South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Daugaard

Daugaard Socialized Healthcare

Make us proud Gov’nor! (H/T – Helga)

l3wis 4Comments

Love all the national attention Denny is getting us on his (non) ideas for Medicaid expansion;

South Dakota is among the “hell no” states when it comes to Obamacare. No state-established insurance exchange and surely no Medicaid expansion. They don’t want no stinking federal aid to help more people have health insurance. To be clear, though, that’s the legislature and the governor talking. Not the people.

Despite a poll showing a majority of South Dakotans favor Medicaid expansion, Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s office said Wednesday he has no plans to introduce legislation to expand health care in the state.In a survey released earlier this week by the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, 63 percent of 400 state residents favored Medicaid expansion while 31 percent opposed it.

The others polled had no opinion. Republican pollster Glen Bolger conducted the poll for Alexandria, Va.-based research firm Public Opinion Strategies. The poll’s margin of error is 4.9 percent.

Yes, that’s a small sample size, but it’s still a pretty astounding result in such a conservative state. But South Dakota has about 48,000 people who are uninsured, also quite a lot for a small state. Medicaid expansion would save about 25,000 from falling through the Medicaid gap their governor has created, and bring about $57 million to the state this year.

Oh, but wait, no-bid contracts to foster care programs in the state that adopt kids into abusive homes? That seems to be a good way to spend taxpayer money. Right? But that controversy seems to be suffering the same fate as Benda’s autopsy report. CLOSED CASE.
Daugaard Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether

Mayor Huether, “We get Sh*t done!”

l3wis 2Comments

Had to chuckle at this blog post by an outsider doing business in South Dakota;

On the city website, he is referred to as “Mayor Mike.” With a background in marketing, Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether is none too shy about calling attention to his city.

“We should make the top two or three with every project you have,” he unabashedly told the assembled site selection consultants.

My experience is that a company will often have pretty good ideas on where it needs to be, as was exemplified by an email that I received from a CEO on Friday. My job, of course, is to refine those ideas and then find the best place, based on a whole lot of tailored criteria, where the risks are minimized and the chances for success are optimized.

I’m sorry to report to Hizzoner that Sioux Falls will not always make the finalist list. There are certain practicalities specific to a project that will simply prevent that from happening. I know it’s hard to imagine, Mr. Mayor, but sometimes your city will not be the best fit.

But I do believe the mayor, truly I do, when he passionately states that red tape doesn’t stand much of a chance in his city, with expedited permitting guaranteed. “We get shit done,” he said.

I only wish there were more like him.

Said Matt Healy, operations manager with Glanbia Nutritionals, now building a cereal ingredient processing plant in Sioux Falls: “The city and the state have been remarkably supportive. They have been exactly who they said they were.”

Yes, Mr. Barber, the city and state are very acommodating to ‘business’ but when it comes to their workers, they tax their food and pay them low wages. The unemployment rate in SD is low, because people here have to have multiple jobs to make ends meet. Funny how our mayor will pull no stops when it comes to ‘red tape’ for businesses, but when it comes to it’s residents he will threaten to haul your ass to the pokey for having grass that is 9″ high.

Darrin Smith Daugaard Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

Did Mayor Mike try to ‘Huether’ the Governor’s Economic Development (ED) office?

l3wis 23Comments

Don’t mess with the ‘Wizard’ of Sioux Falls (reader submission)

After knocking a few cans over, I finally got the torrid details of the pissing match that is going on between the mayor and the governor’s economic development office.

I must remind you that these events are ‘rumored‘ to have occurred, by an anonymous, reliable source. I have had two other people verify the events as I am laying them out.

It all started with a lunch meeting the governor’s economic development office was having with a company interested in moving to Sioux Falls. Now this isn’t your normal, run of the mill, strip mall retail center, this is a research facility that wants to spend about $60-$80 Million building a facility in Sioux Falls. Also in attendance at the lunch was an ED rep from the city, and MMM.

Huether seemed to be confused as to why there wasn’t an ‘executive’ from the company at the lunch. The governor’s ED office informed Mike, during the meeting, that the Governor has already had ‘several meetings’ with the company in the past few months.

Mike was not happy (a temper tantrum ensued), and Mike left the meeting.

Mike then instructed his ED office to stop working with the Governor’s ED office representatives, and went as far to tell the governor’s ED office to ‘reassign’ certain reps.

Would have loved to hear the laughter in the Governor’s office after that request.

As I understand it, the Governor’s ED office reps are very good at their jobs, they also dot their ‘I’s and cross their ‘T’s. They probably also don’t care who gets credit for this, though preferably, they would prefer their boss to get the credit, since it seems the governor’s office seems to be the one doing all the legwork on this project.

It seems MMM is a little bent out of shape, because the governor’s office is stealing his thunder on this project. What is unfortunate is that Mike could screw this whole thing up because of his ‘ego’ problem.

The company is close to making a decision. They also admitted that 60% of the jobs they already provide are already from this region (I believe they are an Iowa company that is in the region) But have vowed to of course fill the remainder of the jobs from this region also. The main reason they want to move to Sioux Falls is they plan expansion, and they know they can only do it in Sioux Falls. They will also provide good wages, remember, as I understand it, this is a research facility, not a Walmart.

*As I noted, this comes from a very reliable source, but this is all second-hand accounts of the events.

Daugaard

Another Republican SD Governor thumbing his nose at voters

l3wis 12Comments

Remember the abortion issue? Voters have said TWICE we are a pro-choice state. What does the legislature and governor do? Pass more laws to restrict abortion. Now we have incentives for businesses going down at the polls;

During the general election in November, South Dakotans voted down a measure that provided a large-project incentive for large businesses interested in coming to South Dakota.

So what does the governor think of the voter’s wishes?

Governor Daugaard says he would welcome new ideas from the legislature to give companies incentives to bring their businesses to the state.

“I know there is still a concern about this tax and about the adequacy of our state’s economic development programs.  And I welcome a discussion with the legislature this year about how we should move forward. I need your help and your ideas,”

NO. You are concerned about your corporate buddies. The voters of this state are NOT. We told you that in November. Why are we not concerned? Because this state has oodles of incentives for business to relocate here. TIF’s, high productivity, low wages, NO state income tax, low crime, etc, etc. We do not need to give cash incentives to businesses that are not paying income taxes.

Daugaard did say the state’s economy is doing much better than many other states across the country. He said while others are looking for places to cut money from budgets, South Dakota can now look at where to spend.

Good. Spend it where we can get the most bang for our buck; Public education, enough with the corporate welfare.

Daugaard Mike Huether

Interesting polling on Mike Huether for Governor

l3wis 27Comments

A South DaCola foot soldier told me they got a poll call the other day (couldn’t remember the polling company). But the caller asked various questions about state issues then asked,

“Who would you vote for in the governor’s race if it was Daugaard VS. Huether?”

Not sure who paid for this poll, but I do think Huether is exploring the governor’s race. Like I have said in the past, he can transfer any of his mayoral campaign funds into a governor race fund.

Drop me a line if any of you have more info on this.

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