Incoming House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach discusses his views of what a school voucher program would look like with third party vendors, and goes into detail on how it will ‘help’ children with mental health issues, according to an interview in the Black Hills Pioneer,

There are third-party vendors out there that can help us administer it smartly with guardrails so that the money is only used by those families who take the money for either the tuition or for certain defined and approved expenses directly relevant to their child’s education. Take a look at what we’re able to do with virtual education. It’s mind blowing. You can have the best instructors in the world teaching your child virtually.

and..

I keep hearing this term, ‘no public money for private schools.’ And they the folks that are advocates for having a monopoly, if you will, and just the public school system. I think they’re wrong. I think that the public money is to be as directed by the legislature, and the Constitution directs us to use all suitable means to ensure that the benefits of education are available to everybody. And I don’t think public school is the best choice for everybody. I also think that these issues that we’re hearing about all the time of mental health, the school people are always telling us they want more mental health counselors, in many ways, an education savings account program to give parents choice of where to direct the funds will be a relief valve for a lot of those mental health issues for the kids that don’t fit in in the public school, or it’s not the right environment for them.

Read that here.

Scott argues it will be a ‘relief valve’ for children’s mental health because.. some of the kids who need the services won’t be in public schools anymore?

I suppose that’s one way to look at it.

After her two prior voluntary recusals due to a conflict of interest for pipelines crossing the land of family members, Summit Carbon Solutions is done waiting for PUC Commissioner Kristi Fiegen to step back from their most recent pipeline application.

The carbon sequestration pipeline company has made a formal request of the PUC for Fiegen’s recusal as a final step prior to going to court against the Public Utilities Commission to litigate against them and ask a court to determine whether there is a conflict, according to South Dakota Searchlight:

In a letter sent Thursday, Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions asked Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen to disqualify herself. That would allow the governor to appoint another state official to fill in for Fiegen during the three-member commission’s consideration of the application.

and..

“As with your previous decisions,” said the company’s new letter to Fiegen, “the facts and established South Dakota law support a decision that you should step aside.”

On Friday, Fiegen responded with a letter to Summit. In its entirety, Fiegen’s letter said, “I am an elected Public Utilities Commissioner and will carry out my duties as such. I do not have a legal conflict. I am sitting on the docket.”

Read the entire story here.

This seems to be just the smoldering coals of something that’s going to burst into a fire for the PUC.

With a successful vote today to return Speaker of the US House Mike Johnson to leadership in the new Congress, an interesting story is coming out tonight noting that South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson helped convince members of the freedom caucus to join the majority of Republicans on the vote:

Although Johnson had convinced several conservative holdouts to back his bid, Freedom Caucus members Reps. Ralph Norman and Keith Self joined Rep. Thomas Massie to deny Johnson the gavel — and about a half dozen other Freedom Caucus members signaled they may be a problem on subsequent ballots, after initially not voting when it was their turn.

and..

While a number of important conversations ultimately swayed the holdouts — one source pointed out that Rep. Dusty Johnson was “uniquely well-spoken” and critical in convincing Freedom Caucus holdouts to back Johnson — Trump’s voice was undoubtedly the most important.

Read the entire story here.

Johnson Takes Oath of Office for 119^thCongress

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) issued the following statement after taking the oath of office and being sworn in as South Dakota’s lone representative in the U.S. House:

“I’m really excited to continue to work for South Dakotans. This Congress, with a Republican House, Senate, and White House, presents a unique opportunity for strong, conservative victories like securing the border, unleashing American energy, cutting spending, and getting tough on China. We’ve got a lot to do. Let’s get to work.”

The 119^th Congress is Johnson’s fourth term in the U.S. House.

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Attorney General Jackley Appoints Former AG Mark Vargo As Attorney For Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Commission

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that he has appointed former Attorney General Mark Vargo to serve as the attorney representing the South Dakota Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Commission.

The South Dakota Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Commission is a commission in the Office of the Attorney General that sets minimum standards and training requirements for law enforcement officers in South Dakota. The 13-member commission also hears and decides hearings involving law enforcement certification.

“Former Attorney General Vargo understands the importance of law enforcement certification when it comes to protecting the public,” said Attorney General Jackley. “Law enforcement that the public can trust is vital, and former Attorney General Vargo will provide the advice for the commission to make informed decisions.”

After having served as both an assistant U.S. Attorney for South Dakota and as Pennington County State’s Attorney, Vargo was named South Dakota Attorney General by Gov. Kristi Noem on June 28, 2022. He served until Attorney General Jackley, who was elected to the post in the November 2022 election, took office in January, 2023.

Attorney General Jackley appointed former Attorney General Vargo as an Assistant Attorney General to work on training and special prosecutions.  The appointment was made official Dec. 31, 2024.

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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.

Matt, thanks for giving us 5 years!

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.

Anytime, now..

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.

Read the entire story here.

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.