Adelstein: Powers Not Fit for Sec. State Flunky

Senator Adelstein gets double attention this morning. On Mount Blogmore, the Rapid City Republican raises some grave concerns about the patronage that has killed Dakota War College and elevated Pat Powers to director of operations for the Secretary of State.

The employment of a patently dishonest person in an office requiring absolute objective fairness is outrageous. One example, that comes to mind—that I copied before he tried erasing his multiple calumnies—is the false charge against my company—not just me personally—of giving “80,000 to Democratic candidates.” This on it's [sic] face was untrue, since he knew, or should have known that this would be illegal. The CORPORATE dollars were given on a BALLOT issue—else they would have been illegal. They were used successfully to defeat the “no exception” abortion on the ballot.

There are a number of other cases of total untruthfulness. This was not just the case with me, but others as well. Ragging on me for years, month after month—even when I was out of office—indicates a public hatred that renders Mr Powers unfit to occupy an office that requires impartial treatment of citizens. Treatment that we have come to regard as only natural in that office with the last three occupants, all whom I knew well both politically and as an active operator of a large complex corporation, many “not for profits”, numerous LLCs and Rapid City Enterprise funds [State Senator Stan Adelstein, blog comment, submitted 2010.12.14, under Kevin Woster's "From War College to SOS, in a cloud of nuked archives," Mount Blogmore, 2010.12.13].

Such is the risk we bloggers run. Mr. Powers has made a number of enemies with his political blogging. Now elevated by political chum Jason Gant to a particularly sensitive public office, Powers himself will now face harsh scrutiny to see if he can go beyond stepping away from the blog mic and develop the reputation for strict adherence to the law and fairness that were the hallmark of outgoing Secretary Chris Nelson and his staff (far too many of whom are clearing the decks to make way for Gant's appointees).

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Bonus Blog Snark: Mr. Kurtz says the delete-fest continues at Dakota War College, as he says a comment he submitted linking to Adelstein's charges was deleted by DWC committee-blogger Tyler Crissman. Mr. Crissman replies that "Forces beyond our control made it necessary for us to take that story down." Evading responsibility, hiding behind vague, unnamed forces—sounds like dark Powers at work. (I also can't link to Crissman's response directly, since their new new theme omits comment permalinks. Sigh.)

Snowgates Demonstrate Practical Wisdom of Public Services

Mr. Ehrisman's passionate advocacy of snowgates and our weekend winter wonderland got me wondering why Madison's public works department doesn't use snowgates. My dad, a font of local wisdom, tells me that Madison once upon a time did install snowgates. The innovation came at the urging of Harvey Rhoden, who worked for the city.

Personal digression: I knew Harvey as "Grampa Rhoden," not because he was kin, but because he and his wife babysat me when my mom worked at the college. Grampa Rhoden was a big, round man whom I remember as deeply tanned from being outdoors running heavy equipment all the time. His cigar habit may have imprinted on me a fondness for the aroma.

Harvey's snowgates worked great, Dad says. But the city didn't like them, because they slowed down the work. The snowplow drivers were on the streets longer, and the city had to pay them more. So, says Dad, the snowgates didn't last.

Dad and I had this conversation as we towed his skidsteer from one of his rental units to another to clear the snow ridges from the driveways. We saw plenty of other people applying their own shovels and snowblowers to the hard, chunky walls of snow sculpted across their driveways by the city plows. Madison only had three inches of fluffy snow, so clearing steps and sidewalks was a breeze. The skidsteer made clearing the driveway a snap as well... if you consider gassing up, loading and unloading, and maintaining personal heavy equipment all year long a snap. Without the skidsteer, I guesstimate clearing a typical snowplow driveway ridge might take ten minutes with a good metal scoop shovel. And that's a light snow.

Now multiply that effort by a couple thousand households. Calculate a GDP equivalent. Say a couple thousand people expend that effort. 2000 people × 10 minutes × $10/hour (your time is worth at least that much, isn't it?) = $3333. Add in a few dozen broken plastic shovels, gas for snowblowers, the investment in skidsteers and trailers made by a few wildmen like my dad....

