I noticed it as I was heading over to post an item for the South Dakota Political Show podcast today. After more than 5 years of acting as a hub for area political discussion, the Sioux Falls Politics facebook group has ended operations, and gone to “Archived” status.
After being started by Sioux Falls businessman and investor Matt Paulson in 2019, the group has hung on for over 5 years with Matt and his co-moderators at the helm, and had over 2500 regular followers. Despite Matt being being busy with other things. It was always one of those places on facebook that for the politically aware on the eastern side of the state to check regularly, if not at least weekly. But as of December 3, it has gone dark, with it’s creator informing me with a wink that “he’s retired from running facebook groups.”
It’s too bad that it’s gone, but hopefully others will arise and take the opportunity to foster bi-partisan discussion about political happenings in the Sioux Empire.
Column: Proposed Amendment Seeks to Protect South Dakota Taxpayers Amid Federal Funding Uncertainties
By Senator Casey Crabtree (R-District 8)
In 2022, South Dakota voters expanded Medicaid eligibility to adults with incomes up to 138% of the poverty level. The amendment was placed in the state’s Constitution and can only be changed by South Dakota voters. Since then, the legislature has dutifully implemented Medicaid expansion and more than 28,000 individuals are currently enrolled.
One of the key points by proponents of Medicaid expansion was that federal government pay 90% and South Dakota taxpayers pay the remaining 10%. Right now, that 10% is projected to cost South Dakota taxpayers about $20 million a year for the upcoming fiscal year.
Voters have concluded that improvements should be made to the language that was implemented in 2022. During the 2024 legislative session, Rep. Tony Venhuizen and I proposed a constitutional amendment that allowed the State of South Dakota to consider a work requirement for able-bodied adults aged 18-65 that enrolled in Medicaid expansion. The proposal gained the support of every Republican in the legislature, and the amendment went on to be the only ballot measure out of seven to pass on the November ballot.
The incoming Trump administration, the new Republican Congress, and the Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy led “DOGE” are all working to find ways to control federal spending. Regardless of your political affiliation, we can all see wasteful government spending at the federal level and should be glad to see real attention being paid to this issue. News out of Washington says one way the feds could reduce spending is by lowering the federal share of Medicaid expansion from 90% to between 70 and 80%. Each percentage in reduction would cost South Dakota taxpayers about $2 million.
In the upcoming session, Rep. Venhuizen and I will introduce another Joint Resolution proposing a constitutional amendment binding Medicaid expansion to the level of federal medical assistance. The new constitutional amendment would clarify that, if the Feds ever drop their match below 90%, the South Dakota Constitution would no longer require us to continue Medicaid expansion.
To be clear, the proposed amendment does not eliminate Medicaid expansion. If passed, South Dakota could keep Medicaid expansion in place, but it would allow the legislature to debate if South Dakota taxpayers can afford it if the federal match changes from the 90% those voters previously agreed to. For example, if the Feds cut their share to 70%, the state would have to allocate an extra $40 million a year, and South Dakotans would have to consider cuts to other programs to pay for that increase.
Several other states enacted Medicaid expansion with language like this, including Montana, Utah, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Virginia, and North Carolina. In some cases, these states will automatically withdraw from Medicaid Expansion if the Feds drop their contribution below 90%. Our proposal would not do that. It is more like Iowa, Idaho, and New Mexico, which simply allow the legislature to consider other options if the Feds cut funding.
We want to emphasize that this proposed amendment honors the will of the voters. The voters passed Medicaid expansion with the clear understanding that the federal government would pay 90% of the costs. In 2024, the voters supported us by improving the constitutional language to allow for a work requirement for able-bodied adults. With this proposal, we are once again asking the voters to clarify their intent: If the federal match rate for Medicaid drops below 90%, do they want the legislature to be able to consider the budgetary implications?
This week’s edition of the South Dakota Political Show with myself and Mike Lauritsen is now live with our special guest, Republican State Representative Will Mortenson (District 24)
Will is been a leader in South Dakota politics, and was recently the House Majority Leader during the last legislative session. Representative Mortenson was with Governor Daugaard’s administration during the last period when South Dakota faced budget challenges similar to those that we face this upcoming session, and has great insight into the process.
Will talks about budget cuts, school vouchers, medicaid spending, the Venhuizen/Diebert property tax proposal, and more!
You can listen to the podcast as hosted on Acast, or on Apple Podcasts… All you have to do is click and listen!
