South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

State Funding

Education funding South Dakotans State Funding State Legislature Taxes

Do NOT SIGN THIS PETITION!

l3wis 14Comments

Here we go again, the bleeding heart liberals want education funding while the Repugs don’t want to pay for it. Their compromise? A sales tax increase;

A group of advocates for health care providers and public schools is moving forward with plans to initiate a ballot measure that would permanently raise the state sales tax by 1 cent.

Motivated by deep cuts in state spending during the past legislative session, the coalition polled likely voters on their appetite for a sales tax increase to pay for state services.

This is misguided for a number of reasons, and I will give you the basics;

• The money exists to fund education already. Over $800 million sits in an investment fund specifically for rainy day situations, but the Repugs in the state would rather give massive tax cuts to corporations instead of spending that money on education. It is idiotic to raise taxes when we simply just need the legislature to authorize spending these funds.

• Sales taxes are regressive, they affect the working class and poor more then the rich. It is NEVER a good idea to raise sales taxes, especially to fund education (which is traditionally funded by property taxes).

• Let’s say the investment fund did not exist. Fine. Why not start a petition drive to have a state income tax on households making over $100,000 a year? Or taxing advertising, or even better yet, a corporate income tax? People say any of these things are job killers. Bullshit. Corporations set up shop in SD because they can get away with paying shit wages. It has nothing to do with taxes.

• Healthcare costs are over the top. There needs to be healthcare reform instead of continuing to feed this monster with more tax increases.

Instead of tax increases, a more prudent thing to do is to encourage legislators and the governor to tap into the investment fund. I would also suggest we do some house cleaning in Pierre.

DO NOT SIGN THIS PETITION!

 

abortion Sioux Falls State Funding State Legislature

If you told a state legislator that Jesus walked on water, would he believe you, wait . . .

l3wis 23Comments

“I believe anything the Unruhs tell me.”

Wow. Our governor is even dumber then I thought;

The Republican Governor of South Dakota signed a bill into law Tuesday, formally mandating that women in the state wait three days and visit with anti-abortion activists before undergoing a medical procedure to terminate a pregnancy.

With Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s signature, South Dakota claims the title of having the longest mandatory waiting period for an abortion out of any other state in the nation. About half of the states require patients to wait 24 hours.

There is only one abortion clinic in South Dakota: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in Sioux Falls.

South Dakota’s law was seen as part of a broader attack on Planned Parenthood by social conservatives acting at the state and federal levels.

The non-profit organization is perhaps best known for abortion services, thanks to media campaigns launched by its religious conservative critics. However, the vast majority of PPFA’s activities focus on education, womens’ health, disease screenings and pregnancy prevention.

To this effect, PPFA says that each year it plays a role in preventing over 600,000 unwanted pregnancies, and only three percent of their patients request abortion services. By contrast, figures show PPFA is ten times more likely to be helping prevent an abortion than carrying one out.

But in an exclusive interview with Raw Story, Republican state Sen. Al Novstrup, the South Dakota bill’s primary sponsor, did not seem to know that. He even suggested that Planned Parenthood is akin to an abortion factory, ushering women in and putting them on a doctor’s table without so much as a consultation.

He also suggested they have a financial incentive in carrying out as many abortions as possible, which is demonstrably false as similar procedures are astronomically more expensive when carried out at private hospitals. Most women pay between $500-$900 for abortion services through PPFA.

The 72-hour waiting period aside, the law will also require women to consult with one of the “crisis pregnancy centers” around the state, which are mainly run by anti-abortion activists.

I’ll say it again, the best way to end abortion is to prevent a pregnancy from happening to begin with. We should be encouraging PP to reach out and educate more people on birth control instead of continuing to tie their hands.

SD State Funding State Legislature

SD State legislature finally decides to talk about the budget

l3wis 12Comments

Oh, crap! Is it already the end of the legislative session! Better prepare the budget;

By the end of the day on Friday, the South Dakota Legislature will approve a budget containing significant spending cuts — but the shape and size of those cuts is far from determined.

This is what I scratch my head about every year. Before the legislative session starts everyone starts crying about how broke we are (which we are) so you would think the very short session would be devoted to solving our budget issues. Nope. Abortion. Guns and more guns.

But it seems a dirty little secret has been exposed;

Lawmakers are also discussing the possibility of getting rid of some of the state’s $500 million in tax exemptions. Unlike a tax rate increase, Gov. Dennis Daugaard has said he is open to eliminating tax exemptions. Two bills dealing with tax exemptions have passed both houses; several others have been killed. Any legislator could introduce a budget amendment eliminating more sales tax exemptions.