Compare that with the cost of centralizing that snow removal as a function of local government. I'm totally speculating here, but suppose six snowplow operators have to spend three more hours lifting and lowering snowgates to keep our driveways and sidewalk egresses clear. Suppose we pay them twenty—heck, thirty bucks an hour (that's cold, crappy work). That's $540 above current costs. Add equipment and maintenance....

Snowgates remind me of the discussion we had last year about closing drivers license stations last year. When government spends less on certain services, it often shifts costs to individuals. We pay less in taxes but more in personal resources, and more folks are left out. Dad has a skidsteer and truck and trailer to haul, but the old lady down the block has felt boots and a plastic shovel. I suppose if we had some Christmas spirit, we'd have just run the skidsteer dry clearing every driveway we could for free... but what kind of socialism is that?

Even Dakota War College agrees: we'd be snowed without good government services. Government can provide some centralized services more efficiently than private efforts can.

Now, about that single-payer health care system....

Live-Blog! Governor Rounds's Last (Thank Goodness) Budget Address

Governor M. Michael Rounds is in the State Capitol and on SDPB right now telling us how he'd screw education if he were around for another term. Here's my live-blog (hit Refresh/Ctrl+R/F5 for updates!):

Actually, Dennis Daugaard gets to lead off. He expresses his thanks to his great friend, Mike Rounds, for being "a leader and a mentor, a negotiator, a strategist," but above all a friend. (And he says this, even having seen the budget report? That's loyalty.)

13:09 CST: Dennis and Mike shake hands, Gov. puts hand on Gov-Elect's shoulder... aw, no hug.

Oops! Ovation almost petered out... then someone decided it wouldn't be cool for the applause for the sitting governor to run shorter than the applause for the governor-elect.

13:12: Governor Rounds says we face "an unpredictable economic recovery." We have $107M in reserves available. These are rainy day funds that we didn't use during the actual rainy day, which still didn't rain that hard in South Dakota.

Important: some of the reserves-dipping that Rounds is finally proposing are to balance this year's budget, not just next year's.

13:13: Wow: $21M less from the Bank Franchise Tax, down from projected $24.9M to only $3.9M. Guess the banks aren't making money hand over fist any more on high interest rates. Governor Rounds embraces usury and blames federal credit card regulations. Contactors excise tax down $14M, but sales tax up $10M.

Rounds proposes using $14M in reserves to finish FY2011 on budget, then $36.9M in reserves to balance FY2012.

13:17: Sales tax is the biggest revenue source for the state, projected about $700M in FY2012. Second biggest chunk of state revenue: video lottery, over $150M.

Projected Revenue increase only $8M, projected expenses for FY2012 still up $32M. More spent on Medicaid since stimulus is running out (and I don't hear Rounds thanking Uncle Sam for the help over the last couple years). Expenditures on education and public safety are projected to go down.

FY2011 structural deficit: $108.4M. Even with the proposed cuts and reserve spending, Rounds says we'll still have a $74.8M structural deficit in FY 2012. (Tea partiers, bring your shouting home!) Governor's graph shows a structural deficit every year of his administration but FY2007. The recession exploded that deficit... even though that recession never caused our state economy to shrink. What gives? Why isn't our increasing wealth pouring some increasing fair share into the state coffers?

13:27: Bad, nasty, evil, ineffective federal stimulus dollars will cover $36.9M of next year's structural deficit.

The stimulus dollars granted previously forbade cuts to Medicaid and K-12 education for FY2009, 2010, and 2011. The new "Stimulus 3" funds prohibit cuts to K-12 and higher education (even though, Rounds whines, those stimulus dollars don't provide any higher ed support) and prohibit growing the reserves.

13:29: Rounds says stimuluses. Oh! Why couldn't he have said stimuli?

And now, I think Rounds is actually trying to tell us that the federal stimulus dollars caused the structural deficit. No, Mike: it's your and the Legislature's fiscal cowardice that has caused the deficit.

13:31: State revenues spent on general fund expenditures will be almost $1.2B, plus another $36.9M in stimulus dollars. Ah, but Stimulus 3 will require a $10.6M increase in Board of Regents spending, so it replaces much less than $36.9M in general fund spending.

13:35: Rounds says we still need to come up with another $39.2M in state funds to cover our general funds needs and make up for the end of the stimulus package.

