Rounds Says Ax K-12 Education 5%: I Say Invest in Students

Yesterday the Associated School Boards of South Dakota called on the Legislature to follow the law and increase K-12 education funding by 1.3%. That's a pretty modest request, given that ASBSD's position for the past few years has been to call for an overhaul of the funding formula that would direct much more money toward K-12 education.

Hours later, outgoing Governor M. Michael Rounds called on the Legislature to change the law and cut K-12 education funding by 5%. That follows the Legislature's move last session to rewrite statute and yank a promised 1.2% increase out from under our schools.

This K-12 cut saves $23 million total. The governor's proposed budget, which he'll lay out in Pierre this afternoon (covered live on SDPB), still leaves a $37 million deficit.

There's Mike Rounds's legacy: years of structural deficits that neither he nor the Republican Legislature had the guts to fix. Rounds's limp fiscal policy doesn't even qualify him as a caretaker governor. Today's budget address promises to be one more wimp-out.

So let's talk guts: is it really less painful to nickel-and-dime our teachers and kids than it is to cowboy up and raise our taxes? We have about 100,000 students [2010.12.09: whoops! update that: 123,629 students!]... which leaves about 700,000 of us South Dakotans to pay taxes. Governor Rounds says short each kid $240. I say charge each taxpayer an extra $33 to keep education funded at its already paltry level.

Thing is, you and I are going to end up making up the difference anyway. Odds are your school district and mine will not take a 5% cut. If Governor-Elect Daugaard and Majority Leader Russell Olson pass this plan, you will see opt-outs spring up almost everywhere, as local districts try to fill the gap. Taxes will go up for many South Dakota taxpayers anyway; Governor Rounds just doesn't have the guts to be the one to ask for it.

The odd thing is that we have the wealth to withstand a tax increase. South Dakota technically never joined the recession: our economy has grown each year. Our GDP went up 2.2% in 2009, and I don't see data suggesting less growth this year (though I'm open to counter-evidence). The new South Dakota Budget & Policy Project (oh my: this website looks really cool!) says sales tax revenues are looking up.

Our tax system is clearly not tapping the wealth our state is creating. In other words, we aren't paying the full price of civil society, the cost of maintaining the schools our kids need and that make our wealth-creation possible.

Maybe we shouldn't get all hot. Maybe this mad-axeman budget is just Governor Rounds's parting gift to his lieutenant, who come January can ride in and save the day with improved revenue projections and a noble compromise that changes the funding formula to only freeze K-12 funding again rather than cutting it 5%.

In the understatement of the week, Mr. Crissman at DWC calls 5% "noticeable." I call Rounds's farewell proposal irresponsible. It's a non-starter: no guts, no vision, no sense of basic social obligation. Governor Rounds leaves affirming the South Dakota Republican belief that education is an expense, not an investment.

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Bonus Timing: Governor Rounds's official portrait will be unveiled for public viewing following the budget address. Expect tepid applause... and maybe some Post-It note mustaches.

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Update 07:45 CST: At least we're not California. But Marc Albert's comment on the California situation has relevance here in South Dakota:

Hyperbole or not, much of the chaos could be avoided by finally convincing state taxpayers that you can’t get something for nothing forever. There may be waste and fraud in the public sector, but not $25 billion worth. Complain about lousy teachers, public pensions and long lines at the DMV all you want — it isn’t going to change the figures on the ledger [Marc Albert, "California's Public Schools in Downward Spiral," Understanding Government, 2010.12.07].

Save Big (Local Economic Development) Money at Menards...

Speaking of "reasons to go out of town for almost everything"...

Construction proceeds on new Secure Banking Solutions building,
Schaefer Plaza, Madison, SD, 2010.12.06

Some hardy fellows were out in yesterday's cold working on the new Secure Banking Solutions building in the Schaefer Plaza—you know, the little biz/rez district by the Second Street Diner that the Lake Area Improvement Corporation and your tax dollars have helped develop.

Is it still called house wrap when it's on an office building?

Note where the project gets its Typar HouseWrap. It's not Pro-Build up the street.

Not that I'm complaining: I'm getting ready for another big cereal run to Hy-Vee myself. And that big telehandler on the job says "Amert Construction," so the project is putting local guys to work.

But, as my commenters have pointed out in our discussion of supporting main street renovation, local economic development requires offering goods and services of real value. The LAIC's record on that score is pretty weak.

Onward Christian Legislators... Against Usury!

