I have been following the state legislature for many years, and passing a regressive sales tax increase to give raises to one sector of public employment is probably one of the worst things I have seen our state legislature do in recent memory (besides all the social issues).
I won’t rant about all the other options we had to increase teacher pay without raising taxes, we have seen those options (there are hundreds). One of the best that was actually presented to me a few years ago by representative Hunhoff (who voted yes) was pulling from our gigantic state reserves. We didn’t hear much from Hunhoff on that idea this session. He must have forgotten about it.
So what happened? The only ones voting against this were the cheap skates of the legislature, who would vote against any tax increase. But what about the other Republicans? Are they so scared of property tax and and income tax that they voted to tax the poorest of our society more? Most likely.
But the big losers in this debate? The SD Democratic party. For years they cry about the food tax and general regression of sales taxes to begin with, and when they had a chance to stand up to this and present their own plan they suddenly turn into a gigantic flock of chickenshits.
It doesn’t surprise me our doofus of a governor would concoct such an ignorant plan, I just never imagined 2/3 of our legislature was this moronic to go along with it.
I’ll pray for you tonight.
This was the plan all along. Apparently this tax bill was drawn up before the task force started or at least completed its work. Talk about the fix being in. We will just have to wait and see if this truly raises teacher salaries, if the good teachers continue to work as hard when they aren’t getting any more of a raise than the poor ones, and if this truly fixes the teacher shortage (I doubt it will because there are many issues here and pay is only one of them). There should have been a chance to really look at alternative plans to a tax increase, but….
I liked the story one legislator, who voted no, told. He said that this tax increase will average $100 per person in SD. So how do you tell a person working a fulltime job for about $25,000 a year and has two kids that she will have to give $300 to the teacher, who already makes an average of $40,000 without the pay raise.
But I am a Republican and at least this will put a stop to the Dems crying about the regressive sales tax, because they just now supported that very thing!
Currently the state of SD collects s contractors excise tax of 2.041% plus 4% use tax on every property in the state. Does not matter if govt building or not. A school pays this tax on changing a light bulb or a chiller unit. Tax dollars are taxed for the biggest slush fund in the state. I think there has always been enough to pay the public employees. Now it goes up more Teachers now soon we hear bitchn about firemen pay. Let’s keep going. Is the sky the limit? Tell thr govenor to loosen the purse strings to pay all s reasonable wage. But the school administrators do not need a DR on their title to double or triple pay. Good grief.
As Democrats in South Dakota, we use to be the Party of George McGovern and the Party in favor of a progressive tax system for South Dakotans.
Overtime, however, we have become a political party that has sent some to Washington to support measures like Kemp-Roth, bankruptcy reform without credit card reform, the Iraq War, the Bush tax credits and to oppose Obamacare (in one instance). Even going so far as to try to run past Republicans as Democrats, and chiding one Democrat that they are not Democratic enough in Washington even though those who alleged such charges were the ones who supported the aforementioned Republican legislative victories of supply-side economics and unjust wars; and now apparently we send Democrats to Pierre to support regressive tax systems.
In recent years some within the South Dakota Democratic Party have told us “To Take it back,” but today we gave it back. Back to the wealth class in South Dakota as the South Dakota Democratic Party did not do enough to offer a just alternative to the Republican plan in Pierre to enhance teacher pay for South Dakota teachers, rather they became the water boy to the Republican Party and its agenda to protect some at the expense of the many and they gave the wealth class greater confidence in holding on to their regressive tax system and the state’s dependency upon it.
Yes, teachers do deserve more pay, but South Dakotans also deserve a two party system. When Democrats capitulate to Republicans in South Dakota on education or any major issue, they fail their duty as a major party and in this case they failed the poor and the working poor in our duty to protect their economic interests, in turn.
Some will claim the poor and working poor are better off now because of higher teacher pay opportunities in the state from this measure – a trickle-down theory which will uplift the lower classes do to a better educational experience spurned from the positive attributes of more, better, and longer tenured teachers through higher teacher pay. It is actually a trickle-down theory I subscribe too, but the ends no not always justify the means when the mean used was not the only route nor the most just route. This year in Pierre, the Republicans could have never solved this crisis without the help of the Democratic Party, but instead of taking the GOP to the ropes on this matter Democrats chose to be the water boy for the GOP and the wealth class and decided to give instead of taking it back…..
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It seems more sales tax unfairly affects struggling families. There’s more costly social services and crime when there’s desperation. At some point more sales tax costs more than income generated. There’s got to be a better way. I suggest a higher tax on new car sales. Oh boy, Billion’s gonna hire lobbyists but then there’s more jobs.
A bright side is there’s no tax on robbing State Lottery Casinos. It’s a part time job for teachers.