SDPB gives us a quick view of House Minority Leader Mitch Fargen. He looks unimpressed.

Rounds talks about FMAP money being based on personal per capita income relative to the national average. Since our economy has outperformed the national economy—i.e., because we are increasing our income faster than the rest of the country—we have to cover more of the costs. And Rounds seems to think this is unfair. It seems Uncle Sam has the right idea: if your state is doing better than others, you should be able to cover your own costs. But you can't do that if you aren't taxing that increased income, if your tax system is still a regressive, property- and consumption-based system!

13:39: Rounds shows us $39.2 in new ongoing funding required to replace ending stimulus, $15.0M to increase our FMAP state share, and $11.7M in increased Medicaid demand. That's a total of $65.9M. Make $36.1 in cuts, and we still need $29.8M more to cover our needs.

13:44: The Governor's chart shows cuts in every state department. Governor's office takes a $236K cut; Legislature takes a $239K cut. 2010 research centers and Cultural Heritage Centers get big cuts. $23.5 million cut from state aid per student K-12. That's the $240 per student, about 5%. Also reducing technology in schools budget, consolidation incentives.

Net $15M reduction in education spending. Rounds emphasizes Medicaid providers are taking a 5% hit, while some state offices are taking 6, 7, 8, maybe 10% cuts.

Rounds: "I want to share a little bit..."—there's an inapt phrase.

Rounds cites $123.1M in school district general fund cash accounts back in June 2003. $183.9M in June 2009 in cash accounts. June 2010: $194.3M. Rounds is saying that the good people running the schools have very responsibly saved money recognizing that cuts could come. Translation: screw 'em. Force the local districts to burn up their reserves.

13:50: Board of Regents gets an FTE increase of 227.5. A lot of that is linked to federal and private grants. Ax is falling on FTE's everywhere else.

Note that the net education cuts, counting K-12, tech schools, and Regents, is only $11.45M. 'Taking Care of People" goes up $40.97M. Protecting the Public (cops and such) gets $4.2M more. The rest of state government gets cuts [oops! missed the number!].

13:54: Special appropriations for FY2012: Rounds cites seven presidential (blame Obama) disaster declarations in South Dakota this year, plus seven disasters from previous years still being tackled. State needs to authorize 10% match to federal disaster dollars, local governments are supposed to do 15%. Some locals, especially northeastern South Dakota, don't have that cash, so the state has kicked in extra funding to help repair roads. Rounds says we'll need $13.4M to cover this in the FY2011 budget. He requests only two small specials for FY2012 on tuiton and tax reimbursements for old folks, total not much more than $14M for the 2011 Legislature to approve.

13:58: I check my inbox and find new SD Dems chair Ben Nesselhuf calling Rounds's address a "Broken promise" and says the proposed change to the K-12 funding formula: "broken law marks new attack in GOP War on Education." (ben, did you Tweet that from the floor? ;-) )

The state will spend $1.194B in general funds. Federal funds will contribute another $1.876B. Other funds make up $1.004B. In total, South Dakota will spend over $4 billion in FY2012. And pay attention Tea Party friends: almost half of that is from Uncle Sam. So tell us what you're going to do about that, Senator Thune and Rep.-Elect Noem.

Rounds breaks out the goofy dollar graphic, notes that his budget would spend 49 cents out of every dollar on K-12, higher ed, tech schools, and the Department of Education. He answers exactly the question I was thinking about and shows that back in 2004, education made up 55% of the state budget. "Taking Care of People" ate up 30% then, eats up 37% now. There's the big flip. Rounds also notes that the share of spending on state government has gone from 5% of the budget in 2004 to 4% in his proposed budget.

In this entire speech, I think I have heard Governor Rounds mention "increased taxes" once, and he barely finished that last consonant before hurrying to the next sentence. Now he is speaking of spending South Dakotans' tax dollars wisely, as if that money is a fixed sum, as if the idea of increasing that revenue is inconceivable.

Mike Rounds says South Dakotans have the highest average credit rating in the nation. He says we don't buy what we can't afford. He says the legislators have to answer to those taxpayers who aren't in the Legislature, who are back home working. he says they have to be willing to say no to all those great programs people want. Again, no mention of the idea that some good, honest South Dakotans might be willing to pay more to keep those great programs.