On the off chance that our Republican state legislators get a little too excited about their supermajorities and go all theocratic on us, I hope they'll apply their Christian principles to South Dakota's usury industry.

Perhaps all of our legislators should join Father Timothy Logan Fountain in reading Bishop Paul Peter Jesep's Credit Card Usury and the Christian Failure to Stop It. In an excerpt chosen by Father Tim, the bishop notes that alongside the responsibility we consumers have to use our credit cards wisely, there lies an equal responsibility for credit card executives and bankers not to build business models on the exploitation and serfdomization of credit card users.

In a press release promoting his new book, Bishop Jesep adds a practical economic argument to his moral fight against usury: "Fair profit, not unjust gain from high interest rates, will spur economic recovery by putting money directly into the economy."

Are any of our Republican legislators willing to take up this challenge to Christian values?
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Bonus Ecclesiastica: Father Tim won't get me in the pews, but his post did get me to learn the difference between an autocephalous church and an autonomous church. Cool!

Contra DWC, Outsider Groups Gave Noem Huge $$ Advantage

During this year's Congressional campaign, Dakota War College made the patently absurd spin-claim that Kristi Noem would not get a whole lot of support from out-of-state groups, that her campaign would win mostly on local, grassroots, South Dakota efforts.

DWC has since deleted that claim. That Sioux Falls paper ha since deleted the validity of that claim:

Republican and conservative groups spent about $2 million to help Noem win, most of it in the form of ads criticizing Herseth Sandlin. Democratic and liberal groups spent close to $600,000, most of it in ads against Noem, according to Federal Election Commission reports analyzed by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington watchdog think tank.

Herseth Sandlin said the influx of outside money definitely contributed to her defeat.

"We were outspent pretty heavily," she said [Ledyard King, "Outside Groups Backed Noem 3–1," that Sioux Falls paper, 2010.12.05].

Those outside groups do love ladies on horsies. And contrary to the spin offered by the Noem campaign and its fawning conservative blogs, those outside groups were instrumental in helping the less-qualified Noem eke out a slim plurality of the vote.

Daugaard Cuts 10% from Honcho Pay, Including Own!

Governor-Elect Dennis Daugaard is leading by example: he announced yesterday that he will cut his own pay ten percent when he takes office next month. He plans to impose the same cut on the top earners on his staff and state department chiefs.

Also dropping 10%: hits on the transition team's résumé-submission webpage.

Cutting salaries for elected officials doesn't usually fire me up much. These cuts probably won't reduce the state deficit by even 1% (though I'll be happy to be proven wrong by a full list of cuts). Pay-cut promises are usually political stunts to win votes from a cranky electorate. I'm just as inclined to say to a budget-cutting politician, "Don't bother cutting your salary; just work your keester off to earn every penny we pay you."

But Daugaard's pay cut doesn't sound like a political stunt. We usually hear paycut promises during the campaign, not after. I don't recall his hooting from the hustings his honcho-haircut plan. And if you accept Mr. Rosenthal's optimistic analysis, Daugaard will be no passive caretaker like his predecessor, Governor M. Michael Rounds. Rosenthal sees Daugaard planning the kind of CEO governorship that will earn its old pay and then some. (Wait a minute: did all you Republicans really vote for an activist governor?)

In homage to Mr. Rosenthal, I offer an Endbar:

Evidently Dennis Daugaard isn't worried about crashing the economy by cutting income for a few people at the top. So why can't he call Senator Thune and his Republican pals in Washington and tell them to apply the same thinking to repealing the Bush tax cuts?

Noem Staffer Gets Million-Dollar Mansion

Expect a stoic silence from the Noem camp on this one...

Once upon a time, Senator Tom Daschle caught all sorts of guff from folks who wanted to beat him for having a two-million-dollar house (oops, sorry: mansion) in D.C. (or was it $3 million?). Nice houses in Washington, D.C., just don't reflect South Dakota values, do they?

With that in mind, let us turn to the McLean, Virginia, real estate transfers for October. Of 19 home sales recorded at the Fairfax County property tax office, only three were for less than $500K, all condos. Six homes went for over a million dollars. The bargain in that batch: 6134 Ramshorn Drive. Four bedrooms, three and a half baths, 3167 square feet, quarter-acre lot, sold July 30 this year for $1.02 million.

6134 Ramshorn Drive, McLean, Virginia

Whew! I've got four times the lot, but this swanky McLean house has 2.5 times the space and 10 times the mortgage of my humble South Dakota abode.