$500 million! WTF! While I am an ardent supporter of some exemptions, it seems we could probably find a couple of them that should be eliminated?

But that would be too easy, why not something more difficult and painful;

A much-discussed alternative, HB1141, would set a special election this November for initiated measures with the intent of allowing for a popular vote on a tax increase.

BAHAHAHAHA! This wouldn’t pass in a million years, and any legislator who thinks it would should get their freaking head examined. We give tax breaks and refunds to Canadian corporations to dig holes in our state then turn around and expect South Dakotans to pay more in taxes on a loaf of bread? Get real.

Eliminate exemptions and tax advertising. Done deal.

abortion Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether SF City Council Sioux Falls State Funding State Legislature

Ellis, Okerlund and Megan ‘Patron’ Luther bring the Triple Argue Endorser threat down!

l3wis 2Comments

Here’s to Megan! Salut!

I was going to do 3 separate posts, but hey, each story has a moral to it, and the contributors are from my favorite daily local newspaper (of course, there really isn’t another choice).

Let’s first start with Patron‘s lovely piece on the city paying out claims. While I enjoyed the information, two conflicting comments by Michelle Erpenbach struck me a bit;

“I come back to the idea that I feel the city has some responsibility for taking care of the people who live here,” she said.

I would agree with Michelle, 100%. But I find it odd that she feels a responsibility to take care of people (after all we all pay sales taxes) then turns around and expects us to pay more for it;

Erpenbach expects to vote for the (sewer rate) increase.

“To me, that’s part of living in a community,” she said. “In order to have the services that we want, at the level we want, it’s going to cost us money.”

While I can already hear the arguments, I will say this, if you want something to work and to be ‘nice’ it does cost extra, BUT, as I have said 100 x before, our sewer system was neglected while we squandered tax dollars on other stuff. It’s time to cut the apron strings from all the non-profits and extra-playland bullshit we are funding in Sioux Falls and target that money at the sewer system and streets instead jacking up our rates every freaking time we turn around.

Enough talk about turds.

Ellis had an interesting story about our mayor, and how he likes to edit his videos (as DaCola reported earlier this week). This quote by Huether was classic smilin’ Mike:

“There are folks that will do whatever they can to create partisanship, to stimulate divide versus progress and the people. And this is probably just another example,” he said.

Hey Mike? Wanna know what creates negativity, division, distrust in government and partisanship?

LIARS!

And now to Matt. I have to be honest with you, I don’t even know his job title at the AL but I always enjoy his columns. This week he points out the hypocrisy of the supporters of HB 1217;

Even though it almost certainly will be challenged in court as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, Gov. Dennis Daugaard says he probably will sign the bill the South Dakota Legislature has passed requiring a woman to wait 72 hours and to receive counseling before she can have an abortion in the state.

If the legislation lands in court, Daugaard and others have suggested there are private donors willing to put up the money to defend it.

Which seems to beg the question: Why stop there?

If there are people in this nation so bent on ending abortion they’ll pay us to do their bidding, what other civil liberties could we attack to make some dough?

You’ll have to read the whole thing, good stuff.

State Funding State Legislature

While everyone is busy talking abortion and education, Mike Rounds in-laws are preparing to mine some uranium

l3wis 14Comments

As I understand it, Mike Rounds’ brother-in-law (Randy Brich?) works for one of the companies that wants to mine uranium in our state. While I am not opposed to mining uranium, certain safety procedures have to be put in place so water and land is not contaminated, which I doubt SB 158 would do. Also, I often shake my head when politicos say our state is broke when we could be tapping into wind, solar, and now even uranium to make up for the budget shortfall instead of letting private companies come here and rape us of our natural resources. In Alaska, every resident gets a dividend check from the oil, South Dakotans should be swimming in money. But hey, we keep voting in the greedy GOP bastards, and we get what we deserve – not a gawd damn thing.

SB 158 passed. It now moves to the House.

Senate Bill 158 was introduced amidst a flurry of last-minute in the South Dakota Legislature last week. This is apparently an attempt to sneak a very bad bill past the public.

Bottom line: the bill would stop enforcement of state regulations on in situ leach uranium mining. Two types of regulation by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources—water management and minerals mining regulation—would be stopped.

Companies could still be issued permits to mine. But the state would not have any control over any of these mining operations. For example, there would be no state requirements for public notice, proper construction, safe operation, accident reports, or clean-up after the mining ended.

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