South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

South Dakotans

Bill Thompson District 13 Education funding Rounds South Dakotans State Funding

Rounds Turns it up a notch

l3wis 0Comments

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.

Open Government South Dakotans

I think we should change the name of SD to 50th

l3wis 0Comments

South Dakota Ranks Last in Non-Partisan Survey of Transparency, Accountability, and Limits in Government  
“Walking away from reform is not an option,” SDCAC says 

 

Pierre, SD -  South Dakota ranked 50th out or all 50 states in a recent survey of openness and government integrity.  

 

The Better Government Association, an independent and non-partisan government watchdog group, released their 2008 survey findings on transparency, accountability, and limits in government.  The survey ranked each of the 50 states in five areas of law: open records, whistleblower protections, campaign finance, open meetings, and conflicts of interest. 

 

“South Dakota didn’t beat out any other state” said BGA Executive Director Jay Stewart, “and there is clearly a lot of room for improvement.  If you look at the percentage score, South Dakota received 32%, the equivalent of a F letter grade, hardly a cause for celebration.”

 

South Dakotans supported open government reforms in a June 2008 McLaughlin & Associates scientific public opinion poll.  Over 70% of those polled supported reforms that would: stop taxpayer dollars from being used for lobbying and political campaigns, stop politicians from handing out “pay-to-play” government contracts, making the relationships between government contractors and elected officials transparent, stop golden parachutes, and placing the current common sense public disclosure laws and ethics reforms at federal level in South Dakota law. 
  
Lee Breard, Executive Director of the SD CAC, said, “Clearly from this study there is a problem and polling shows there is overwhelming public support for reform.  South Dakotans largely agreed with the major concepts in Initiated Measure 10 but obviously believed the initial approach was flawed”  
 
“Now is the time to take the issue of openness and transparency in government back to the people and the peoples’ representatives,” said Breard.  “While voters were confused with the specific language of Measure 10, largely due to the $1 million TV campaign by National Education Association union officials in Washington, D.C., fighting to preserve the status quo, there is overwhelming public support for openness and reform.”
 
“With South Dakota ranked last in openness and integrity clearly the status quo is not acceptable and just walking away from common sense reform is not an option,” said Breard. 

 

Breard noted that in an editorial, the Black Hills Pioneer agreed.


“After seeing efforts to open government fail during the 2008 legislative session, we have to agree that the Better Government Association has a point,” the Pioneer said.  “South Dakotans may be open, friendly people, but their government is closed and hostile to anything it perceives as an intrusion on its authority.  The report makes it clear that South Dakota has failed to adapt to modern demands for openness.”

“Measure 10, which was resoundingly defeated last week, was supposedly an effort to create a more open government,” the Pioneer continued.  “It had many flaws, but its central point was worthwhile: far too much happens behind closed doors in this state, be it government contracts — ‘millions are awarded annually in no-bid processes’ — pardons and court proceedings.”
http://www.bhpioneer.com/articles/2008/11/12/opinion/editorials/doc491b11c81bd27205749055.txt

  
Follow this link to read the full report from the Better Government Association.  

 

 

### 
South Dakotans State Legislature

BREAKING: Legislative Goals 2009

l3wis 1Comments

This kind of advertising will soon be a no-no

AFP (American Freedom Press) reporter, Chipp Ed Theethe interviews  state legislators about some of their upcoming goals in the 2009 legislative session.

Theethe, “Stan (Adelstein), you had an interesting race this year. Anything you learned from it?”

Adelstein, “Yeah, Republicans posing as independents make crappy cookies.”

Theethe, “Interesting. Any goals this session?”

Adelstein, “Not sure. I haven’t spoken with Heidepriem yet . . . I mean Knudson.”

Chipp was able to catch up with representative Krebs.

Theethe, “What are your goals this session Shantel?”

Krebs, “Not sure. Roger Hunt and Mike Rounds haven’t emailed them to me yet.”

Chipp was also able to track down Gene Abdallah.

Theethe, “Gene, how do you (cough, cough) feel about the proposed (cough, cough) smoking ban in South Dakota, (cough, cough) excuse me (cough, cough)?

Abdallah, “I think it is a bunch of F***** Bulls***.”

Stephens, “Um. Okay. So I would assume you would vote it down?”

Abdallah, “Whadda you F****** think, McFly? By the way, can I bum a smoke, or two, or three?”

Chipp was also able to track down some Democrats.

Theethe, “Mr. Heidepriem, assuming you are still in a leadership position this year in Pierre, what are your goals.”

Heidepriem, “First I need to figure out who is a Democrat, who is a Republican and who pretended to be an independent to undermine other candidates campaigns.”

Theethe, “How long do you think that will take?”

Heidepriem, “It will probably milk up all our time. Think of it as the abortion issue of 2009.”

Theethe, “So will you get anything accomplished when it comes to education funding?”

Heidepriem, “Yeah, we’ll probably dick around with it back and forth, send a useless funding bill to the governor’s desk only to watch him veto it and make us send him a chopped up piece of legislation the next day.”

Theethe, “So you remain optimistic?”

Heidepriem, “Sure. Nothing says optimism like spending January in a hotel room in Pierre.”

Chipp found one of Scott’s fellow Democratic representatives in rural Tea trying to tear a banner off of a building.

Theethe, “Sandy, is this a bad time to ask you about your legislative goals?”

Jerstad, “Not at all, in fact it is a perfect time. I plan to introduce legislation that will make anything phallic shaped in our state illegal.”

Theethe, “Where would farmers store silage?”

Jerstad, “They’ll have to dig holes in the ground. I’m okay with HOLES and Medicade.”

Bye-Bye feed storage.

Lastly Chipp wanted to see if he could clear up the riff in District 15 between Vanderlinde and Kirshman.

Theethe, “Martha, are you willing to work with Pat on the issues, considering you are both in the state house, the same party and the same district?”

Vanderlinde, “Well, that would make sense, wouldn’t it Chipp? I don’t see a problem with it as long as I can get him to leave the Bishop’s house long enough to strategize our legislative goals.”

Pat seemed confused about Martha’s position in the House.

Theethe, “Martha says she is willing to work with you in Pierre.”

Kirshman, “Who?”

Theethe, “Martha Vanderlinde. The other House representative in your district.”

Kirshman, “Oh that lady. Sure! She can pick up my drycleaning and clean my hotel room while I’m working on more divisive abortion legislation during the day at the capital.”

So there you have it. Looks like another productive year in Pierre!

(FOR THE RECORD: Most of this stuff will probably never happen – unless Representative Frank Kloucek has his way.)

 

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