Right on time for the New Year, SDGOP Chair wannabe Ezra Hays is back hitting the email accounts of Republican Central Committee members, begging for a shot at the chairmanship.
Or did he?
Aside from a fairly laughable budget, which I will get into later, the language in this email instantly came off to me as a bit… inauthentic. Which had me wondering if Ezra actually wrote this?
And according to plagiarism tools, No. According to on-line tools, it appears there is a high likelihood that this message was actually written by our incoming AI overlords:
GPT checker one says 100% AI generated..
And here’s another GPT Checker tool telling us that. There is a 100% probability that the robots are doing all the talking.
(Not exactly an illustration of authenticity in trying to connect with the state’s 320,000 Republicans.)
Of course, there were other problems with the email. Such as the “budget” he was proposing, which wasn’t really a budget, because while it was big on spending, there are no details on how he intends to raise all this money he wants to spend.
And a huge red flag.. why is the political/fundraising director budgeted for $10,000 more than the person who would allegedly be their boss? The party has not paid anybody for that job in a decade or more.
Let me give you a little insight on that, as was noted to me by one recipient this morning:
Finance Director is the only position that the bylaws empower the chair to appoint without approval from anyone…. Not exec board, not Central Committee. Perhaps that’s why Ezra is proposing a higher salary for the Finance Director than for the Executive Director.
Ahhh… the person noting that to me speculated that we could see Ezra hire anyone he wants for this job which in the past has not had a salary attached to it. He could hire someone off the street with no experience in fundraising. Or Ezra could hire his buddy Dave Roetman who had the role when it was unpaid. Either way, it is a new salaried position with no board oversight
The race for the SDGOP’s 2025 leadership is not giving me warm fuzzies at this point. But, there is still plenty of time for a qualified aspirant to jump in with leadership and a real plan, as opposed to robots & made up numbers.
South Dakota Searchlight via Josh Haiar has a story today on Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen declining to recuse herself from the matter of the Summit Carbon pipeline on the basis of a conflict of interest that has not changed since she had previously recused herself:
A trust controlled by a South Dakota regulator’s relatives still owns land along a proposed pipeline route, but the regulator has not recused herself from the project’s second permit application after recusing herself from the first one.
Two years ago, Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen disqualified herself from Summit Carbon Solutions’ first carbon dioxide pipeline application. She cited state law prohibiting commissioners from participating in hearings or proceedings when they have a conflict of interest.
Fiegen wrote a recusal letter in February 2022 that said the pipeline “would cross land owned by my sister-in-law (my husband’s sister) and her husband.” Gov. Kristi Noem assigned State Treasurer Josh Haeder to fill in for Fiegen.
and..
The new pipeline route would cross the same parcels of land: the Minnehaha County land that Fiegen’s relatives no longer own, and the McCook County land that the Ordal trust still owns.
As referenced in the letter above which I had mentioned before, I’d also point out that the 2022 letter was not Commissioner Fiegen’s first recusal over pipelines. There was another one back in 2015..:
…where Kristie recused herself over the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing both properties, including the McCook County land which remains under her relative’s control.
Kristie has always been a straight shooter, concerned about fairness, so it’s unclear why she’s changed course on her participation not compromising her partiality in this situation.
PIERRE, S.D. – Today, the Bureau of Finance and Management (BFM) released South Dakota’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) for fiscal year 2024. The ACFR is the audited financial statements for state government and represents the collective effort of BFM, the state agencies, and the Department of Legislative Audit.
Highlights from the fiscal year 2024 ACFR include:
The State’s ending net position for the year is $9.9 billion which is an increase of $667.5 million or 7.2% from the prior fiscal year;
At the end of the fiscal year, the total fund balance of the General Fund was $1.6 billion, an increase of $229.1 million, or 16.8% from the prior fiscal year;
The State has set aside $612.5 million for the Incarceration Construction Fund to build new prisons. By funding these projects with existing funds, the need to issue debt is avoided; and
The State has maintained its AAA public issuer rating from Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Ratings, and Moody’s for the past eight fiscal years. This represents the highest rating for all three bond rating agencies.
The ACFR can be viewed online at bfm.sd.gov, or for printed copies, contact BFM at 605-773-3411.
