Gun Intimidation Forces Wyoming Sales Tax Suspension

This is not how guns and democracy are supposed to go together: yahoos at Wyoming gun shows have caused the Wyoming Department of Revenue to suspend tax collections at gun shows:

Dan Noble, director of the department's excise tax division, said Friday that an incident at a gun show triggered the decision.

He added, however, that resistance from gun show sponsors and participants has been a recurring problem statewide.

"I have 10 field reps throughout the state, and every one of them has experienced some animosity," he said. "Folks are nervous anyway because there are guns there. I don't want to put my people at risk" [Joan Barron, "State Suspends Tax at Gun Shows," Casper Star-Tribune, 2010.07.04].

I stand corrected: I guess guns can check the government. Unfortunately, this check isn't on some previously untrammeled tyranny, but a perfectly lawful tax, the very sort of sales tax that some of my conservative friends think is the fairest tax of all.

The gun goonies cry that taxing their gun show sales infringes on their Second Amendment rights. If that's the case, then taxing my purchases of paper, pens, computers, and Internet service infringes on my First Amendment rights. Of course, even if I thought that argument might fly, I wouldn't use threats of gun violence to get my way; I'd just write letters to Secretary Kinsman and Senator Olson.

Democracy at the point of a gun isn't democracy. Wyoming gun nuts, man up, pay your taxes. And try settling your political differences without relying on the threat of force.

--------------------------
Update 12:06 CDT: conceivably related: reported assaults and threats against U.S. Census workers so far this year are more than double the number of such incidents in 2000.

South Dakota Not to Blame for Greenhouse Emissions?

If the planet does get warmer, seas rise, civilizations fall, etc., take heart, fellow South Dakotans: they can't blame us! Well, not much. A new report from Environment America finds that South Dakota generated less fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 than all but two states (Rhode Island and Vermont) and the District of Columbia. Our 13.7 million metric tons of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions in 2007 constituted just 0.23% of the United States' total emissions of almost six billion metric tons. Our percentage of emissions is even less than our meager 0.27% of the country's population, so surprise! you might argue South Dakota is even greener than our net emissions ranking might suggest.

South Dakota's per capita CO₂ emissions, 17.2 metric tons, are indeed below the national average, 19.9 metric tons. So we've got coal to burn before those hippies lay a pollution guilt trip on us, right?

Maybe not. According to the Energy Information Administration, South Dakota produces 144 trillion BTUs of energy. We consume 292 trillion BTUs. Over half of our energy is produced in other states. Looking at electricity alone, in 2007, we generated 6,137 gigawatthours of electricity, over half of that from those squeaky clean hydroelectric dams. But we consumed another 5,390 GWh generated in other states. Most of that juice comes from our neighbors, North Dakota and Wyoming... which lead the nation in per capita CO₂ emissions (WY: 124.2 metric tons; ND: 82.1 metric tons).

South Dakota's existing green power on the Missouri River (achieved, by the way, with money and foresight from the federal government) already makes us leaders in keeping our per capita pollution relatively low. Strong climate change legislation, plus the PUC's recommendations for better interconnect rules and other support for small wind and other sources of distributed generation, can help South Dakota get even further ahead of the curve, reeduce our dependence on fossil fuels from other states, and keep the planet cleaner.

----------------
p.s.: If Palauans aren't treading water in ten years, thank the recession. The global economic downturn has us on track to see greenhouse gas emissions down 9%. A good 1930s-style depression would cut those emissions 23%. There's always a bright side....

pp.s.: The above study does not appear to assess the greenhouse impacts of bovine flatulence or Senator Thune's speeches... two strikingly similar gases.

Wyoming Taxes Major Industry, State and Biz Roll Along

Former patrolman turned Wyoming restaurant magnate Mark O'Loughlen sends me a PDF copy of a 2003 Wyoming property tax guide. I note with interest (and perhaps loyal reader and prospective Wyoming land baron Mr. Gibilisco can add some perspective) that historically, Wyoming has drawn half of its property tax revenue from assessed value of mineral production. Funny: I thought the conservative argument was that taxes kill big business... yet Wyoming's mineral production industry keeps rolling right along, as do Wyoming's teacher salaries ($5K more for starting pay, $8.5K more for average pay than in South Dakota).

Steam Train A-Not-Comin'! DM&E Coal Line on Hold

Did anyone else catch this? (Oh, well, of course Kevin Woster did.) The Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad filed papers in federal court in Wyoming yesterday to drop its condemnation actions against several Wyoming landowners. That's good news in itself: any day landowners escape eminent domain proceedings is a happy day in my book. One attorney for the Wyoming landowners says DM&E probably spent more on litigation than it offered the landowners for right-of-way across their land... so serves DM&E right!

