Kristi Noem for Congress 2016 Q2 FEC

Congresswoman Kristi Noem continues to rack up impressive numbers in the campaign finance arena. As you cn tell from her latest report, filed today, she’s had a good quarter – $205k contributed, 117k spent, and over $1.7 Million dollars in cash on hand.

*Now, given the fact this is a secondary report coming off of the pre-primary, you have to add the pre-primary report in with the one that was just posted to get the full quarter which is 310k raised total for 2q.

We’ll compare it to Paula Hawks’ report after she has her report in. Somehow for Democrats, I suspect it’s going to be a bit depressing.

Apparently there are some interesting things about the Democrat’s PUC candidate Henry Red Cloud coming to light as his campaign for the Public Utilities Commission kicks off.

First, as we learned earlier, we discovered he’s tied in with Leonard Peltier apologists, who think the convicted killer got a raw deal, and advocating for his release.

And now, in the latest, we learn that his campaign has some interesting staff.

Apparently there are no Democrats able to handle the treasurer duties for Red Cloud who actually reside in South Dakota, so he’s outsourced it to Colorado, where Richard Fox of Fort Collins is handling all that for him. And who is Mr. Fox?

Richard Fox is the Executive Director of a Colorado environmental group “Trees, Water and People,” where he’s been associated with Red Cloud employing him for a Colorado based program for Tribal Renewable Energy.

I’m not sure which is worse – The face that there’s apparently no South Dakotans that can serve as the treasurer for the lone State campaign they have to run this year? Or the fact that for an office which makes pretty important decisions on South Dakota pipelines and other aspects of our energy infrastructure, a Colorado environmental activist is hip deep in running the campaign for the Democrat Candidate for that office?

Noem Statement on Reopening of Rosebud Emergency Department

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today issued the following statement in the wake of a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announcement that the Rosebud Hospital emergency department would reopen on Friday, July 15, and resume operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week:

“The dangerous conditions within the emergency department and the resulting diversionary status put too many lives in jeopardy. Today is a day of hope, but it is not the end of our work. So much still needs to be done. The problems that led to the grave conditions in Rosebud remain. Expansive reforms, such as giving tribes a role in running IHS facilities and reformulating how purchased-referred care dollars are allocated, must be made if we are going to see the lasting improvements tribal communities deserve.”

In June 2016, Noem introduced the Helping Ensuring Accountability, Leadership, and Trust in Tribal Healthcare (HEALTTH) Act, which among other things:

+ Gives tribes a seat at the table to encourage better, longer-term contracts by allowing for a partnership among IHS, tribal communities and healthcare stakeholders to collaborate throughout the contract negotiating process, rather than leaving those decisions solely to IHS.

+ Addresses the current recruitment problem – for both medical staff and hospital leadership – by putting provisions in place to:

· Allow for faster hiring.
· Make the existing student loan repayment program tax free, as an added incentive for high-quality employees.
· Provide incentives to attract competent and well-trained hospital administrators as well as medical staff.

+ Reforms the Purchased/Referred Care (PRC) Program by, among other things:

· Requiring IHS to develop a new formula for allocating PRC dollars. Under Noem’s bill, IHS would be required to develop a formula based on need, population size, and health status to ensure those areas that have the greatest need receive a greater portion of the funding.
· Requiring IHS to negotiate Medicare-like rates for services it pays for with private providers. IHS currently pays a premium for PRC services. Noem’s proposal would bring payments in line with what Medicare pays to stretch every dollar further.
· Requiring IHS to address the backlog of PRC payments to private providers. Private hospitals in the Great Plains Area have long expressed concern because IHS has failed to pay their bills. Noem would require IHS to put a strategy in place to get these hospitals paid what they are due.

+ Restores accountability through strategies, such as:

· Require IHS to be accountable for providing timely care.
· Require the Government Accountability Office to report on the financial stability of IHS hospitals that are threatened with sanction from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The legislation has been endorsed by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, the National Indian Health Board, Avera, Rapid City Regional Health, Sanford Health, the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations, the South Dakota State Medical Association, the South Dakota Dental Association and others.

For more information, visit www.noem.house.gov/IHS.

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(Editor’s note – another important piece of legislation from Senator Rounds to make sure that local banks can loan money to prospective homeowners -PP)

Rounds Introduces Bill to Provide Regulatory Relief for Community Financial Institutions

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today introduced the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act. This bill would provide regulatory relief for community banks and credit unions by exempting them from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) revised Regulation C final rule, which amends the 1975 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).

“More and more of our community banks and credit unions in South Dakota have stopped offering mortgage lending services simply because they can’t afford to comply with the costly, time-consuming requirements of regulations coming out of Washington,” said Rounds. “Regulations like the revised HMDA rule force community banks and credit unions to divert resources away from providing financial services to their communities and instead direct them to comply with onerous regulations. My bill will alleviate compliance hurdles facing many of our community banks and credit unions and allow them to do what they do best—serve their customers and strengthen our communities.”