McLean is a nice neighborhood. Median family income is over $180K; poverty rate is 1.9%. Compare that to Castlewood, South Dakota, where median family income is about $37K and poverty is 7.1%.

Castlewood? What the—oh! I almost forgot to tell you who bought this piece of the American Dream. Please congratulate new homeowners Carine and Jordan Stoick.

Stoick... where have I heard...

Oh! Jordan Stoick! Mobridge boy made good! Successful Washington P.R. dude! And Kristi Noem's new chief of staff:

As I prepare to go to work in Congress, I’m focused on putting together a quality team of individuals that will help me serve South Dakota well. Jordan understands the issues important to our state, and his background and experience makes him a great person to help ensure we hit the ground running on behalf of all South Dakotans [emphasis mine; Representative-Elect Kristi Noem, press release, 2010.12.03].

Catch that? Stoick lives in a million-dollar house, worth seven times more than the median house in Sioux Falls. He lives in a swanky, exclusive D.C. neighborhood. And Kristi Noem thinks he "understands the issues important to our state." But having a big, expensive house doesn't have anything to do with one's ability to understand and fight for South Dakota, does it?

Oh, but I suppose there's a world of difference between Tom Dsachle and Jordan Stoick. Daschle was the elected Senator, the decision-maker, the man directly accountable to us South Dakotans in our $100K sod shanties. Jordan Stoick is just a staffer... the chief of staff, the man behind the scenes, the man who has Kristi's ear every day on every issue, telling her how to be a Congresswoman.

Million-dollar mansion. There's one more meme we won't hear in any future GOP attack ads. Thanks, Kristi!

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p.s.: Boy, I hope Stoick didn't have to sell the boat to swing the payments.

pp.s.: Is Kristi's house that big place by the Racota Valley Ranch sign on Highway 81? How much is her house worth?

State Interp Concessions: Controversy, Class, and Capitalism

I had the pleasure of judging the South Dakota State Oral Interpretation Festival this weekend in Aberdeen. I also had the pleasure of chipping in to the Aberdeen speech boosters at their concession stand at Central High School:


Humor Dogs: cheese, yes, but surprisingly, no corn.

I did question the pricing of Humor Dogs over Drama Dogs; suggesting that Humor is worth more than Drama could lead to serious fisticuffs among some passionate interpers (with debaters cheering from the sidelines, twirling their pens).

I might have suggested renaming the Walking Taco to the Programmed Oratory Transition Step Taco.

But hey, what's that big ticket item at the bottom of the sign. Ties?


Sure enough! Neckties. Count on your local speech students, your noble interpers and debaters, to save the world for classy dress and capitalism.

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You can see all the 2010 State Interp medalists and team plaque winners on South Dakota Public Broadcasting's website. SDPB will also be posting videos of the Readers Theater performances, including (I hope!) Howard High School's remarkable readers theater translation of Pat Benatar's greatest hits.

Hasselstrom: Keep Public Land Available for Healthy Grazing

My friend Larry Kurtz says some wild things on his blog Interested Party and in various comment sections around the South Dakota blogosphere. But he also directs us toward a lot of good reading, like this essay on the importance of protecting public grasslands for grazing. Among other points, South Dakota author and rancher Linda Hasselstrom notes the superiority of grass-fed beef to factory-feedlot beef:

E. coli contamination thrives in feedlots, but grass-fed livestock, including beef, pork, chicken, sheep, elk, deer, antelope and other wild meat animals, is free of this dangerous pathogen. Range cattle roam freely, rarely spending more than a day in one spot. They must be branded to prevent theft and vaccinated against disease, but they are herded only briefly into corrals. Since cows live outside in all weather, their wastes are scattered and broken down by elements and insects. Pastured cattle never stand knee-deep in manure, because cows don't like to eat near feces. That's why, in winter, ranchers scatter supplementary feed onto clean grass. Buyers who cram cattle into feedlots for fattening waste resources and in the process make the animals—and those who dine on them—less healthy [Linda Hasselstrom, "Private Stash," Missoula Independent, 2010.11.25].

Mr. Kurtz also directed my attention, via the Goat Blog, to this really cool interactive map that helps you find which states are producing the most unhealthy feedlot beef, dairy, and pork. In 2007, South Dakota ranked 16th nationwide for feedlot livestock units: 8th in cattle, 20th in dairy, 11th in hogs.

