(H/T – Helga)
Just a few of the corporations that are helping Wick & Steele write legislation for our state.
Did Manny Steele and Hal Wick enjoy New Orleans soul food while at the ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) annual meeting this past weekend? Enquiring minds would be interested to know if ALEC members Steele and Wick spent the weekend in New Orleans getting their marching orders from a long list of corporations. Corporations who write model legislation and then pass it on to legislators in all states to pass. ALEC drafts and promotes legislation that has crippled social service budgets, deregulated industries, slashed medical care for the poor and undermined consumer and worker protections in state after state. Big on their list is to close Planned Parenthood and remove the right of choice for women. This a full time job in SD for some legislators.
A state legislator pays only $50 a year to join ALEC. And corporate sponsors put up $5,000 to $50,000 — which gives legislators the privilege to write “model” laws that come from ALEC. ALEC is funded by a host of conservative corporations including the Koch brothers, Chevron, BP, Shell, Coors, Well Point, The Walton Family Foundation who work in secret to draw up bills that benefit specific business interests.
Steele and Wick have both held hunting events in SD for ALEC. Wick hosted an ALEC Pheasant Hunt fund attended by more than 20 SD state legislators along with out of state representatives that hunted and partied for 2 days at R & R Hunting in Seneca, SD. Not to be outdone Steele had a 2009 ALEC Hunting party also.
Enquiring minds would also like to know if Larry Diedrich, Duane Sutton, Bill Peterson, Jay Duenwald, Mike Jaspers, Ken Juhnke, Mike Buckingham, Phyllis Heineman, Tom Hansen, Kermit Staggers, Tom Hacki or Dennis Daugaard to name just a few, went on an all paid trip to New Orleans this past weekend.
MORE UPDATES ABOUT ALEC:
Maybe they are trying to compete with the Governor’s hunt, that seems to be classified information.
Unbelievable. Why doesn’t the Argus leader ever write about this stuff.
Good story. It’s about time ALEC gets outed in SD. Who is running the government for South Dakota? Who’s writing the bills in Pierre? ALEC puppets who attend high end conferences at taxpayers expense. Do the voters in districts ele’s districts know who their representatives work for? Not for the SD voters and taxpayers.
It is pretty sad? Huh? I have known for years that our legislators are tools to corporations, even in little ol’ South Dakota. Just look at our low wage, regressive tax system. Do you think that is set up to protect the little guy?
Hal Wick attended the ALEC convention this summer. I’m sure he’s brought back their written bills to present to further undermine the labor community and lead us deeper into third world status.
Seeing a photo like this and just knowing his inept mind and sticky fingers from ALEC makes me want to hurl.
It is pretty obvious after reading most of the legislation it is written by corporate hacks.
“Unbelievable. Why doesn’t the Argus leader ever write about this stuff.”
Then it would have to be a real newspaper.
The unfortunate part about the AL is they have some very talented writers that work the undertow, unfortunately they are hamstrung by ‘agenda’ minded editorial staff.