14:10: But hey! We're still working hard to make South Dakota an even better place to raise a family. Rounds says 27,000 more people have jobs now than in September 2002. He mentions saving Ellsworth AFB from closure (again, he offers no thanks to Uncle Sam for all those dollars). He brags again about not touching the reserves until now. He says K-12 is getting $109M more each year now than in 2003.

Boy, for heartfelt words of thanks to state employees, the Governor is sure looking at his script a lot. Where's the teleprompter patrol that yells at President Obama for things like this?

Another inapt reference: Rounds mentions that today is Pearl Harbor Day.

14:14: Governor Rounds is now distracting us from the budget discussion by wrapping himself in patriotism, talking about what wonderful soldiers we have in the National Guard and the regular service... yet another great source of federal income for South Dakotans.

Rounds talks about being elected to make South Dakota a better place. And he ends his term with a budget plan that would make K-12 education worse. How tone deaf is this governor?

...and SDPB ends with a great picture of some guy's shoulder in the gallery.

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Now I suppose we could spend a lot of time picking this budget apart. But I am really, really hoping that this slideshow is going right to the trashbin, and that we can eagerly anticipate the first big number-crunch from the Daugaard administration that might have a little more vision behind it.

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?

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.

Uncle Sam to Spend Millions on Madison Airport

Last year our man Hunter criticized the spending of $4.1 million in federal stimulus dollars to build an airport on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. That airport was built to provide emergency air travel and economic opportunity for 20,000 underserved South Dakotans.

I eagerly await Mr. Hunter's criticism of even greater federal expenditures for the expansion of an airport serving even fewer South Dakotans. Mr. Hunter's own newspaper reports that the municipal airport right here in Madison, population 6,500, stands to receive about $4.5 million in federal handouts for various projects over the next three years.

Now I cannot speak to the quality or value of our fine local airport. I've never flown out of Madison. Neither has anyone else I can think of. So I would like to know:

1. How many local residents use the Madison airport to travel out of the county?
2. How many businesspeople, hunters, tourists, and other sources of business activity fly into the Madison airport each year?
   
3. How much economic activity is generated by the Madison airport?
   

The answers to these questions may provide a perfectly reasonable justification for the federal government to pick up 95% of the cost of our local airport improvements. All the Republicans in Madison had better hope those answers are good enough to convince Representative-Elect Kristi Noem to keep her Tea Party budget axe away from our airport.

Delaware, South Dakota Least Socialist States in America

Ah, so that's why Sarah Palin left Alaska: she was fleeing socialism!

Mr. Gibilisco points me toward a fun little MSNBC article that calculates the most socialist states in America. There's no squawking about smoking bans or climate change legislation or other misapplications of the S-word. Greg Bocquet of MainStreet.com works from the "from the core definition of socialism as a form of government in which the state owns the means of production and allocates resources to its citizens at its discretion."

Bocquet thus divides state expenditures by state GDP and ranks the states by that percentage high to low. His top five: West Virginia, Alaska, Alabama, Vermont, New Mexico.

Surely we all want to know how South Dakota ranks, but the article doesn't provide a full spreadsheet. I thus go hunting for my own table. USGovernmentSpending.com comes to my aid, providing an even better dataset: combined state and local government spending. The results: South Dakota state and local government spending in Fiscal Year 2009 was $6.1 billion, 15.9% of our $38.3 billion GDP. We're not quite one-sixth socialist... which ranks us 49th nationwide! Only Delaware is less socialist than we are!