Within hours after filing his proposed legislation that allowed fat cats to loan unlimited funds to their political action committees, far beyond the rules that Joe six-pack is required to live by, Toby “Dumpster-Fire” Doeden, the chief abuser who brought this loophole into a glaring spotlight came unglued on Facebook, and is absolutely howling that people are signing on to Rohl’s legislation to stop the abuse that allowed him to dump $100,000 and more into his Political Action Committee, Dakota First Action (yes, the PAC who held the rally with the alleged ‘black nazi’) to try to buy elections:
Blah, blah, blah. That’s a lot of excuses and finger pointing for something that comes down to his own actions. “Fact is, millions and millions of dollars flow into our state politics from out-of-state corporations, PACs, and other nefarious origins. This money is spent by compromised establishment politicians to maintain power.” Did Toby actually pay a PAC staffer to write that ridiculous nonsense?
The truth of the matter is that you and I can go to the Secretary of State’s website and look up exactly what was spent on campaigns, and who campaign funds were donated to and by whom. The limits are set in law, and legislators have decided the point where we it gets excessive, and goes beyond one-man, one-vote.
But there are times when the members of a citizen legislature don’t foresee everything. And a loophole exists. This is one of those instances, where they never imagined someone would dump cash in untold and unlimited amounts into a Political Action Committee via a loan.
The fact of the matter is that dirty campaigner Toby Doeden used much of that money he dumped into his PAC to launch text messaging across the state that did not follow state law in terms of disclaimers noting who was paying for it, until his feet were held to the fire. And he had to figure something out, fast.
He was able to weasel out of the charges being investigated by the A.G. because of the loophole in the state law which allowed him to refile his $100,000 donation after he got caught by now calling it a “loan.” Illegal as hell when he did it. But by refiling it as a loan, the little-known loophole saved his bacon. And here we are.
Senators Rohl, Reed and Wheeler, and Representative Otten are trying to fix the loophole. Leaving Toby crying, because he wants his unlimited loophole to remain in the dark recesses of South Dakota politics. But where have we heard all this before?
There was a similar debate a number of years ago when Senator Lee Schoenbeck argued a fix a similar loophole in 2005 which allowed people to donate unlimited funds to Political Action Committees. Quoting the February 1, 2005 Rapid City Journal article by Denise Ross (a friend to many who passed away in 2015):
And… (Here we have one of the all-time best Lee Schoenbeck quotes:)
The arguments against the latest bill are literally the same arguments used back in 2005. And we survived, except it took 20 years for the abuse of a loophole to highlight where the bill needed adjustment.
If you think a big boob like Toby should be able to buy elections by loaning his personal PAC hundreds of thousands or a million dollars at a time, then by all means, encourage your legislators to let this wide-open campaign finance loopholes stand as it is.
But if you think everyone should play by the same set of rules, and $10,000 is enough for dirty Doeden to dump into his campaign account just like everyone else – encourage your legislators to support Senate Bill 12.
Congressman Dusty Johnson is among those supporting the return of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the US House:
Thank you, Mr. President. You’re right, Speaker Johnson has done, and will do, a good job for our country. I’m glad to join with you in endorsing Mike Johnson for Speaker. pic.twitter.com/px6VrKHpN6
Attorney General Jackley Announces Former Revenue Employee Sentenced on Fraud-Related Charges
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that a former State Department of Revenue employee has been sentenced after pleading guilty to two fraud-related charges.
Lynne Hunsley, 64, pleaded guilty Monday afternoon in Hughes County Circuit Court to one count of Forgery, a Class 5 felony, and one count of Grand Theft by Deception, a Class 6 felony. She was sentenced to three years in prison suspended on the Forgery charge and one year in prison suspended on the Grant Theft by Deception charge. She also was placed on probation for three years, fined $1,000 combined on the two charges, and ordered to pay $1,200 in restitution.
“The defendant has accepted responsibility for her actions and is being held accountable for violating the public’s trust,” said Attorney General Jackley. “As Attorney General, I will continue to protect taxpayer dollars and restore the public’s trust in state government.”
Hunsley was accused of using her position with the Division of Motor Vehicles to falsify records between Jan. 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021. That action resulted in her not having to pay $1,200 in tax liabilities to the state.
A second former Revenue employee, Danielle Degenstein, 51, was indicted on Misprison of a Felony, a Class 1 Misdemeanor, where she concealed her knowledge of a felony to authorities. The defendant has pleaded not guilty, and that case is still pending. She is presumed innocent under the U.S. Constitution.
Column: Proposed Amendment Seeks to Protect South Dakota Taxpayers Amid Federal Funding Uncertainties
This week’s edition of the South Dakota Political Show with myself and Mike Lauritsen is now live with our special guest, Republican State Representative Will Mortenson (District 24)
