State Legislature
Why are SD Banks coming after the Credit Unions?
The credit union national organization is in a regulatory battle with the American Bankers Association with South Dakota the battlefield.
Credit unions make the bankers look bad and the ABA wants to crush them every way they can. There are many credit union misunderstandings. Credit unions are member owned cooperatives. By being member owned cooperatives they are designed to only have their members best interests as their primary mission. Lower loan rates, member community first. We used to have member owned credit union co-ops as part of many businesses and government departments. As time has gone on, the little credit unions have consolidated and became open ‘community’ credit unions, serving a larger cross section of the locality they are based. Remember the Bell Credit Union? How about the Morrell Credit Union? Air Guard, All American, and so many more. All of these have changed their missions or names as their associated companies or offices changed hands over the years.
Talk to a credit union member, you will see why they are for the most part a happier bunch. When you go into your credit union, you will often see the same faces you have seen for years. Stability in policy and function. Try to get this at your multi-national mega bank. So back to the battle, if you can’t beat the credit union on the PR front, kill the little buggers with state regulations and taxes.
In the South Dakota legislature this year is a movement to strip the non-profit / cooperative credit unions of their tax exempt status. The NCUA and ABA have been fighting for their versions of model legislation in the land of ALEC.
READ the plea letter here:Â Credit Union 2014
SF City Council candidate Steele doesn’t believe in evolution (H/T – Helga)
I didn’t come from some damn monkey, that’s just bananas;
ALEC, guns, cold medicine and cell phones
I’m not making Meth, though it would probably make me feel a lot better now.
It is no secret our State Legislature wastes a lot of time on pointless bills, and they are at it again.
They want to put you in a private database for the pharma companies to track sales of cold medicine, which in no way stops meth production (you can make meth from several substances besides cold medicine).
Secondly, they want a statewide ban on texting, which is not needed, because distracted driving laws already cover texting and driving recklessly.
This is all a distraction. Why? First of all, our state legislature doesn’t have a clue, that is why they go running to daddy (ALEC) anytime they need legislation. They even go as far as defending the very organization that is funded by big pharma (the ones that want the database) saying they ‘teach’ legislators (more like brainwash).
Why not have a bill that requires all handgun owners be registered on a public website? Wouldn’t you like to know if your neighbor had a handgun? And the numbers don’t lie, handguns in our country kill more people then any other country in the world. If we are worried about texting and meth production, shouldn’t we be worried about people who carry dangerous weapons?
Oh, I know the argument, not every one that carries a handgun is dangerous. Couldn’t agree more. Just like everyone who texts doesn’t do it while driving and everyone who buys cold medicine isn’t making meth.
Double standard if you ask me. But big Pharma could care less about gun ownership.
The legislature needs to focus on more important things that actually make our state better, like bringing in living wage jobs, ending the food tax and funding education properly.
It’s time that Pierre pulled ALEC out of their asses and did the work of the people.
No Medicaid for You! Work Harder!
The poll, conducted by Virginia-based political and public affairs research firm Public Opinion Strategies, asked 400 South Dakota residents a series of questions related to the state’s Medicaid program and found 63 percent of them favored the expansion.
The poll was good news to supporters of Medicaid expansion. Megan Myers, the Cancer Action Network’s grassroots manager, said expanding Medicaid would help some of the 48,000 South Dakotans who don’t have health insurance receive preventive care.
And what is our governor’s response on his resistance;
Gov. Dennis Daugaard has been unwilling to expand Medicaid since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision in the Affordable Care Act that would have forced states to expand their programs, and despite the federal government’s promise to cover the vast majority of the costs, especially in the initial years.
Daugaard’s office declined to comment on the poll.
Denny has said in the past the able-bodied working folk should be able to afford their own healthcare. What Denny fails to tell us is that many ‘working folk’ in our state can’t afford food let alone healthcare, and the Republican lawmakers in DC are not helping matters by blocking single-payer initially in the ACA and recently cutting SNAP programs.
So what is Denny telling the working poor that can’t afford private insurance or even to feed their families? WORK HARDER or I’ll be forced again to blow a cool million at one staffing agency to recruit a handful of welders for a single trailer building company in Mitchell.