This stuff is starting to sound like a broken record

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Another example of nepotism and golden parachutes for Repugs in our state;

Former Gov. Mike Rounds has been named to the board of directors of a company that plans to build a multibillion-dollar network of transmission power lines across the Dakotas – a job that will pay him $75,000 next year, plus that amount in stocks.

While it’s not unusual that a former politician such as a governor would be named to the board of directors of a private company after leaving office, this appointment has raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest.

That’s because ITC Holdings of Novi, Mich. – the company for which Rounds now works – eventually will need its project to be approved by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, where most employees are carryovers from the Rounds administration. That includes analyst Brian Rounds, son of the former governor.

I read about half the story, and got tired of reading all the f’ing excuses and didn’t finish. Kinda reminded me of Chico from SDSU sitting on the board for Monsanto. While it is clear there is a conflict of interest, doubt anything will be done about it, as usual. ITC isn’t that bad of a company after all, they support green energy. Wonder if Rounds knows that? But like a typical Repug in our state, all he cares about is if the check is good.

Rounds; It’s okay to fund the arts as long as Obama pays for it

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We love the arts in South Dakota! We also love Federal Pork!

It seems our culturally retarded governor had a change of heart;

“I have directed my staff to work with legislators on a plan to try and reinstate funding for the arts office, based upon the fact that the stimulus package has been signed by the president, and it may free up some state funds for the arts,” Rounds said during the Governor’s Awards for the Arts event in Pierre.

“Because I just couldn’t bare to take money from no-bid tourism contracts that actually lost the state $3 million last year, I mean, gee whiz, these are my campaign contributors.”

“The revised budget that would eliminate all state funding for the state arts agency stunned South Dakota’s arts community,” Boyd said Wednesday.

Trust me, this has nothing to do with King Rounds having a change of heart. He saw Washington cutting checks for stuff and saw an opportunity – plain and simple. If the FEDS would not have put arts funding into the stimulus, Mikey would have still cut the arts.

SD education funding three ring circus

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Once again Mike Rounds refuses to cut his do nothing-big government programs in Pierre to help fund education;

Democrats have said they want to cut elsewhere in state government to find money for aid to schools. Senate Democratic Leader Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls said state government in previous years has forced agencies to cut spending by a certain percentage, and that approach could work again.

“It’s so simple it’s amazing to me,” Heidepriem said, adding that he doesn’t believe the Republican governor is willing to control the size of state government.

It doesn’t surprise me one bit. Even when the economy was good, Rounds refused to properly fund education, now he has an excuse and he is going to run with it.

While more than 90 percent of Democrats said they wanted to boost state aid to schools by more than the 3 percent recommended by Rounds, only about a quarter of Republicans said they believed state aid should increase by more than that.

Even if the legislature gets a super-majority to be veto proof on an education bill (which I don’t see) Rounds will still find a way to overstep the legislators, just like he did with the blender pump tax and laptops (how did that work out for yah, Mike). He simply doesn’t like to be told what to do. This will be a true test for the legislators. Will the typical Republican cheerleaders like Krebs cave to their favorite state Republican? Will the Dems do more then mouth off to the media and internets about how much of a brat Mike is? (seriously, that’s my job, not yours.)

It’s time to show Rounds that he has been extremely ineffective as a governor and quite possibly, unethical (another thing legislators are too chicken-shit to do something about).

POVERTY HAS AN EFFECT ON EDUCATION FUNDING

One has to wonder though, maybe education funding is sufficient in South Dakota. Student test scores are always pretty decent, but high school dropout rates are high. One reason may be the growing problem of poverty in our state.

A couple weeks back a SF School district representative gave a presentation to the city council about poverty in Sioux Falls. Some scary stuff, here are a few highlights.

– 40% of caucasion children in the SF school district are on FREE or reduced lunches, and that number is as high as 75% in minority community.

– Supt. Dr. Homan doesn’t like to have late starts with bad weather because she wants to make sure these kids get something to eat for breakfast.

Some of the other numbers are hard to swallow to. A lot of these kids also have little winter clothing to wear, and often go hungry on the weekends. The amazing part about it is, it is not discussed much by our local or statewide politicians, it is kind of a ‘silent problem’. After the presentation, one councilor even had this to say, “Thank you for the presentation, but what is this council supposed to do with this information?” And maybe this is the problem. I think politicians think if at least 51% of people in the community are doing OKAY, we can ignore the minority. I find it ironic that Sioux Falls spends more per year on mowing an acre of parkland then they do educating a child. Who knew grass was more important than a decent education? Nice priorities, Huh? I also wonder how much money in education funding is going towards feeding, counseling and healthcare for some of these kids? Something that parents should be responsible for, that is, if they can afford it. The problem isn’t just funding education properly, it is also about creating a business atmosphere in SD that creates more living wage jobs. Government can’t create higher paying jobs, but they can help attract those kinds of businesses. Just imagine if we spent half the money we do on tourism for business development, what kind of impact that would have on the state? (of course than Lawrence and Schiller would have to go out and find real clients).

It’s time for our legislators (it’s too late for the governor) to realize the root problem of education funding – Poverty and low wages.