But the court papers contain bigger news: DM&E isn't dropping the eminent domain push because it just became the Good Fairy of Property Rights. DM&E is dropping the suits because it is dropping (for now) its Powder River Basin coal train project:

[DM&E says in the court papers] “There are uncertainties regarding the time when DM&E will be able to meet the necessary thresholds for the project, and it is clear that the project will not proceed in the immediate term.”

...In today’s filing, DM&E’s attorneys also stated, “Due to significant changes in the economic climate, DM&E cannot say that there is a reasonable probability that it will proceed with its Powder River Basin project in the near term.”

...“Available financing has tightened, and the country has seen a record economic downturn altering the strategic growth plans of nearly every industry in the country,” DM&E attorney wrote. “This has resulted in a longer timeframe for commencement of the project than anticipated at the time these condemnation actions were filed” [Dustin Bleizeffer, "DM&E Drops Condemnation Against Wyo Landowners; Railroad Suspends Powder River Basin Project," Casper Star-Tribune, 2009.08.26].

More cause to celebrate:

• The Powder River Basin Project is the same project that would have sent coal trains rushing along refurbished track in South Dakota and Minnesota. DM&E might still go condemning land for other purposes here in South Dakota, but with this project on hold, the company has that much less reason to do so.
• Score another victory for recession: if industries are slowing down enough to stop this rail project, that means they're also slowing down enough to use less coal. That means less emissions, less pollution, less demand for new coal plants... and more energy resources saved up for our great-grandkids.

Funny how a few legal papers can brighten one's day. Yahoo!

Update 15:15 CDT: Don't celebrate too hard, South Dakota. I hear on SDPB that Mike LoVecchio, spokesman for DM&E's parent company Canadian Pacific, is changing the story, saying the project isn't on hold, but that the company simply plans to deal directly with Wyoming landowners. The rail line will still happen; they'll just wait until the economy improves.

And here in South Dakota, CP/DM&E are still more than happy to have the power to take your land (remember 2008's SB 174?), granted to them by a Republican legislature. Grrrrr....

Speech Tournament at Ha-vard: Now That's an Away Game!

New restaurateur and Madison ex-pat Mark O'Loughlen sends me a copy of the high school sports schedule from his new home in Thermopolis, Wyoming, population 3172.
Mark notes with approval (as do I!) the inclusion of the speech team schedule on the flyer distributed at the bank at elsewhere around town. Now that's the respect for debate I like to see!

Also noteworthy is Thermopolis's speech competition scchedule: a full slate of twelve contests, including one very remarkable away game:


Alas, the Thermopolis debaters are passing up the Karl Mundt Debate Tournament here in Madison to travel to Boston and debate at Harvard. Harvard. (Notice they even spell it with due homage to local pronunciation: Haaa-vard!)

Note that a Class 3A high school with 233 students, in a county with 4900 people, manages to find the resources to send its debate team to 12 contests, including a four-day trip to Harvard, and compete in extemp, oratory, interp, and all three divisions of debate. Meanwhile, Madison High School has been cutting events and debate trips to faraway places like Yankton.

Oh well. Go Bobcats!

Don't forget: Eat at Butch's!

Wyoming Pays More, Gets More Teachers

South Dakota and Wyoming are having opposite experiences in teacher recruitment. South Dakota remains mired at 51^st in the nation for teacher pay. The number of applicants for teaching jobs at many South Dakota schools is declining. (I think the number who applied for a math/computer position at Madison High School this spring can be counted on one hand.)

Meanwhile, Wyoming has raised its teacher pay from the bottom quartile to the top quartile nationally. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jim McBride says that "Where schools once got one or two applications for a teaching job, they now get 30" [Joan Barron, "State's Investment Portfolio Nearly $11B," Casper Star-Tribune Online, 2008.07.25].

Simple economics: Offer more pay, you get a bigger pool of applicants to choose from. The bigger the pool, the more chance you have of landing a top-notch teacher. It's just like in high school sports: there's nothing saying a Class B student can't be the fastest runner in the state, but the Class AA schools have a bigger pool of runners to choose from and are statistically more likely to field faster runners. (See pages 10 and 14 of this year's Girls State Track results [PDF]: Class AA athletes won gold medals in 17 of the 19 events, and Class AA athletes hold all but one girls state track record.)

Rather than whining that we don't have oil and coal to boost revenues as Wyoming does, and rather than continuing to base our hiring on luck and hope, South Dakota needs to follow simpe market sensibility: top pay draws top talent. Let's compete with our neighbors, all of whom put more value on education than we do. Let's aim for that top quartile... or heck, just the top of the bottom quartile.

Say it with me kids: ¡Sí, se puede!