Noem’s Committee Begins Formal Consideration of Tax Reform Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today joined the House Ways & Means Committee as they began formal consideration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. According to the non-partisan Tax Foundation, the tax reform proposal – which Noem played a pivotal role in drafting – would increase wages by 3.1 percent, add nearly 1 million jobs, and raise the after-tax income of the average middle-income family.

For the latest information, please visit Noem.House.gov/TaxReform. To watch the proceedings live, please visit WaysAndMeans.House.gov/Live.

“It’s taken decades to get to this point, but it’s essential we get this right,” saidNoem. “For the next week, we’ll be going through the bill line by line, making sure it reflects our priorities of building strong families and a strong future for all Americans. We’re committed to lowering tax rates, expanding pro-family credits, and creating a tax code that respects and rewards hard work. In return, taxpayers will see wages rise and job creation boom. After years of stagnation, it’s critical we act now. I’m eager to finish our committee work on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act so full House consideration can begin.”

Noem was selected for the House Ways and Means Committee in January 2015. Just over a year later, the committee released a blueprint for tax reform that outlined what a pro-growth, pro-family tax plan would look like. Over the course of the next year, Rep. Noem sat down with hundreds of South Dakotans to discuss the plan – both in the state and in her Washington, D.C. office. Noem also participated in more than a dozen formal Ways and Means Committee hearings on tax reform and brought South Dakota farmer Scott VanderWal to the table to testify on tax reform’s impact on agriculture.

All in all, the House Ways and Means Committee has been working on this proposal for more than six years, holding more than 40 public hearings since 2011.###

What They are Saying about Tax Reform

“This is a tax reform bill built for farmers, and Rep. Noem was integral in achieving that. From significantly lower tax rates to repealing the Death Tax, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act is more fair and takes a big step toward rewarding rather than punishing hard work and success.”

– Scott VanderWal, Farmer near Volga and SD Farm Bureau President, who testified before the House Ways & Means Committee on tax reform

“[Rep. Kristi Noem’s] hard work and persistence has made our progress to date possible and is our greatest asset in the serious fight to kill the Death Tax once and for all.”

– Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform

“I believe that the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act will help small businesses like mine invest in more equipment, develop better processes, and compete better in the global market which will, in turn, result in more opportunities for employment as we grow and invest in our future.”

– Robb Peterson, President at Glacial Lakes Rubber & Plastics LLC in Watertown

“High-quality child care can help more children be prepared to succeed in life. In fact, research shows that it can help to combat the major barriers that keep 71% of young Americans from being qualified to serve in the military. With child care costs on the rise, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit is a critical support for working families….”

– Major General Donald J. Goldhorn, U.S. Army, Retired – Castlewood, South Dakota

“The National Indian Health Board is very pleased to see that the draft House tax proposal includes a provision to make the IHS student loan repayment program tax exempt.  This common-sense provision will not only create parity with other federal health programs, but will allow IHS to stretch their scarce resources further and provide more incentives for health professionals to work for the Indian health system… NIHB expresses our sincerest appreciation to Congresswoman Noem for her commitment to getting this included in the House tax legislation.”

– Caitrin McCarron Shuy, National Indian Health Board

“Prairie Aquatech will benefit from this tax plan by having a lower corporate tax rate and keeping the money locally to pay employees a higher wage.  Since we are a research and development company, the R&D tax credits, interest deductions and being able to write off the cost of new equipment will help us get started as a new business….”

– Dennis Harstad, VP of Operations/GM at Prairie Aqua Tech in Brookings

“Tax reform is absolutely necessary to ensure that ‘family’ remains the cornerstoneof our South Dakota farms and ranches now and for generations to come. Congresswoman Noem’s personal family farm experiences coupled with her position and influence on the Ways and Means Committee lend real life experience to the tax issues such as Estate Tax and Like Kind Exchanges that can be life changing for South Dakota farmers and ranchers.”

– Jerry Schmitz, President of the South Dakota Soybean Association

“Molded Fiber Glass Companies supports the proposed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill and sees it as a positive step in helping US, and in particular, South Dakota-based businesses, become more competitive with foreign-based businesses.  We also see it as having avery positive impact on Middle Class families which make up our workforce.”

– David Giovannini, Sr. Vice President at Molded Fiber Glass Companies in Aberdeen

“The simplification of the filing requirements, the elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), and modification of the estate tax will take out a lot of the pain, shock, anger, and frustration that Americans feel about their taxes.”

– Casey Peterson, Founder and Shareholder at Casey Peterson LTD CPAs and Financial Advisors

“There are three items in the proposed tax cut bill that I see as vitally important to South Dakota.  First of all, reducing the tax rate on the hard-earned business income of Main Street job creators….  Secondly, we need to preserve the home mortgage interestdeduction to help make the American Dream more affordable to our people….  And, last but not least, it is vital that the deduction for charitable contributions continues….”