State	State & Local Spending (billions)	State GDP (billions)	Govt/GSP	"Socialism" Rank
Alabama	$40.60	$169.90	23.9%	9
Alaska	$14.30	$45.70	31.3%	1
Arizona	$58.40	$256.40	22.8%	17
Arkansas	$21.30	$101.80	20.9%	29
California	$437.10	$1,891.40	23.1%	15
Colorado	$44.70	$252.70	17.7%	46
Connecticut	$37.10	$227.40	16.3%	48
Delaware	$9.50	$60.60	15.7%	50
DC	$14.90	$99.10	15.0%	51
Florida	$168.60	$737.00	22.9%	16
Georgia	$82.90	$395.20	21.0%	28
Hawaii	$14.40	$66.40	21.7%	23
Idaho	$11.70	$54.00	21.7%	24
Illinois	$123.30	$630.40	19.6%	38
Indiana	$52.10	$262.60	19.8%	35
Iowa	$27.40	$142.30	19.3%	39
Kansas	$26.00	$124.90	20.8%	30
Kentucky	$37.20	$156.60	23.8%	10
Louisiana	$51.40	$208.40	24.7%	7
Maine	$11.50	$51.30	22.4%	18
Maryland	$55.00	$286.80	19.2%	40
Massachusetts	$71.50	$365.20	19.6%	36
Michigan	$87.00	$368.40	23.6%	11
Minnesota	$54.80	$260.70	21.0%	26
Mississippi	$25.60	$95.90	26.7%	4
Missouri	$48.40	$239.80	20.2%	33
Montana	$8.80	$36.00	24.4%	8
Nebraska	$20.00	$86.40	23.1%	14
Nevada	$23.10	$126.50	18.3%	43
New Hampshire	$10.60	$59.40	17.8%	45
New Jersey	$96.60	$483.00	20.0%	34
New Mexico	$20.50	$74.80	27.4%	2
New York	$277.30	$1,093.20	25.4%	5
North Carolina	$77.90	$398.00	19.6%	37
North Dakota	$6.00	$31.90	18.8%	41
Ohio	$105.60	$471.30	22.4%	19
Oklahoma	$28.80	$153.80	18.7%	42
Oregon	$37.10	$165.60	22.4%	20
Pennsylvania	$114.70	$554.80	20.7%	31
Rhode Island	$11.10	$47.80	23.2%	13
South Carolina	$43.10	$159.60	27.0%	3
South Dakota	$6.10	$38.30	15.9%	49
Tennessee	$50.10	$244.50	20.5%	32
Texas	$208.00	$1,144.70	18.2%	44
Utah	$24.70	$112.90	21.9%	22
Vermont	$6.30	$25.40	24.8%	6
Virginia	$67.80	$408.40	16.6%	47
Washington	$71.10	$338.30	21.0%	27
West Virginia	$14.80	$63.30	23.4%	12
Wisconsin	$52.10	$244.40	21.3%	25
Wyoming	$8.40	$37.50	22.4%	21

Note that when we include local spending, Alaska takes first place for socialism. They can't just see Russia from their front porches; they live Russia, spending nearly twice as much of their state wealth as South Dakota does on state and local government.

Federal Grant Boosts Beginning Farmers

Here's more federal money for John Thune and Kristi Noem to send back to Washington: my friends at Dakota Rural Action just won a $132,200 two-year grant to give new farmers a leg up:

The Farm Beginnings program provides participants the opportunity to learn from local farmers about farm management issues like Whole Farm Planning, Financial Planning, Marketing, Business Planning, and Connecting with Resources. Beyond the formal classes, the course also provides opportunities for networking between beginning and established farmers, the chance to engage in mentorship or apprenticeships if desired, and the chance see sustainable practices being implemented on local farms during the course's farm tours and skills sessions.

...DRA's Farm Beginnings program is funded by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant #2010-03066 ["DRA Gets Grant from Farm Beginnings," Madison Daily Leader, 2010.11.23].

Oh, that darn federal government, spending money to help small farmers and preserve South Dakota's way of life....

Federal Money Benefits Mobridge Hospital

That darned Washington, throwing money away on wasteful projects...

...like providing better and safer medical services in Mobridge:

Gov. Mike Rounds has awarded Walworth County a $309,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to facilitate hospital upgrades.

“This is really a great project for Mobridge and Walworth County,” the Governor said. “These upgrades will allow the hospital to modernize and better serve patients, both in terms of more space and increased services.”

A new addition to the hospital will be built. Renovation of existing space, along with the new addition, will add more than 17,000 square feet to the hospital. As a result, many of the hospital’s departments will be enlarged.

...The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development funds the CDBG Program, and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development administers it ["Expansion, Upgrades in Store for Mobridge Regional Hospital," South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development press release, 2010.11.16].

Send that pork back, right, Kristi? Let Mobridge pay for its own hospital instead of relying federal handouts, right, Republicans?