Memo to LAIC: Update Physical and Virtual Main Street Storefronts

My wife and I lament the pitiable state of many building façades in downtown Madison. Too many of the storefronts have tacked up tacky plastic and metal signs over

The Lake Area Improvement Corporation mostly ignores downtown. They briefly touted, then cold-dropped a Main Street and More! program that achieved nothing. The LAIC is apparently too busy pouring money into insider deals for housing developments and its federally subsidized industrial park on the edge of town. The LAIC's only demonstrated interest in building downtown came in its involvement in the real-estate shell game that has led to big ICAP move, which is another example of Madison's reliance on government handouts and socialism.

If the LAIC can't be bothered to promote real downtown renovation and capitalist opportunities, maybe we can arouse their interest in a little virtual downtown renovation. Mike Knutson at the Rural Learning Center discovers a really cool economic development project undertaken by the smart people in Ord, Nebraska. Since 2007, the Ord Chamber of Commerce has offered its downtown businesses $5000 no-interest loans to put toward fixing up their storefronts. Now the Ord Chamber is expanding the acceptable use of those loans to support updating online storefronts.

The Ord Chamber explains the new program on their blog (their blog, Dwaine. Their blog.). The program doesn't rely on a big federal handout. It got rolling when a local bank applied for an won a $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka.

The LAIC loves signs and façades; our economic developers should be all over a project that makes our downtown look better on the street and online. How about we raise $25,000 for a physical and virtual storefront renovation loan program this way: For every dollar us regular folks contribute, the LAIC will match with a dollar taken out of LAIC exec's Dwaine Chapel's $100K-plus salary. We could redirect $12,500 from unaccountable salary to real Main Street improvements... and Chapel would still be one of the best-paid Brookings commuters in town.

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p.s.: The Dakota Drug building, one of the best-located retail properties on Madison's main street, has been on the market for two months. $99,900 gets you two stories and 6800+ square feet of prime retail opportunity. As of this morning, the LAIC still has not added this choice property to its Available Properties webpage.

Noem Campaign Finance Notes: Congrats, President Mork!

The Federal Election Commission has updated itemized campaign finance reports up to September 30. Among the surprises on Kristi Noem's individual door report: Madison Dairy Queen owner DeLon Mork is listed as President of South Dakota State University.

That's what David Chicoine gets for donating to Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Expect President Mork to move quickly to eliminate a major source of Blizzard™ competition by closing the SDSU Dairy Bar and all that ice cream socialism.

Inaugural Balls January 8: Black Tie and Kazoo?

The tickets for Governor-Elect Dennis Daugaard's balls are $25 a pop. Not bad for hanging out with swanky people and live music.

For a different kind of balls, you can squeeze into the Capitol Rotunda for free at noon on January 8 to watch Dusty Johnson take an oath that we all know he will break. I wonder if we can bring kazoos.

South Dakota, the Welfare State: Chapter 847

Say it again, kids: South Dakota loves federal money. South Dakota lives on federal money.

1. The new Inter-Lakes Community Action Partnership building will be built on Uncle Sam's dime. Madison's city fathers cheerfully announced a $290K handout from the federal Community Development Block Grant program yesterday. The new office and Head Start facility has already received local subsidy in the form of a rock-bottom sale price for the land from the city.
   
2. Heartland Conumer Power District general manager and DSU December commencement speaker Mike McDowell echoes Senator Max Baucus's complaint that the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan asks rural communities to pay their fair share of the decades of debt we all have rung up. McDowell and Baucus don't want us to pay higher taxes on energy (where's McDowell work again?) or receive less in social programs for our relatively high numbers of veterans and senior citizens.
   
3. Governor-Elect Dennis Daugaard's announcement of his latest cabinet appointments includes this tiny tidbit from Dennis:
   
   

   "I want to thank Kim Malsam-Rysdon for taking on this new role as Secretary of Social Services.... At a time when federal support is falling and economic conditions are increasing demands for services, leading this department is challenging."

   
   Catch that? Daugaard is grumbling that his Secretary of Social Services is getting less money from Washington. This just days after hobnobbing in Washington with Speaker-designate John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other GOP leaders who insist government needs to shrink.
   

Maybe this is why the Tea Party has such piddly rallies in South Dakota. Maybe this is why Kristi Noem still plays so coy about being tagged as a Tea Party doll. Maybe they all realize what I've been saying all along: the Tea Party/Grover Norquist pablum about getting Uncle Sam off our backs is a prescription for fiscal and economic disaster in South Dakota. We are a welfare state. Dennis Daugaard and Kristi Noem are unlikely to change that.