Not that he has a chance in heck of winning, it will be interesting to see him at the debates;
Former U. S. Senator Larry Pressler says he’s ready to announce whether or not he plans to make another run for Congress. And Tuesday he took the first step at doing that.
“This is very painful but I’d like to change my party from Republican to Independent,” Pressler said.
What’s even more painful is that we will have to watch this spectacle.
While the governor is busy handing out million dollar checks to staffing agencies to create a handful of jobs for a trailer making business, he continues to underfund education;
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the estimated average annual salary for South Dakota teachers is $39,580, lower than any other state. It is nearly half of what teachers in New York make.
“My husband and I both make a living. We have other jobs though. We both have other jobs outside of teaching in order to make ends meet,” Rollinger said.
I know a couple of teachers that assemble fireworks in the summer for extra dough.
When compared to other professions in SD, teachers are probably right in line with pay, not that, that is a good thing. We all need to get paid more.
I guess it’s like how the city’s code enforcement office ‘supposedly’ operates, they don’t investigate or hand out violations until there is a complaint made;
“I think I’m getting so many calls now I’m going to have to take some motor graders out there and try to limit the amount of snow they put in people’s driveways, but certainly we need to go out and do it,” Huber said.
Maybe Huber needs to see a psychiatrist about why he is ‘hoarding’ his motor graders in the street department garages instead putting them to work? I also suggest that citizens call his department like 4-8 times in one day about the same street that needs to be plowed, like how they hand out code enforcement violations. I also suggest you don’t scoop your sidewalk until after January 1st. And if the city tries to fine you, just tell them that your sidewalk scooping budget ran out for 2013 due to the Spring ice storm, besides you have better things to spend your money on, like a wet bar in your family room or a man cave in your garage, and if the public wants to hang out there, they can, for a nominal ‘caving’ fee, but not until the man cave members have used it first.
Sioux Falls/Minnehaha county saw an almost 30% increase in homeless in one year;
In South Dakota, more than 1,100 people don’t have a place to call home, and over half of them live in Sioux Falls. Monday, the results of the one day homeless count in Sioux Falls were released.
“We had 618 homeless, and 218 of them were children,” Maria Krell, Executive Director of Good Shepard Center said.
In 2012, the homeless in Sioux Falls totaled 435 people.
Krell said, “It’s really a lack of affordable housing.”
Stacey Tieszen, who serves on the Sioux Falls Homeless Advisory Board, agrees. She said Sioux Falls did a study in 2010 that showed the city was 1,000 affordable housing units short, and we would need to build 250 units each year from there on to keep up with the growth of the city and the wages being paid.
“We’re not building that, we aren’t even remotely keeping pace with that, so we are behind the eight ball already,” Tieszen.
Tieszen said in order to afford a two bedroom apartment that costs around $800 a month, a person would have to make $14.61 an hour.
In Minnehaha County, for 44 percent of people surveyed in this count, this was their first time being homeless.
We have a combination of low unemployment, and the jobs that do exist are low paying, forcing many to have multiple jobs. Pile on the constant property tax increases, rate increases for utilities and the lack of affordable housing and what happens? People are forced to hit the streets. What’s even more scary is the amount of people who are ‘borderline’ homeless, and teetering on the edge.
There are things ‘Businesses’ can do;
– Pay workers more, but hire quality employees and train them well so you don’t have to have as many. It will balance out in the end.
There are things ‘Government’ can do;
– ONLY award TIF’s to affordable housing projects.
– REVOKE all other TIF’s that have nothing to do with affordable housing, and start charging them the proper property taxes.
– Reduce property taxes for individual property owners, especially those on fixed incomes.
– REVOKE the food tax, for everyone! Or on at least raw & fresh foods.
– Implement a corporate income tax
These constant tax breaks to those who can afford to pay the most in taxes has to end. We need to take the burden off those who can least afford it. Sadly, as Janoct Adja pointed out when running for mayor the first time, ‘even the homeless in our community have to pay taxes.’
This culture of working the poor to death without providing them affordable housing has to end. But the culture of handouts to the special interests at city hall has to end also to make this work. Once city hall has done everything it possibly can to make it more appealing for contractors to build enough affordable housing in our community, then, and only then, can we start talking about hotels on public golf courses, pickleball courts, and private indoor tennis courts for the mayor and his buddies.
IMAGE: KDLT News
About the only positive that could come out of this is that he is a tribal member, not sure what percentage, maybe he can get some polling places open on the res;
Governor Dennis Daugaard announced on Tuesday that he will appoint Chuck Jones of Flandreau to the South Dakota State Senate. Jones will represent District 8, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Russell Olson.
Jones is the general manager of Royal River Casino in Flandreau. From 2007 to 2011, he served as the city administrator for the City of Flandreau. Jones is a veteran of the United States Army and served overseas during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He also served in the Minnesota and Iowa Army National Guard from 1991 to 2001 and the U.S. Army Reserve from 2001 to 2012.
District 8 includes Lake, Miner, Moody and Sanborn counties.
Still curious as to why Denny thought appointing the GM of Royal River was a good idea? Why not just appoint the head lobbyist in the state of tobacco and alcohol to the legislature to? Hey, we have no ethics laws, or fair investigations/audits anyway. Stack Em’ up! If AG Jackboots is asked to do an investigation, he will just either drag his feet, refuse to do it, blame the family, or investigate them of a crime he already knows they did not commit. And they wonder why we get an ‘F’ for corruption in the state.
l3wis