Governor Rounds on Dakota Midday

SDPB got 50 minutes of Governor M. Michael Rounds's time this noon. Let's see how many times he says "even better"...

More than 2.5% for K-12 education: reserves an excuse not to act? Rounds says state added $43M in four years in ongoing funding, while schools put $46M in reserves. Schools have the money they need; why put more money in reserves when we need to pay for nursing homes and CHIP, Medicaid for pregnant women, etc.? 40 schools have reserves of more than 40% operational budget.

Better to remove strings from increased school aid? Judgment call: dollars are limited, we can use them to actually help kids or just inflate reserves. We can put 1400 pregnant women on Medicaid for $4M instead (ah, so Rounds is fighting for women now?). What about the taxpayer? Those darn" tax spenders" aren't being responsible.

What about the school funding lawsuit? Using tax dollars to sue for tax dollars is the wrong approach; it should be handled by the legislature, not the judiciary (and I can sympathize with the governor there).

E-mail question from Sioux Falls: support eliminating sales tax on food? Why not shift taxes to more progressive property tax or non-essential luxury items? Some of the best taxes you have are the ones with lowest rates and which hit the broadest base. Impacting buying decisions is bad. The food tax is very stable, and it's the main source of revenue we have right now, supporting 35% property tax relief.

Phone question from Vermillion caller on Hyperion: how can SD enforce environmental measures when the EPA is in charge? Hyperion can satisfy lower EPA requirements by building in a "clean-air" area like SD than it would have to if it built in the "dirty-air" area of Houston. Will Rounds commit to making sure Hyperion has to commit to the best air-quality tech in the world and not the minimum EPA regs? Governor Rounds says all his conversations with Hyperion have been about the best tech. Rounds says he's not familiar with all the different EPA regs for different states (?!?!); he's just focusing on telling Hyperion that SD is the best place for the refinery. Rounds says we want Hyperion to meet or exceed the best standards.

So you're committed to holding them to the promise to use the best tech available? Our expectation is that the refinery will "be as clean as it possibly can be," and if it isn't, then they'll have to explain that to us, and we'll have to make a decision. (In other words, Rounds is not committing to holding Hyperion to its word.)

Kent from Britton: TransCanada, foreign company, eminent domain (here's the question we were waiting for!). Easements not adequate, TransCanada not assuming the proper liability. "You have pretty much been a cheerleader for this industry." Why aren't you a cheerleader for the landowners of your own state? Federal law takes precedent on eminent domain for pipelines and on safety regs. (Rounds is dodging completely.) Rounds says he can't challenge what the feds say is sufficient fulfillment of regs.

Kent breaks in and says the governor is here to protect us from special interests and to ensure that we get proper compensation. "The issue of how much should be paid for an easement is one that is determined within court if we can't agree up front." (Again, dodging.) I do support the concept of bringing Canadian oil into the US instead of Saudi Arabian or Venezuelan oil. Pieplines are regulated by the federal government, not the states. Eminent domain -- the courts decide. A governor can't step in and say the court is wrong.

Kent: so why not have your folks help draw up good easements? We're not saying we don't want the pipeline; we're saying we want sufficient protection. I was not aware that you needed that help drawing up the easements. There's always going to be an emotional issue. (To summarize: Rounds says he can't do anything, and he wasn't aware of the need to do anything.)

Barbara from Vermillion: You promised to cut the red tape for Hyperion; what about clean land and air? "We roll out the red carpet, not the red tape, but we don't cut corners. I'm very serious about not cutting corners.... We want this to be done as professional and as correct as any refinery could be done in the world." Now remember, says Rounds, cars pollute, tractors pollute, everything pollutes. Building new refineries may push higher standards for the whole industry.

Barbara breaks in: so will out gas be cheaper? Not so much cheaper; Hyperion will try to get as much for their product as possible, but it will be less expensive for them to pump it into our area, giving us a supply we don't have now (so what exactly does Rounds mean? Seems the short answer is that there's no guarantee of cheaper gas).

Joe from Mitchell: Hyperion like the Loomis ethanol plant: semis busted up highway, increased county costs; what do we get from the refinery? Hyperion won't burn coal, will use IGCC power plant, which can capture CO2. By the way, (says Rounds) I'll take all the ethanol production I can get and all the concomitant difficulties of supproting infrastructure for it. Growing pains come with any industry. If we can't put up with these growing pains, we're not going to last long.

stay tuned for part 2!