Governor Daugaard’s Weekly Column: Another Effort To Be Even Better Stewards

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Another Effort To Be Even Better Stewards
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

DaugaardThe word that best sums up the public trust held by all officials is stewardship. Stewardship – the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care – has been my goal over these past four years.

Good stewardship brought our budget into structural balance four years ago. It has been good stewardship, each year thereafter, to project our revenues and expenses with caution, so if we erred, we would err on the side of a surplus not a deficit. It was an exercise of careful and responsible management when, after receiving an unexpected windfall last year, we used the money to retire bonds early and to pay cash for our new veterans’ home rather than borrowing.

In another effort to improve stewardship of taxpayer dollars, I have initiated a new state debt policy this year.

Our Constitution prohibits debt. To finance construction projects and manage large outflows of funds, the South Dakota Building Authority and South Dakota Health and Educational Facilities Authority were created. These entities issue and refinance bonds to pay for things like state park projects, the buildings at the behavioral health center in Yankton and public university projects. Long-term leases between the state and these authorities retire the bonds that are issued.

Last year, I asked the Bureau of Finance and Management to create a new debt limitation and management policy to guide both the management of existing debt and the issuance of new debt through these authorities. Under this new policy, total debt cannot exceed 1.2 percent of the state’s GDP and total annual debt service payments cannot exceed 4 percent of the ongoing general fund revenue from the previous fiscal year.

We were well below these boundaries at the end of Fiscal Year 2014, with the total outstanding debt as a percentage of state GDP at 0.8 percent and annual debt service payments as a percentage of ongoing general fund revenue at 2.9 percent.

In January, the Lieutenant Governor and Commissioner of Finance and Management traveled to New York City to share this new debt policy with ratings agencies. When Standard & Poor’s revised South Dakota’s outlook from stable to positive last summer, the ratings agency encouraged South Dakota to continue to improve our already strong fiscal position. I appreciate a good credit rating because it saves the state money, but I also appreciate that outside experts are endorsing the strength of the decisions we have made.

The principle of stewardship – careful and responsible management – will continue to be my goal for the next four years. We won’t spend money we don’t have. We will keep our budget in structural balance. We will be frugal, not cheap, and seize opportunities to spend in the short term where it can lead to savings, efficiencies or better government in the long term.

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Ellis: Democrats unlikely to pose challenge to Thune

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Jon Ellis is writing this morning about things that most SDWC readers have been hearing about for months; that the 2018 Gubernatorial race is likely between Mickelson, Jackley & Noem.

But my favorite comment comes up when he notes the 2016 race for US Senate. As in, there isn’t likely to be one. Or at least a serious one:

And no, we aren’t talking about the 2016 Senate race, where John Thune is expected to seek a third term. Democrats are in the middle of an epic rebuilding period, and it’s unlikely that they can field a candidate and an operation that would pose a serious threat to Thune with an election now less than two years away.

Read it here.

A slip on the ice, a trip to the hospital. Get Well Soon, Brock.

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I’m reading on Facebook that State Senator Brock Greenfield is laid up in the Watertown hospital after a particularly nasty fall that left the long-time legislator with a broken arm.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Senator Greenfield.

I was going to ask if was his arm for voting “no,” was injured, as it would have limited him immensely. But with his move to the senate this year, they don’t have all that newfangled technology, and thankfully rely on voice votes.

With Noem Support, House Passes Permanent Increase to Section 179 for Farmers and Small Businesses

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With Noem Support, House Passes Permanent Increase to Section 179 for Farmers and Small Businesses

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today joined the U.S. House of Representatives in passing H.R.636, America’s Small Business Tax Relief Act. This legislation, which Noem helped advance through the Ways and Means Committee last week, increases Section 179 expensing limitations for small businesses and farms, among other things.

“As a lifelong farmer and rancher, I understand the importance of reasonable deduction levels for new equipment,” said Rep. Noem. “Increasing the Section 179 expensing limitations for small businesses and farms gives families more flexibility to invest in their operation. And I know the certainty of a permanent increase would be more than welcome too.”

H.R.636 increases deduction amounts under Section 179 of the tax code to $500,000, which maintains 2014 levels. On December 31, 2014, a temporary extension of the $500,000 expensing limitations expired, dropping the maximum amount to $25,000.

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He’s baaaaaack.. “Draft Stace Nelson for State Senate” effort springs up.

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Is an effort to draft someone for State Senate like drafting someone for School Board or Electric Coop Board?  It kind of lacks the “oomph” of drafting someone for Governor or US Senate.

