State Legislature

Past due if you ask me

l3wis May 26, 2009 5Comments

I’m all for raising fees on billboards, especially after you hear how little it costs

to license them a year;

Part of the reason for that surprising contrast is that South Dakota’s billboard permit fees have gone unchanged for 24 years, since 1985. The biggest billboard size allowed in South Dakota is 1,200 square feet, and the annual fee for a billboard of that size is $32.

WTF! No fee increases for 24 years!? I have often said the advertising and marketing business gets off easy in South Dakota (there is no tax on print advertising). Of course the billboard companies are crying;

Not surprisingly, Wall Drug owner Ted Hustead was one of 10 people listed as opponents to the original version of Kirkeby’s billboard-fee increase during the bill’s first legislative hearing.

Several other influential figures also lined up against the bill: Gov. Mike Rounds’ sister, Michele Brich, who lobbied on behalf of the South Dakota Inn Keepers Association; David Owen, who represents the state’s entire business community as president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Dick Gregerson, who not only lobbies for billboard-industry giant Lamar Advertising but also is a member of the state’s Transportation Commission.

Lamar, one of the largest billboard companies in the country, that continues to eat up the little guys is a against a fee increase – SHOCKER!

You have to realize this is a YEARLY FEE, they are virtually paying $.10 a day to have a billboard in SD. That’s it! They want to raise the fee to about $.80 a day. Big whoop! Once again big business skirts paying it’s fair share, and ironically they could pass on to their customers.

When the music's over . . .

l3wis March 11, 2009 6Comments

10.5: Apocalypse trailer

LEGISLATIVE STUPIDITY 2009

l3wis March 9, 2009 19Comments

Without PBR nothing would get done in Pierre

Is it just me, or does the legislative session in Pierre get worse every year? I know the session isn’t over yet, but I thought I would touch on some of the dumber things that happened this year.

• Too much time wasted on a smoking ban. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, but isn’t this a no-brainer? Even if several health organizations weren’t lobbying for it, over 70% of South Dakotans support it. This should have passed the house one day, moved to the senate the next day and signed by the governor on the third day. And the shananigans still are not over, no one is sure if Rounds is going to sign the bill. Good grief. This should have been easier then tying a Velcro shoe.

• Cutting arts funding. Even if you hate the arts cutting funding makes no sense at all. The Feds match the state funds and matching private donations reach as high as $15 million. The Arts council has also said they believe the arts bring in millions in tax revenue for the state, paying for itself over and over again. So why would we cut a measly $700,000 with that big of return? Please join me in banging my head against the wall.

Legislative standouts

Who makes all these stupid proposals in Pierre? Stupid legislators of course. Maybe I am being a little harsh, OKAY, I don’t think are legislators are stupid, but I do think they think too much. Here is a list of some of the ‘great ideas’ by individual legislators.

• Roger Hunt voting against arts funding. Normally this wouldn’t surprise me coming from Humpty Dumpty but what confused me was that Hunt’s son is a very talented artist and animator. I would be curious where he thinks his son became inspired to become an artist? Probably a teacher or other arts educator. Roger, get other women’s vaginas off your mind and do something good for the welfare of South Dakota children that are already born for once, provide them a well balanced education that includes the arts.

• Heidepriem’s casino proposal had to been one of the stupidest ideas I have heard from Pierre in a very long time; “Uh Yeah, I want to make large scale casinos legal in South Dakota so they won’t come here.” Only a lawyer would come up with that kind of logic – that is if you believe it. Some say Scott has a conflict of interest (mostly South Dakota’s very own Sarah Palin, Mrs. Noem) either way, it doesn’t matter because this idea should have been stamped ‘completely f’ing  stupid’ from the beginning. Talk about a failed experiment in reverse psychology. Scott, stick to lawyering not psychology.

• Gordon Howie’s proposal to reduce property taxes by 35%. Even if the conflict of interest is proven in Heidi-gate, Howie’s proposed legislation screamed conflict of interest and not one single person from the media, his party or the SD Democratic party said a peep about it. If it would have passed Howie would have saved himself and his customers hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes a year. Yet no senate investigation. Where was Mrs. Noem’s finger pointing on this one? This greedy jackass needs to go.

• Governor Rounds didn’t disappoint this year either. He took a chopping block to any social program that he has been chomping at the bit to get rid of for years and handed over even more tourist contracts even though we have been losing money on the contracts. Repaying campaign contributors, that’s Mike’s main objective. But don’t worry, Mike still has a couple more weeks to raise more havoc, and I guarantee he will.

• Sandy Jerstad. Where do I begin? Just when it couldn’t get much better than the rant caught on camera in a dildo shop Sandy brings a laundry list of stupid legislation to Pierre. A tanning bed ban?! C’mon! What’s next? Are you gonna make teenage girls wear berkahs at the beach? Then there was her statement about creating laws so people do the right thing. Yeah, that’s why people don’t smoke pot or speed in their cars anymore. But you’ll have to admit blaming Hal Wick and her gender on running into a parked car took the cake. But it did not end there, she goes on to describe the whole incident as ‘Hellish’. Running into a parked car is ‘Hellish’? More like completely ridiculous. I hope to gawd Sandy that one of your friends has knocked some sense into you. You are obviously so out of touch with reality that you are extremely unqualified to be a legislator. But hey this is South Dakota, anything is possible. At least you are not an amateur gynocologist that uses PBR as a painkiller.