Katus Questions Cabin; Governor Says No Fat Cats, Just Mice

State Tresurer candidate Tom Katus is raising questions about favoritism in the use of the state-owned "Valhalla," Peter Norbeck's old Black Hills hideaway. Katus tells KELO he's concerned that Governor Rounds has been, shall we say, arbitrary in deciding which taxpayers get to use this public property and which ones don't. Governor Rounds fires right back:

"My strong suspicions [sic] is the big Republican heavy hitters have been in there either at no cost or subsidized by someone else or some big corporation is paying for, you know, some of their buddies to be in there," Katus said.

"If Mr. Katus can name the big wigs that are supposedly staying there, then we will respond accordingly. We're not having big wigs stay at Valhalla," Rounds said [Austin Hoffman, "Governor's Cabin Questions," KELOLand.com, 2010.10.07].

Governor Rounds, via Game Fish & Parks, has generally declined to give us a list of Valhalla guests. But in the KELO interview, Rounds slips and reveals the identity of some regular guests:

"It's still a cabin. It still has mice in it. But it's got beautiful scenery around. It's rustic. It's not designed to be something that you take and you put people in like a motel," Rounds said [Hoffman, 2010].

Ah ha! Mice!

But wait a minute: we spent over $200,000 renovating the cabin, and it still has mice?! Now there's some state spending that needs to be reviewed.

Katus for Treasurer: Keep State Money Local!

Tom Katus just gave me a reason to vote for him for state treasurer. The Democratic candidate says he wants to put more of the state's money in local banks and credit unions. Instead of propping up Wells Fargo and other national players with our taxpayer dollars, Katus wants to let local lenders like the Miner County Bank and East River Fderal Credit Union mind a bigger share of our money.

Wow! Katus must be on the same wavelength as Ariana Huffington and I about community banks. I just read about Katus's "bank local!" position in last night's MDL, but Katus has been offering this idea since early in his campaign (shows how much attention we pay to the treasurer's race). It makes sense. Just as we'd expect state government to hire South Dakota contractors whenever feasible to maximize the circulation of dollars in the local economy, we should expect the state to use its savings (assuming it has savings, when there's a huge deficit to plug and no federal stimulus coming to protect the Legislature from hard decisions next time around... but that's another issue) to support lending and investment in as many of our communities as possible.

Getting folks' attention when you're running for any statewide office below governor can be hard. Tom Katus's desire to shift more of the state treasury from Wall Street to Main Street deserves our attention.