Noem Not Paying Attention at Church, Either

The ringing in Kristi Noem's ears from directing handbell choir must have made it hard for her to hear this statement of belief about civil government from her Foursquare church in Watertown:

We believe that civil government is by divine appointment and that civil laws should be upheld at all times except in things opposed to the will of God (Acts 4: 18-20; Romans 13:1-5).

That Romans passage is particularly compelling.

So when Noem speeds and skips court, is that just her nature, or is it the will of God? Better check with Pastors Steve and Kathryn on that.

Local Unemployment Down Again: Pierre Area Labor Market TIghtest

The good news: Lake County's unemployment rate dropped another half-percentage point in September to 5.8%. 35 more people jumped into the labor force, but we added 65 new jobs. Not bad!

The bad news: we're still well above Lake County's historical (since 1990) average unemployment of 3.3%. And statewide, the unemployment rate has dropped to 4.4%, a rate the rest of the country would envy and that some economists would argue is unnaturally and dangerously low. (A favored economist of our President felt otherwise.)

Our neighbors in Brookings continue to be the labor leaders in the surrounding seven-county area:

Area	LaborForce	Employment	Unemployment	Rate
Brookings County	19,135	18,530	605	3.20%
McCook County	2,830	2,705	125	4.50%
Minnehaha County	101,350	96,580	4,770	4.70%
Kingsbury County	2,900	2,755	145	5.10%
Miner County	1,250	1,180	70	5.70%
Lake County	6,810	6,415	395	5.80%
Moody County	4,000	3,755	245	6.10%

Source: South Dakota Department of Labor

Stanley County is the current employment champ, with all but 2.1% of its workforce on the job. Among our major metropolitan areas, Pierre is best worker's market, with 2.6% unemployment.

Highest unemployment: Buffalo, Shannon, and Dewey counties. Watertown remains the toughest big town in which to find work, with unemployment at 6.5% (a half-point drop from August).

Watertown Recruits Madison's City Engineer

Madison's out a city engineer: Chad Comes is moving up the road to Watertown. Their mayor, Gary Williams, characterizes the move as a homecoming for Comes, who is a native of nearby Waverly. Watertown seems particularly pleased with Comes's experience revising "city ordinances and engineering policies, a process they are just starting.

So hey, any of you up-and-coming engineers with an administrative bent looking for work? Madison has a good-paying job for you! Apply now!

City Budgets: Lots of Increases, Madison One of Biggest

Last week I noted that Madison's 11.5% budget increase for 2010 seems a bit steep given the recession, the drop in sales tax revenues, and budget cuts at the state level. But what are other towns doing?

• Britton just gave first reading to a municipal budget that spends 3.9% more than last year. Most of that increase comes from the city's 3% share of a federally funded $2-million airport project.
• Hot Springs plans to boost its 2010 budget 2.3%, with a $17,000 increase going to the library. Hooray for learning! (Amusing side note: Hot Springs Councilman Barry Field helped defeat a motion to send Arlin Fenhaus to the South Dakota Golf Course Superintendent’s Association meeting. Field said he wouldn't approve Fenhaus's trip "until he begins to take direction." Ouch!)
• Sioux Falls is going for a 4% increase. The budget includes $1.7 million for golf course improvements but bupkis for the homeless shelter, in a city where one thousand children are homeless.
  
• Then there's Watertown, which is considering a 29.5% budget increase. Holy cow! Is that all stimulus money?

And a local comparison: Lake County just approved a $5.8 million budget, an increase of 3.6% over the 2009 budget.

Today's Pork: Watertown PD Receives Federal Grant

More money that candidate Munsterman will surely want to send back to Washington: The Watertown Police Department is receiving nearly 1.6 million soul-sapping federal dollars in the form of a grant (grant! free money! pennies from heaven, right?) to support the Northeast South Dakota Rural Information Exchange Model. The money will cover salaries and benefits for three new communications officers for the next two years. It will also buy new communications equipment and 45 laptop computers for other PDs in the Codington-Hamlin-Day-Grant-Roberts metroplex.

The Munsterman-Thune-conservative argument here should be, "Federal money is bad! Send it back! We can pay for our own police!" The pragmatic argument holding sway in Watertown appears to be, "We can use the new staff and equipment to better communicate and catch bad guys for at least a couple years."

It is perhaps worth noting that Watertown is saying yes to apparently temporary funding for new hires. In a similar situation, the Mitchell City Commission recently turned down federal dollars that would have covered a new community resource officer for three years.

It may also be worth noting that the KELO story on the Watertown PD grant assiduously avoids noting that the money helping to make KELOLand a safer place is coming from the Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement to Combat Crime and Drugs Program, part of the Department of Justice's chunk of the federal stimulus package, voted for by Senator Tim Johnson but voted against by Senator John Thune. How did that detail not make the story?