Get your advocacy on!
l3wis 
State Legislature
The SD GOP, what a funny bunch
Gotta love Lucas and his COMPLETE HORSE PUCKY TALKING POINTS;
The talk from Democrats about wanting to instill “responsible spending” in Pierre has not gone over well with many Republicans. Lucas Lentsch, the GOP’s executive director, has denounced it as a “phony” plan indistinguishable from Heidepriem’s stump speech for governor.
“It’s one thing to talk about being fiscally conservative and it’s another to have a track record of that,” Lentsch said.
Republicans in the Legislature are doing the “heavy lifting” right now by looking for cuts while Democrats, the minority party, are “throwing stones in the road.”
Lentsch said Democrats last year complained the state wasn’t spending enough. Before the budget crash last year, Democrats wanted to divert more interest earnings from state trust funds to K-12 education.
Lucas, your statement makes you look like a horse’s ass! Seriously, dude! Who has ran this state and Pierre for the last 8 years? Your party! You realize you are a Republican, right? The only track record you have had is running this state into the ground. Come to grips amigo! Keep blaming Obama for your problems, eventually people will wake up, scoop up your crap and throw it back in your face.
Vernon Brown must be living in a different city then the one I live in
As president of the SD Municipal league Vernon is promoting the silly 1 cent sales tax increase city option. He had this to say about it on his website;
South Dakota Municipal League will be asking lawmakers for a major philosophical shift: a temporary sales tax option for special projects. The League’s success in unlocking the state’s financial handcuffs on cities will largely come from the effectiveness of your community’s story. In this case, the smaller the town, the bigger the impact will be, especially when it comes to necessary infrastructure. Here are a few things to consider as you develop your local story:
Handcuffs? Besides last year, the city of SF has enjoyed RECORD sales tax revenue. With that much money coming in you would think we would be driving on streets of gold. It is estimated that in just 7 years the city has spent over $100 million on ‘quality of life’ projects. Or as I like to call them ‘wants’. If city leaders would have been a little wiser over those 7 years we could have put millions in the bank to pay for things like an events center, but instead the city engaged in reckless spending, and now they want to continue their spend fest by increasing taxes. I have often commented that people are not against an Events Center, they just want the city to spend within their means and show some fiscal restraint, especially with a project of this magnitude. I hope the 1 cent sales tax increase has a fast death in Pierre.
Councilor Staggers says the solution to building a new events center is simple, don’t do it by increasing taxes;
No increase in the city sales tax. Most City Council members want to raise the sales tax in Sioux Falls to 7% for an events center. This tax increase would take an additional $50 million out of the pockets of citizens and give it to the city government to spend. The citizens would have less money to spend at a time when economists are calling for consumers to spend more money in order to get the economy out of recession. Furthermore, since the sales tax is a very regressive tax, any increase in the sales tax would further impoverish the poor and low income families in the midst of a recession.
No increases in taxes and no annual operating subsidy for a new events center.Common sense and fairness dictate that a new events center should be paid for by those people who use it. Likewise, if you do not use the facility, you should not pay for it. A new events center should only be supported if there are no increases in taxes and no annual operating subsidy.
He also comments on what our current taxes should be paying for;
Increase spending on city streets and highways. The city is playing catch up in its street maintenance program. The city’s promise of the 1980s that the second penny sales tax would be used for streets must be reaffirmed and honored. This means more of the second penny sales tax must be spent on streets and highways.
Budget – Smudget. Let’s talk semantics.
While there will be a lot of discussion about what should be done with the budget in the state legislature this year, I found the contrasting articles about it even more interesting.
Senate Democratic Leader Scott Heidepriem said he believes overall state spending should be limited to the rate of inflation up to a maximum of 3 percent each year, the same limit imposed on school districts. If that had happened during the seven years Rounds has been governor, the state would have saved more than $500 million, he said.
Heidepriem and House Democratic Leader Bernie Hunhoff of Yankton also said the state should reduce its work force over the next four years to 2003 levels. The work force has grown by the equivalent of 1,500 full-time jobs since Rounds took office seven years ago, they said.
Heidepriem said a preliminary analysis indicates as many as 600 positions in state government are vacant, so funding could be cut for those jobs.
“We need to change the way we do business in South Dakota government,” Heidepriem said.
Democrats have their own ideas, and Rep. Bernie Hunhoff of Yankton called for a “leap of faith” in changing the way state government works.
“That’s where we’re at in state government,” said Hunhoff, the House minority leader. “Change is a word we use too often, but change is what we need.”
The state has enough money to balance the next budget and perhaps enough for the next year’s, Hunhoff said. But in the future, South Dakota needs a fundamental shift in how it operates.
Democrats have called for a 3 percent cap on the annual growth in state general fund spending. They also say they might introduce legislation that would allow the state to spend only 98 percent of its anticipated revenues, a move that would help eliminate yearly deficits.
Who do you think did a better job of explaining the Dems plan?
Mike Rounds the ‘do nothing governor’ will try to end his last term in style
By leaving the budget problems to the next governor and legislature. Stay classy Mike;
Rounds has proposed using $32 million in reserve funds to balance the state budget for the year beginning July 1. But the governor has also told lawmakers that the gap between ongoing revenue and spending could grow to more than $100 million in the following year, which begins in July 2011.
That projected budget gap would exceed the remaining reserves. Legislative leaders say any cuts made in the next budget will make the following year’s budget problems easier to solve.
This does not surprise me. The only thing Mike has done during his two terms is reward himself and his friends. But who can blame him? I blame the citizens of SD for #1, re-electing the jackass, #2, allowing him to get away with it #3 allowing the legislators to allow him to get away with it.
Apathy is to blame for our economic struggles, statewide and nationwide.