South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Minnehaha County

Food Food Stamps food tax Minnehaha County

A Shocking 48% increase in Food Stamp usage in Minnehaha County in one year

l3wis 9Comments

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For those who think Sioux Falls is sheltered from the recession, check out these numbers (Bread for the World)

• SD food stamp enrollment saw an incredible one-year increase from Sept.’08 to Sept.’09: 34% !!

Food stamps traditionally go up and down with the economy. But no one envisioned such a huge one-year increase.

(The Food Stamp program is now called SNAP.)
Find the data for your county here:
http://dss.sd.gov/foodstamps/data/foodstampdatapast/index.asp

Minnehaha County residents will be completely shocked by their 48% increase.

Let your local Social Services workers know you appreciate them. They are working hard.

One more note: Even if you include up to 4,000 households using commodities rather than food stamps (option available on reservations), there are still thousands of eligible low-income households NOT signed up for food stamps, easily 15,000 to 20,000 or more. The state should campaign for them to sign up. (It’s all federal funds.)


• Food tax refunds’ dismal reach: less than 1% of SD’s low-income population.

Only 630 households in the whole state are receiving the quarterly food tax refunds. Make sure your local media report this.

Why is it important?

• People pay a lot of money for the tax. Every year the money families pay in food tax would cover meals for 3 weeks.

• There is a movement afoot to raise sales tax for new city projects, even tho’ cities have other ways to raise funds. In an attempt to make this palatable, the draft of the state legislation says cities may refund the new tax to their low-income residents. So far, there is no effective way to do refunds. Such refund programs are inherently ineffective. People need to know, so they don’t think this option would solve the problem of a higher sales tax, and the resulting higher the cost of living.

Cartoon Homeless Minnehaha County SF City Council Sioux Falls

More inaction from the Munson administration

l3wis 9Comments

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Munson didn’t include the homeless shelter in the 2010 budget;

“This is a huge decision to go it alone,” County Commissioner Carol Twedt said. “We were always under the hope we would have a partner in the city. But we don’t, so we are going to be brave and do the right thing.”

I would support the city’s inaction if 1) The city and county weren’t saving $400,000 a year in emergency services by having this program 2) the city wasn’t spending money on silly ‘Quality of Life’ projects that we don’t need. It seems Munson ducked controversy once again just by doing NOTHING. Pathetic.

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County Commission Minnehaha County Pam Nelson

What has treasurer Nelson been saying for months?

l3wis 0Comments

That the state is freaking inept when it comes to license renewels and when are our mostly Republican county commissioners gonna fess up? Apparently never.

Statewide, about 50,000 renewal notices went out without information about the $1 per vehicle postage fee. About 11,000 Minnehaha County residents got notices for 21,000 vehicles.

Okay, we are talking about $21,000 or maybe more. So are county commissioners enraged over this lost revenue? Nope. Are they stomping around the state offices telling them how to do there job? Nope. So what are they doing?

“Why don’t we be the good guy and just eat it?” Twedt asked fellow commissioners.

Yeah, why not? We don’t have a problem with belittling Pam Nelson behind her back in commission meetings for something that isn’t her fault, but when the state really screws up, we just say, “Oh Well.”

Talk about gutless. But this isn’t the first time the state flubbed;

Nelson added that the state DMV contributed to longer lines in June, as well. Renewals sent out then referred to 50-cent or $1 dollar postage fees in a confusing enough manner to convince some people to come to the treasurer’s office and pay in person, she said.

“Oh, but hey, the state doesn’t make mistakes, it is all Pam’s fault, remember, she just needs to learn how to manage her lines” – Give me a break.

Hillmer promises the next series of renewal notices will be correct and clear.

“Definitely. I will make sure I look at them myself before they go out,” she said.

You should have looked at the first round. Are you so busy you don’t have time to proof read a couple of paragraphs? I have often thought the best way to solve this problem and reduce lines would be if renewal customers were sent a postage paid envelope AND just add an extra $1.00 to everyone’s renewel right off the bat so the postage and handling is covered. But of course, that makes sense, and that does not fly in Pierre.

“We had a perfectly good system working,” Nelson says of the license renewal procedure before the present one was adopted 13 months ago, “and now we’ve got one problem after another.”

I don’t think anyone is listening to you Pam. Maybe you should change your registration to Republican, wait, you are too smart for that party, nevermind.

Minnehaha County

Just when you thought the Minnehaha County Commissioners couldn’t be more petty

l3wis 4Comments

They prove us all wrong. Now they are in a pissing match about ‘Letterhead’. Yup, you heard right, they are griping about the use of a piece of paper;

Four commissioners complained to Chairman John Pekas he should not have used commission letterhead to write to Circuit Court Judge Bradley Zell. Commissioners say the letter undercut their own request to Zell that Gourley receive a prison term when he sentences her Monday.

Yeah, John! What do you think? That you are county commissioner or something? Wait?

Commissioner Anne Hajek noted that she and Pekas are lawyers, and she is a member of the state bar association ethics committee. It’s that committee’s position, she said, “when you use letterhead, you’re speaking for the whole organization.”

But Anne, this isn’t the SD Bar Association, it is the chickenshit county commission. You know, there is a difference. One is a club the other is an elected position. There is a HUGE difference. Though I don’t think much of Pekas, I do back him on this one. As a county commissioner he has the right to use CC letterhead, get over it.

Pekas told fellow commissioners Tuesday that while Gourley has pleaded guilty to embezzlement, an investigation is ongoing and more information about the case might be forthcoming. He reiterated that under those conditions he would not presume to tell the judge he should sentence Gourley to prison.

I am kind of on the fence about this. On one hand, she is a crook, and should sit in a cell, but on the other hand, as John points out, there is probably more people involved, how couldn’t there be? Secondly instead Gourley costing us more money by putting her in jail, I suggest 10 years of house arrest with work release. And I suggest that we garnish 75% of her wages until she has paid us back. Let the family that enabled her to commit this crime by pretending they didn’t know where the money was coming from figure out how she is going to eat.

Minnehaha County Pam Nelson

HELP WANTED: County Commissioners w/o EGO’s

l3wis 0Comments

This story is further proof that most of our county politicians are inept whiny babies that couldn’t manage to get themselves out of a wet paper bag let alone manage a county;

Figuring out how to adequately serve a growing community is tough enough without the bickering that’s going on between these two sides.

Lines at the Minnehaha County Administration Building have resurfaced, and it’s clear the commission and treasurer need a better staffing plan.

Residents are the ones who suffer the most when a poor relationship among county officials hinders progress toward that end.

That’s just it, there was a simple solution. A staffer needed to be replaced, the money was in the budget and the CC said no. Who’s to blame? The County Commission. They need to replace the staffer, apologize to Nelson then STFU.

Their egos are really getting old.

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