– Joy Nelson, Founder of Joy Ranch and Co-Owner of Haugan Nelson Realty in Watertown

“Due to the bill’s provisions that will dramatically improve the competitiveness of US-based corporations (including the immediate and permanent 20% tax rate) and encourage US economic growth and investment, 3M supports H.R. 1 and urges its reporting from the Committee during this week’s markup….”

– 3M with facilities in Brookings and Aberdeen

“Every dollar is critical to the small business owner in South Dakota, especially those who are just starting out.  So any progress towards meaningful tax reform for the small business owner is welcome.”

– Jeff Eckhoff, State Director of the South Dakota Small Business Development Center

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I’m thinking about making some travel plans for this coming year, but the question is how much more expensive is travelling by air going to get?

When I was growing up in South Dakota, aviation used to be a luxury. In fact, I never had taken a commercial flight until I was in college because of the expense. Today it’s a necessity, and quite within the reach of average South Dakotans, as evidenced by the increasing number of people flying for business and leisure.

In 2016, there were over 200,000 airline passengers in South Dakota alone. With millions of people flying throughout the nation on a daily basis, it’s no surprise that current projections predict continued expansion of commercial air travel. Making air travel more affordable and accessible to larger segments of our population is a goal we all share.

Unfortunately, Congress may not be completely on board with that thought process. There is currently a proposal advanced by Senator Susan Collins that would nearly double the cap for what’s called the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC), a tax levied by airports and collected by the airlines every time a passenger books a ticket. With taxes and fees currently constituting 21 percent of a typical airline ticket, a drastic increase in the PFC will make commercial flights less affordable for thousands of passengers. While airlines have seen gradual growth in recent years, a PFC cap hike is going to restrict future economic expansion and lead to higher ticket prices.

Here’s the kicker: airports don’t need this increase. In the last decade, airports and airlines have finished or introduced over $100 billion in development projects. In addition, the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF), an entity that provides funding for airport improvements, currently has almost $6 billion in unspent funds waiting to be used. Since a PFC hike would result in a jump in ticket costs, overall airport and airline traffic would decrease. This lack of foresight by airports is disturbingly ironic: increasing the cost of something will lead to less of it, not more of it.

As conservatives, it is easy for us to recognize that this increase in the PFC cap will hurt travelers and economic prosperity in the long run. Airports have been unable to identify a single project that has gone unfunded due to a lack of a PFC increase, making the justification for it questionable.

On the contrary, the airports demanding this policy change are just another example of our bloated government bureaucracy. This cash grab will make air travel even more costly for thousands of travelers.

As South Dakotans, when airport lobbyists and career politicians make decisions that negatively affect our state, we should not stand idly by. In order to keep ticket costs affordable, we should encourage Senator Rounds and Senator Thune to keep up the good work in Washington, and to hold the line on airline taxes and fees for South Dakota consumers.

Let’s keep those planes flying!

From Fred Deutsch, South Dakotans Against Assisted Suicide issued the following statement regarding the successful effort to educate South Dakotans about the Assisted Suicide measure that did not receive sufficient signatures to make the ballot:

There are so many people to thank for our victory preventing assisted-suicide from coming to South Dakota.

This was an effort by well over a hundred key people, some of whom want to remain anonymous.  First and foremost my thanks goes out to my bipartisan board of current and former legislators: Brian Gosch, Rep. Lynne DiSanto, Rep. Ray Ring, Rep. Julie Bartling, Dennis Feickert, Scott Munstermann, Jon Hanson, and Rep. Steve Haugaard. I made a total of eight calls to ask these people to serve.  100% said yes.

Thanks also goes out to the many professionals that provided us pro-bono work – the corporate lawyer that drew up our organizational papers, the tax lawyer that applied for our tax exempt status with the IRS, the election-law lawyer that provided us guidance navigating South Dakota election laws, and the many others that have reached out to us to provide their gracious support – to each of you, thank you, thank you!

So many other South Dakotans stepped forward to help, I can’t name everyone.  We had literally dozens of South Dakota citizen-volunteers lined up to scrutinize petition validity and prepare for a court challenge – to all of you, thank you.

Our first and best strategy was to stop the initiative at the signature gathering phase through education. Thank you to everyone that invited us into your homes, businesses, community groups, coffees, political meetings, church groups, medical doctor meetings and other groups to talk about the many dangers of assisted-suicide.

I also need to thank the many people that reached out to us from other states and counties that have fought this battle before and provided us strategic advice. Also, many thanks to Nik Nikas and Dorinda Bordlee from the Bioethics Defense Fund, Barbara Lyons from the Patient Rights Defense Fund, Margaret Dore from Choice is an Illusion, and Clint Cline from Design4. We could not have accomplished this without your help.

Of all the different outcomes we prepared for, not qualifying for the ballot was far-and-away the best.  Thank you to everyone that made this a reality.

