The reforms include:
Capping state spending at 3 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, something Heidepriem has long pushed for in Pierre. Â Heidepriem contends that South Dakota cannot sustain its current average growth of 5.5 percent over the past eight years.
The implementation of across the board cuts in every agency and department of state government. Â The extent of the cuts will be predicated on the depth of the financial hole the state faces.
Cutting state full-time employee growth dramatically to levels South Dakota had prior to the Rounds\Daugaard Administration. Â Heidepriem notes that the current Administration has added approximately 1,500 new state employees during the eight years of the Rounds\Daugaard Administration even though the state’s population has remained relatively static.
Create smaller state government with the consolidation of State Departments particularly combining the offices of State Treasurer and the Commissioner of School and Public Lands. Heidepriem contends that it may have made sense in 1889, the year South Dakota became a state, to have two separate offices
for these functions but with modern technology, the functions of the two offices can easily be consolidated.
Eliminate the practice of the State granting millions of dollars in “no-bid†contracts which stifle competition and create a culture of cronyism in which State contracts too often are awarded to political friends potentially at inflated amounts of state tax dollars.
End the practice of “Pay to Play†in which South Dakota’s top political appointments turn around and contribute significant campaign funds to South Dakota’s Governor and Lt. Governor.
Undertake a complete audit of State Government with the goal of eliminating frivolous and unneeded State spending.  As a couple of examples of this wasteful spending, Heidepriem notes that the state does not need 10 airplanes and he intends to sell all but the absolute essential planes.  He also will eliminate the $200,000 a year federal lobbyists – a position Heidepriem considers “already filled†by South Dakota’s Congressional Delegation of Senators Tim Johnson and John Thune and Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.
Eliminate the controversial and secret “Governor’s Fund†which is nothing more than a hushed political slush fund that opens the door to undue influence over the Governor with no public accountability.
Implement Regulatory Authority Reform making it illegal for departments like the Public Utilities Commission to raise funds from the very companies they regulate in order to finance PUC conventions and workshops.
“These reforms are extensive and long overdue.  They will put South Dakota’s economy on a strong footing and will restore confidence with the people of South Dakota that their government is fiscally sound and responsible while it is more open and honest in the way it does business,†Heidepriem said.
Ending pay to play and having too many FTE’s would save us millions.