Of course, I wouldn’t be writing about it if it wasn’t happening.

Apparently, tired of the relative peace and quiet of this legislative session, in the last week, someone started a “Draft Stace Nelson for District 19 State Senate” facebook page.

draft_stace_watermarked

The facebook page, located at https://www.facebook.com/draftstacenelson doesn’t list the page’s creator, but noting the people who are supporting it, it would appear to be coming from within the close circle of Nelson campaign people.

The obvious point to bring up is that this effort would pit Nelson against current Republican State Senator Bill Van Gerpen, who anyone would agree is also quite conservative. And certainly wouldn’t be someone that anyone could accuse of “not following” the constitution.  Any plea to kick Bill out of office on that basis would seem to be …misplaced at the least.

We’ll continue to monitor the situation to see if this early draft effort is an indicator of Nelson’s intention to re-enter politics after his US Senate effort which ended in a third place defeat at the hands of current US Senator Mike Rounds.

And with that, I’ll ask  – what do you think about the possibility of Nelson getting back into the State Legislature? It it a good thing, because he has a lot to contribute to South Dakota? Or would it be a bad thing, remembering robocalls and divisiveness?

 

Is the GOP starting to be less dogmatic, and more pragmatic?

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Upon starting up my iPad, this post from State Representative Mark Mickelson greeted me in my facebook feed this morning:

no_on_permitless_carry

Obviously, this was Mickelson making a declaration as to his reasons why he was opposing a second amendment bill. The thing that struck me was that it’s not often that you see a prominent Republican voting against a gun bill.

And it wasn’t just this measure on permitless carry. Representative Mickelson cast a “No” vote on House Bill 1116; a similar bill which has the full backing of the National Rifle Association, and will likely be used in rankings for this next election.

It’s not just on guns that you see Republican legislators deviating from a strong conservative viewpoint. State Representative Steve Hickey has allied himself with Democrats on several measures related to eliminating the Death Penalty in South Dakota, one of which has other notable Republicans joining him on the measure with Democrats.  Hickey has also notably allied himself with former Obama campaign staffer Steve Hildebrand to take on payday lenders.

This past summer, we had a committee of mainly Republicans led by State Senator Mike Vehle propose a $100 Million dollar tax increase, arguably the largest tax increase in state history, Since then, it’s been considerably watered down from the “shoot for the sky” proposal, but the fact is that a package of tax increases ares moving forward.

All of this leads me to speculate – are we coming around full circle to when I first got into politics, and we regularly had moderate Republicans in office?

Over the past few cycles, We’ve had holy wars between candidates all the way up to the US Senate level over who was and was not adhering completely with the Republican platform to the letter, and faux scorecards painting some candidates more in adherence… and others would get robocalled.

Now that the dust is settling from last election, those who wanted to marginalize some Republicans find themselves marginalized themselves.

I have to wonder, are we moving away from burning down the Republican village to save it, and closer to a point of live and let live, and a time of more civility where people won’t worry about bringing their best ideas to the table?

What do you think?

Rounds Joins President as Clay Hunt SAV Act Signed Into Law

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Rounds Joins President as Clay Hunt SAV Act Signed Into Law

clay hunt

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, today attended the President’s bill signing ceremony for the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act at the White House.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to join the President as he signed this very important bipartisan piece of legislation into law today,” said Rounds.  “Our men and women in uniform put everything on the line to protect this country. Many of them struggle with the invisible wounds of war long after they leave the battlefield. They deserve top-notch, accessible mental health care.”

The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act requires a new website to be built that offers veterans information on how to access mental health services. Additionally, it creates a medical school loan repayment program to recruit more VA psychiatrists.

The bill was named for Clay Hunt, a Marine veteran who committed suicide in March 2011 at the age of 28. It passed the Senate and House unanimously.

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Rounds Applauds Senate Confirmation of Dr. Ashton Carter

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Rounds Applauds Senate Confirmation of Dr. Ashton Carter

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today applauded the Senate’s confirmation of Dr. Ashton Carter to be Secretary of Defense.

“Carter is the right person to lead our armed forces as we fight growing threats from ISIL and other terror groups,” said Rounds. “I voted to confirm Carter today, as I am confident he understands the needs of our service men and women and will seek to improve our long-term national security strategy. I had the opportunity to meet with him in person recently and firmly believe he will be an independent voice within the Administration. I look forward to working with him in the Armed Services Committee.”

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