Before the story gets too far afield, South Dakota State Treasurer Josh Haeder explains in a texted statement to SDWC regarding the day care relief controversy that as the office assessed how to respond to the House Appropriations’ and the Attorney General’s claims that the expenditure of the funds was improper, the Governor and the Senate’s belief that it was a legally valid use of funds, and his ultimate decision to release of those funds:
“The funds at one point were under review once we received the Attorney General’s memorandum. We cautiously took our time to make sure we made the right decision as there is a disagreement between members of the legislature, Governor and attorney generals office.
Ultimately, we decided the best course of action was to release the funds because the memorandum was not an official one”
– Sec. Josh Haeder
Since the memorandum was a memorandum, and not an official AG opinion, they determined the course of action was to release the previously committed funds.
Happy to see the AG doing his job!! Keep up the good work Ravnsborg.
This is a big problem and the authority for spending money should be sorted out.
What a mess. I long for days of Daugaard with his quiet not flashy level head. His candidness. Or Janklow’s sheer competence.
As for the AG, I crave any of the AG’s we had in the last 40 years over this guy.
We need people to govern for the right reasons. Not to score points for political gain.
Noem should figure out how to work with the legislators. It is turning in to DC. Nothing gets done unless it is executive order or unilateral action.
I long for the day we have a governor that actually governs vs looking for a photo or news op to push her national campaign. Noem should have waited on this, especially after receiving an official notification from the AGs office. She never thinks before she acts.
Shouldn’t Ravnsborg have recused himself? The House is in the middle of an impeachment enquiry and the Governor has called on him to resign. Maybe take a pass on this one.
He is the Attorney General. Saying anytime he disagrees with the governor constitutes a conflict is BS. The governor and House and Senate need to figure out a way to work out their differences and respect the rule of law.
The governor is the one who should be a leader and get all parties in a room and work through the differences.
There is nothing wrong with legislators not wanting to spend tens of millions of $ on daycare programs. These are philosophical questions that need to be answered.
Who has the spending authority is an important question and just because a governor doesnt like the House doesn’t mean they can ignore them.
If they can’t sit down and sort it out at a conference table they will need to settle it in the courts.
Embarrassing!
Yes, the philosophical question here should not be ignored. I’m still surprised that Noem backed $100 million to day care providers. Some can get as much as $300k. It would be interesting to see how this money flows. The problem, of course, is that smart business owners won’t spend this money as an ongoing expense. How can you raise salaries permanently on temporary money? You can’t. So my concern is that this ultimately flows straight down to the owners pocket. More government excess… I don’t see at all how this keeps the cost of day care low? I do see how it might keep a few open a few months longer…. however, if they were hanging on by a string before this it will be just a matter of time before they are hanging on again.
So many unanswered questions here, and this deserved thorough questioning by the Legislature rather than a hurry-up to disburse funds. This I’m afraid is a $100 million boondoggle that will do nothing to improve day care or lower the cost of day cares for working parents. I hope someone can prove me wrong here but I doubt it.
Anon at 8:02… Excellent questions and observations. A big problem with free money is lack of follow-up. My hope is that all the daycares getting cash are asked how it was spent, whether to improve operations, raise salaries, credit a free month of care, etc.
These posts raise decent points. Personally, I applaud supporting childcare. SD businesses need staff. And, with day-to-day costs through the roof, parents need to add shifts and second jobs. Unless working families can find good childcare, parents must stay home. In that case, parents earn less and (given the workforce shortage) the state economy suffers. Yet, the mechanism proposed here creates a risk that taxpayer money will be misused – directed to short-term needs instead of building a sustainable, long-term solution. If we invest unwisely, we’ll face the same problem (or worse) within a year. I’m not here to criticize a specific branch or official, but I agree with commenters who’d prefer more cooperation and a greater focus on getting the job done.
The question is who has the authorization to allocate the funds, it sounds like the legislature does and not the governor. I think the treasurer should had waited a few days to determine who could allocate the fund.