How many signatures did the “Kill Grandma” effort manage to collect?

According to their public Facebook, only around 8000, fully 7000 votes less than the measure they managed to turn in to the Secretary of States office.  Nearly 1/2 of the people who said yes to pot, said no to suicide.

At least they got it 1/2 right.

The New Approach South Dakota group that turned in under 15,000 signatures towards the 13,871 they needed for purposes of putting a medical marijuana initiated measure on the ballot in South Dakota placed a letter of “thanks” on their public Facebook page last evening.

Although, “thanks” might be overly generous. It seems that there’s some bitterness there from the group that failed to collect sufficient signatures for two of their three petitions (recreational marijuana and assisted suicide), and is on the razors’ edge for the one they did turn in:

We thank all 20-30 of you who DID help. We refuse to use money that could be used for patient education & important things like booth spaces, events and vendor entry to hire paid circulators. We 100% refuse.

and..

When will those thousands of you who promised to help come forward. The amount of blank petitions mailed back to us with the statement “I didn’t have time” was devastating.

We all have jobs, families and responsibilities but we found time.

and…

We thank you all for the online support. There’s nothing quite like a big FB presence especially when a boots on the ground presence was what we needed.

We have no idea what the future holds BUT we do know this. This was your last chance for a ballot measure with us. We are moving on and starting to live our real lives again.

Read that here.

From once and future District 3 State Senate Candidate Cory Heidelberger:

I publish more information and more analysis more regularly and get more people reading and talking about more Legislative topics than any sitting legislator.

Read that here.

Gosh, as he gears up for being beaten in the District 3 State Senate race this next fall, I hope Cory wasn’t injured as he vigorously congratulated himself on his self-announced awesomeness.   (But I don’t think anyone is going to buy his Donald Trump impersonation.)

Governor Names Don Kirkegaard As Secretary Of Education 

PIERRE, S.D. – Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced today that he will appoint Don Kirkegaard of Sturgis to serve as South Dakota Secretary of Education.

Kirkegaard, 59, is currently the superintendent of the Meade County School District. He also serves as president of the South Dakota Board of Education Standards.  He will resign both positions to become secretary.

“Don Kirkegaard is a leader in education in South Dakota, and I thank him for taking on this role,” said Governor Daugaard. “With his years as a school administrator, and his service on the State Board of Education Standards, he will be an able leader for the state department.”

Kirkegaard has been superintendent in Meade County since 2011. Prior to that, Kirkegaard was a social studies teacher and principal in Bristol, and then a principal and superintendent in Britton. He earned his bachelor’s degree from South Dakota State University, his master’s degree from Northern State University, and his specialist’s degree from the University of South Dakota. Kirkegaard is a native of Trent and a graduate of Flandreau High School.

“I am excited about the opportunity to serve as the South Dakota Secretary of Education. I have more than 30 years in K-12 education and I will try to use my practitioner perspective as South Dakota continues to move education forward,” said Kirkegaard. “My goal will be to work with the Department so that we can continue to offer a wide variety of opportunities for all students in South Dakota.”

Kirkegaard has been a member of the State Board of Education Standards since 2006, and currently serves as its chair. The board sets standards and requirements for school accreditation and for teacher preparation and certification, and content standards for elementary and secondary schools.

He is also a member of the executive board of the School Administrators of South Dakota.

Kirkegaard and his wife, Lois, have two grown children.

Kirkegaard will begin on Jan. 1, 2018. He succeeds Dr. Melody Schopp, who is retiring effective Dec. 15, 2017. Mary Stadick Smith, the department’s deputy secretary, will serve as acting secretary during the interim.

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Well, 5pm has arrived, and there’s a few petitions that we didn’t see turned in.

First and foremost we did not see the measure to allow assisted suicide, a.k.a. the “Kill Grandma” measure, from the New Approach SD group, who barely made the signature requirement with medical marijuana, which will likely find itself disqualified, having significantly fewer signatures than 2016’s failed attempt. The same group failed to turn in their petitions circulating for recreational marijuana.

An alternative ballot measure for legalizing marijuana never really got of the ground. Neither did a Constitutional Amendment to prevent the legislature from fixing or repealing bad ballot measures for seven years (Like 2016’s IM22).

I was surprised we saw reduced numbers for the pot measures than they had in 2016. Normally, you’d think they’d get better the second time around.

Do you think people more aware of what they didn’t want to put on the ballot? Are they growing tired of the professional petitioners?

What do you think about all of this?

Almost 15k signatures submitted for measure to legalize marijuana for medical use by sponsor Angela Albonico pic.twitter.com/qPSXVvQioV

— Shantel Krebs (@SOSKrebs) November 6, 2017

The people promoting medical pot in SD just posted over 1000 fewer signatures than their measure that failed to make the ballot in 2016.

Stay tuned on this one. (That really came off as a double entendre, didn’t it)