This is one way to get the money we need.

Once again legislators are punishing the poor and thrifty by suggesting we raise registration fees JUST on the people who can afford it the least; people who drive older cars.

People who own older cars could end up paying more to license them if a group of state lawmakers has its way.

A bill that will be introduced in the next legislative session would require owners of older cars to pay the same fees applied to newer cars. Currently, the owners of any noncommercial vehicle more than five years old pay 70 percent of the original licensing fee.

Depending on a car’s weight, it would cost owners $9 to $19.50 a year in additional licensing fees.

Representative Shantel ‘Al Bundy’ Krebs is leading the fight. Yeah, because shoe sales(wo)men have the best ideas.

Licensing fees for trucks and cars are based on their weight. The heavier the vehicle, the more it costs to license, because heavier vehicles exact a greater toll of wear and tear on highways and roads.

Eliminating the discounts for older vehicles would generate an extra $12 million a year that counties could use to build and maintain roads, said Rep. Shantel Krebs, R-Sioux Falls. Krebs is one of the lawmakers supporting the measure.

Eliminating the discount for older cars makes sense, Krebs said.

Maybe in your bad math, help the priviledged more, mentality.

First off the fee is unfair as it currently stands. If you own a vehicle that is 2,000 pounds and 4 years old your fee is $30 but if you own a vehicle that is 10,000 pounds your fee is $65. Shouldn’t it be $150 if we are truly taxing by weight?

BUT LET’s TRAVEL TO COMMON SENSE LAND FOR JUST A MOMENT(I know this will be hard for my Big Government Republican readers, but please bare with me.)

I think the best solution is to hope for Federal dollars from Obama’s stimulus package. The second solution would be making cuts, cuts, cuts to Rounds Kingdom in Pierre.

But if we still need the money I suggest we fix the weight-to-fee issue as it currently stands. Tax accordingly to the weight (which we are not currently doing).

Charge a retail luxury tax on on personal vehicles over $60,000. If you can afford the vehicle you can afford the tax, and more then likely finance the taxes due in your payments.

If all else fails, we can have a rate increase, but it should be across the board keeping the discounts in place. People who drive older vehicles probably drive less. If they can’t afford a new vehicle, they probably have trouble putting gas in the vehicle they currently have.

Taxing the poor more is a stupid idea, in these economic times, but if we must truly raise fees, make it fair. Once again it proves our legislators are short on progressive ideas. Whadda yah expect?Thirty years of secretive, regressive Republican rule will do that to a state.

Woster writes an article on competitive bids;

South Dakota’s state government has hundreds of active contracts worth millions of dollars for professional services ranging from legal work to health care to advertising, and most are provided by private sector businesses and individuals who are awarded the jobs without going through a competitive bid process.

There are 1,800 of these contracts currently active and on file with the South Dakota auditor. But nobody — including Gov. Mike Rounds, his budget director Jason Dilges or contract manager Rob Swanson in the auditor’s office — knows exactly how many of the 1,800 were awarded without bids or competitive proposal.

Mike just can’t figure out where we could make cuts in the state budget?

“I think it’s very important that we learn the nature of all these contracts,” Senate Democratic leader Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls said. “The taxpayers have a right to know how their dollars are spent. If there’s a good reason to avoid requests for competitive proposals, then say so. Then the taxpayers will either agree with you, or they won’t.”

I think it’s time Scott and other Democrats and Republicans who actually care how our tax money is being spent give Mike a good thumping and don’t let him spin them in a corner.

“Look, it’s your money,” said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago-based Better Government Association. “If they don’t know how it’s being spent, does that give you confidence? At a bare minimum, it’s reasonable to expect our public servants to know where the money went.”

Mike knows exactly where it went - scratching backs.

“Gosh, this is just way too secretive,” Heidepriem said. “It’s clearly simpler for the governor’s office to operate that way, and it allows them to favor who they want with taxpayers’ dollars.”

I truly believe that Scott wants to fix the system - but we had known for years how Rounds operates his office, in a cloak of secrecy. I think it has gotten so bad that the only solution is impeachment. You can slap his hands with a ruler all you want, but once a spoiled brat - always a spoiled brat.

Woster also touches on the ‘amazing job’ Louser and Shister does for the SD tourism department;

The 32-year-old agency currently holds exclusive contracts with the South Dakota Department of Tourism and State Development worth more than $7 million. And since Gov. Mike Rounds took office in January of 2003, Lawrence & Schiller has been awarded more than $23 million in state contracts, most with tourism, and virtually all without competitive bids or alternative proposals from other firms.

During that time, Rounds received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Lawrence & Schiller officials, something that critics say poses ethical issues that need to be addressed in state law.

“I would hope pay-to-play is not taking place here,” said state government reform activist Lee Breard of Pierre. “But I will let the taxpayers of South Dakota draw their own conclusions.”

Nah . . . Mike would never ‘repay’ his campaign contributors, that is above him to use state resources for his own benefit (choke, cough, spit). All aboard Rounds Airlines!

Okay, so we raise taxes to build new roads on the outskirts of town that only benefit new development, then borrow against bonds to maintain infrastructure and then cross our fingers and hope the feds pay us back, without interest.

The city can prepay the U.S. government’s remaining share of the cost at $24.7 million and Congress will reimburse it.

Um, wouldn’t you wait until the check cleared the bank before we started these projects? I’m beginning to think that Eugene ‘Montgomery Burns’ Rowenhorst and Mayor Minions are trying to shove as many projects through as possible before they jump ship and leave an empty galley to the next administration.

Bonding is like a long-term mortgage, Beninga said. The CIP, which comes from the second-penny sales tax, typically is a one-time-only expense with no interest cost to the project. With a bond, interest would be added to the bridge project’s cost.

“We have lots of other issues that we’re going to have to address in the future, and I would prefer that we keep our bonding indebtedness as low as possible,” he said.

Munson doesn’t care, he’s done in 16 months.

There should be laws against this recklessness.

All of sudden, Mikey becomes Mr. Glass half empty;

PIERRE, S.D. - Gov. Mike Rounds says next year will bring the “worst budget scenario that we have seen,” and he doubts there will be much of an increase in state funding of schools.

But Bill Thompson is ready to set him straight,

Democratic state Rep. Bill Thompson of Sioux Falls, who is on the House education committee, said education is an investment.

“In the House, there are too many people who see education as an expense, and that’s the basic philosophical difference,” he said.

It would make no sense for Rounds to cut education even if the budget is tight, according to Thompson, a retired teacher.

“My question to the governor would be, ‘Is education your No. 1 priority?’ It should be, in terms of economic development and in terms of how much of the state budget that goes toward education,” he said. “Education is not frosting; it’s absolutely crucial and should be the last area for where we look in terms of cuts.”

I’m gonna say it, it is time for the minority Democrats to grow a sack and go after this Governor like pitbulls, without lipstick. Bill has a good start, and he is respected enough to take the bull by the horns.

I see legislators are finally listening to Detroit for once.

They have come up with some good ideas to help fund road maintenance in our state;

That the excise tax charged on registration of vehicles be raised from 3 percent of the purchase price to 4 percent. That would raise about $19 million dollars, which would go to the state highway fund.

Raising the cost of license-plate fees for noncommercial vehicles by an average of $10. For a typical passenger car or pickup, that would bump the fee from about $42 to $52 and would raise about $12 million, which would go to counties.

Eliminating a provision that gives a 30 percent license-plate fee reduction for noncommercial vehicles older than five years and a 10 percent break for older commercial vehicles. Those two changes would raise about $13 million, which would go to counties for road work.