HMDA was enacted in 1975. The act requires certain financial institutions to provide the public, and public officials, with mortgage data to determine if financial institutions are properly serving the communities in which they are located. Following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, rulemaking authority for HMDA was transferred to the CFPB. The CFPB revised HMDA to require community banks and credit unions to collect nearly 50 unique data points on loan applications and share that information with the federal government.

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act would raise the thresholds for the number of closed- and open-end loans a financial institution can originate before being subject to HMDA reporting requirements. This would allow more community financial institutions to be exempt from the HMDA rule. The bill would raise the number of closed-end loans financial institutions can originate from 25 to 100 per calendar year. It would increase the number of open-end lines of credit from 100 to 200.

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There’s a definite choice in candidates for Legislative District 3 this year. On one hand, you have some of the most whack-job liberal leftists that the Democrat party has to offer. On the other hand (the one you don’t want to chop off), you have solid, stable candidates representative of the community – a business owner, a law enforcement officer, and a farmer/rancher. 

Mark your calendars, and RSVP for the event by clicking here.

If there’s any complaint over the event – they should be asking for more from attendees! The races are that important!

Put it on your schedule, and RSVP today.

From the Argus:

“Emily Wanless, a political science professor at Augustana University, said unlike Rounds and Noem, he (Thune) is up for re-election and is in a prominent leadership position in the Senate.”

Read that here.

Getting people to realize that she’s actually running for Congress might be one of those things for Paula Hawks to add to her “to do” list.

There were a couple of pieces on eBay recently that once I saw them – they had to be mine. And this has to be my favorite.

Thomas Matthew Berry was the 14th Governor of South Dakota. Berry, a Democrat from Belvidere, South Dakota. Elected governor twice, in 1932 and 1934, as Governor, he acted as Federal Relief Administrator and helped secure federal aid during the great depression.

According to Wikipedia…

He called the legislature into special session to legalize 3.2 percent beer and again to enact unemployment insurance. During his tenure, state property tax was abolished, replaced by gross income tax which was replaced by a state sales tax.

Read it here.

Berry ran for a third term in 1936 but faced Les Jensen, and a Republican Party that wasn’t going to go gently into the night as you can tell by this GOP sponsored flyer, which took aim at the myth that Berry had taken an ax to state government, noting instead that he’d simply carved up the state as political pie:

And, the rest is history. Les Jensen won the election.   In fact, Les Jensen has been in the news quite a bit recently, as he’s received an update to his Gubernatorial portrait.

South Dakota Ends Fiscal Year With Another Surplus

PIERRE, S.D. –  South Dakota state government closed the 2016 budget year on June 30 marking the fifth consecutive year with a surplus, Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced today. The state general fund budget for Fiscal Year 2016 ended with both lower expenditures and higher revenues than budgeted.

The majority of the surplus was a result of state agencies demonstrating fiscal restraint.  State agencies spent $10.4 million, or 0.74 percent, less than appropriated. Additionally, revenue for Fiscal Year 2016 exceeded estimates adopted by the Legislature last March by $3.6 million, or 0.24 percent. In total, the state’s budget for Fiscal Year 2016 ended with  a $14.1 million surplus.

“This marks the fifth year in a row that we have maintained structural balance in our budget. This was my number one priority when I took office,” Gov. Daugaard said. “Even with our revenue stream being soft the past few months, all areas of state government were able to spend fewer tax dollars than appropriated to contribute to the budget surplus. Finishing Fiscal Year 2016 in the black puts South Dakota’s budget in a positive position as we begin the 2017 fiscal year.” (Audio)

State agencies again remained within their appropriated budgets in FY2016. Collectively, the three branches of state government spent $10,427,398 less than appropriated. This reversion includes $2.4 million across all state government due to a decrease in the state paid health insurance rate; $2 million from the Board of Regents due to lower utility expenditures; $1.3 million from the Department of Human Services related to lower than anticipated operating expenditures and vacancies at the South Dakota Develomental Center; and $1 million from the Department of Social Services due to nominal variances in the utilization of services.

South Dakota’s sales and use tax receipts, the state’s largest revenue source, finished the fiscal year 0.71 percent below budgeted levels, but grew 2.91 percent compared to the prior year. Collections from the sales and use tax accounted for 58 percent of total general fund receipts in fiscal year 2016.

Sources of revenue with notable increases came from the bank franchise tax, severance taxes and insurance company tax, which grew 22.4 percent, 13.6 percent and 6 percent, respectively, over FY2015. Ongoing receipts to the general fund totaled $1,438,386,820 which grew 4.1 percent compared to the previous year. Total state general fund receipts were $1,496,940,642 for the recently ended fiscal year.

South Dakota state government ended FY2016 by transferring $14.1 million to the Budget Reserve Fund, as required by law. The state’s Budget Reserve Fund now has a $113,379,805  balance and the General Revenue Replacement Fund has a $44,000,048 balance.

The combination of those two funds, totaling $157,379,853, represents a combined reserve of 10.8 percent of total general fund spending for FY2016.

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