Don't you just hate it when, contrary to all the anti-government rhetoric you've been fed by the Koch brothers and the GOP, the federal government makes life tangibly better for small-town South Dakotans?

Hunter: Simpson-Bowles Roadmap to National Unity

The deficit reduction plan proposed by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles rouses our man Hunter to comment on duty, shared sacrifice, and bringing Americans together (cue Lee Greenwood):

The all-encompassing approach [of the Simpson-Bowles plan] gives citizens the chance for all of us to contribute to fixing a problem that we caused ourselves. We're not going to create the problem and give it to our children. We're going to take responsibility.

This isn't symbolic patriotism like putting up a flag on the Fourth of July. This is real patriotism, where everyone sacrifices for the good of the country, for our future. We can use this crisis as an opportunity to unify our nation once again [Jon Hunter, "Deficit Panel Recommendations Could Actually Unify Americans," Madison Daily Leader, 2010.11.15].

Hunter may be right about the unifying effects of shared austerity. Calling for every American to pay more taxes and accept fewer services from Uncle Sam could give Americans a sense of common purpose. Involving everyone could make the plan itself work better, like when an overweight family diets together, or when a group of friends all choose to quit smoking together.

Simpson and Bowles propose a national austerity plan that would take 27 years just to balance the annual budget; that's a long -term campaign that could keep our national attention focused on a goal rather than on partisan politics for several election cycles. It challenges the Tea Party re-enacters to prove that they aren't just convulsing against President Barack Obama but really can live up to their rhetoric about our grandkids. If they can, we liberals might be able to find common cause with them, pay more taxes, accept cuts to programs we love, and work toward fiscal sanity.

As Bob the Builder says, Can we do it?
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If we can't unite around a plan, perhaps we can at east unite around a game. Neighbor John Nelson points me toward the New York Times' interactive checklist that lets each of us take a swing at reducing the deficit. I take a swing and prove that Simpson and Bowles are pikers: instead of waiting until 2037 to balance the budget, I run a $330-billion surplus by 2015. 50% spending cuts, 50% tax increases... with a $1.1-trillion surplus by 2030, I probably wipe out the federal debt by 2030. (Dang: I didn't even cut space-based missile defense.)

Robert Reich will probably jump in and say I also crash the American economy. Oops. Try your hand, and submit your results below!

Moody County Residents Resist Private Ambulance, Prefer Public Health Service

Folks in Moody County appear to lean my way on the proper role of government in health care. Faced with a county commission proposal to privatize the county ambulance service, more than 70 citizens packed the courthouse in Flandreau to tell local government to keep its hands on their health care:

One of the first speakers was Dr. Gary Bruning, a physician at the Avera Flandreau Medical Center. Bruning is the director of the Moody County Ambulance crew.

Bruning, addressing the five commissioners as they sat in the jury box area of the courtroom, said the commission should be less concerned with the financial aspect of the ambulance.

“It should be a service and not a business,” Bruning said. “The job of governments, whether it's federal or state or local, is not to run a business but to provide a service. And what we need to do is provide a service. You know services many times not profitable. And this is one of those services that may not be profitable.”

Bruning said cutting costs on the service could end up costing the county in other ways.

“So what we have to do, in essence, is place a price on somebody's well-being and possibly their life. And that's not a real good position to put ourselves in,” he said [Ryan Woodard, "Citizens Show up in Droves to Voice Ambulance Concerns," Moody County Enterprise, 2010.11.09].

Pay attention to what Dr. Bruning is saying:

1. The free market puts a dollar figure on human life at least as much as, if not more than, any government healthc are service.
   
2. Smaller government isn't always better government.
3. Good government is about service, not profit.
   

The Moody County Commission says it will not take action on its privatization plan until after three new commissioners take their seats in January.

Bjorklund's Dreaded "Legislation, Taxation, and Regulation" Comes from Kristi Noem

"Independent" candidate for District 8 State House Jason Bjorklund continues to insist that "legislation, taxation, and regulation" caused the recession and put his trucking company out of business. Yet in his campaign literature and forum speeches, Bjorklund has failed to identify specific South Dakota "legislation, taxation, and regulation" that caused these problems and that he would repeal. Where'd all this evil "legislation, taxation, and regulation" come from?

