenues have been below projections every month of the current fiscal year, which began in July. The farm economy is one reason for weakness in the sales tax. Another reason is the continued growth of online sales.

Online spending in the United States has grown more than 12 percent each year for the past seven years. Under current federal law, an online retailer is not required to collect and remit sales tax unless they have a physical presence in South Dakota. If you buy a new iPad at your local retailer, you pay the sales tax. If you buy it online at BestBuy.com or WalMart.com, you pay the sales tax, because those businesses have retail operations in South Dakota. But if you buy your iPad from TigerDirect.com, you don’t pay sales tax – simply because Tiger Direct has no warehouse or other physical location in South Dakota. Thus the burden to pay the tax falls upon the individual purchaser, and in most cases, those sales do not get reported.

We have been actively addressing this issue for years, but most recently in the 2016 Legislative Session, the Legislature passed and I signed Senate Bill 106. This legislation requires remote sellers with no physical location in South Dakota to collect and remit sales tax on online purchases. Our SD legislation deliberately conflicts with federal law, to prompt litigation now working its way through the courts.

This is not a new tax. It is an issue of tax uniformity. If South Dakota retailers must collect sales taxes, their online competitors should as well.

The Department of Revenue has been reaching out to many online retailers to encourage them to remit sales tax. Thanks to the Department’s efforts, 101 online businesses without a physical presence in our state are voluntarily collecting sales tax from their customers and remitting those dollars. In my State of the State Address, I announced that the state has reached an agreement with Amazon to collect and remit state and local sales taxes in South Dakota. Amazon will begin collecting sales taxes on Feb. 1 and remitting those dollars beginning in late March.

Amazon is a leading online merchant, growing every year by double digits. Amazon’s decision to collect sales tax doesn’t solve the sales tax issue for online purchases, but it’s a big step in the right direction – for our state and our local businesses. I hope other online companies will follow Amazon’s lead.

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