Kristi Noem. Russell Olson. The very Republicans whose signs Bjorklund places in his yard. The Herseth Sandlin campaign points out that Kristi Noem has supported and sponsored at least seven tax increases in the South Dakota State Legislature:

• In 2010, Noem cosponsored SB 186, which increases taxes on small businesses to cover shortfalls in the state unemployment insurance fund. (Senator Olson backed that, too.)
  
• In 2009, she was the prime sponsor of HB 1217, which gives the Governor authority to raise taxes unilaterally by suspending tax exemptions – such as exemptions on churches, hospitals, doctors, clinics and prescription drugs.
• She was also the prime sponsor of HB 1218, which increases taxes by raising fees collected by any state department or agency by 2.5% per year since the last time they were raised.
• She was also the prime sponsor of HB 1229, which increased the gross receipts tax on South Dakota’s tourism industry by 50%.
• She voted to increase vehicle license fees by 67% (HB 1007), and cosponsored another bill to raise license fees on vehicles older than 5 years by an additional 33% (SB 11). (Senator Olson did vote to table the former.)
  
• She cosponsored SB 116, which imposes a new gas tax for ethyl and methyl alcohol used in motor vehicles. (Senator Olson also sponsored that one.)
  

Noem supported increased business regulation with this year's HB 1203 and 2008's HB 1128.

Noem also voted to raise her own pay 33% with HB 1250 in 2008.

Bjorklund has a profound capacity to ignore the reality of South Dakota politics: nearly all of the South Dakota legislation, taxation, and regulation under which he labors and against which he rails have been passed by Republican legislative majorities and signed by Republican governors. Bjorklund's and the Tea Party's darling Kristi Noem has promoted that very legislation, taxation, and regulation.

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.

Health Care Solution: Apply Presidential Disaster Declarations to Sick People

Here's how my brain works:

Wednesday evening on Marketplace, Jimmy Carter recalled how Ted Kennedy killed his plan to guarantee catastrophic health care coverage for all Americans and then expand that plan into universal coverage.

Then I (along with one of the lovely ladies with whom I was having dinner) thought about Kristi Noem's willingness to defend the enormous government handouts to her farm because "Agriculture's important, and it's a national security issue...." on the basis of national security.

Well, people are important, too, right? If people get sick, they can't work or pick up their shotguns to repel Chinese paratroopers. If consumers are mired in medical debt, they can't buy the houses and cars and other goods that keep the economy humming. And if folks can't afford care and thus die, well, they can't pay taxes to buy tanks and B-1 bombers. Those are all national security issues, right?

So maybe folks with catastrophic medical problems should get the same treatment as counties and states with catastrophic problems: declare them federal disaster areas. If get laid low by cancer or some other awful act of God that's going to cost, say, a whole year's salary to fix, let President Obama issue a Presidential Declaration of Individual Disaster. Let the President release federal funds—money from all of us, your fellow citizens—to cove your medical bills and help you get back on your physical and fiscal feet to rejoin the fight to keep America marching forward.

We do it for roads and bridges and flooded soybean fields. Why not do it for our fellow citizens?

South Dakota 39th in Energy Efficiency Policy

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has just published its 2010 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. In terms of policies to promote energy efficiency, South Dakota ranks 39th, down three notches from 2009.

ACEEE looks at six areas to calculate this scorecard:

1. utility and public benefits programs and policies
2. transportation policies
3. building energy codes
4. combined heat and power
5. state government initiatives
6. appliance efficiency standards

Out of a total of 50 points to be earned across those six categories, South Dakota scored just 9.5 points. Looking at information from our Public Utilities Commission and the federal Energy Information Administration, ACEEE finds South Dakota's utilities are lagging in customer energy efficiency programs. The PUC and utility partners are working to pick up the slack with the SD Energy Smart program. Our utilities did almost quadruple their spending on energy efficiency programs, from $650,000 in 2007 to $2.5 million in 2008. However, we lack any formal state policy defining energy efficiency as a resource in utility and regulatory decision-making. South Dakota also has no long-term targets for reduction of energy use. We also got a paltry half-point for our building energy codes and zero points for policies promoting more efficient transportation or appliance efficiency standards.

As you can see, we're a low median among our neighbors. North Dakota ranks dead last, with Wyoming and Nebraska not far from the bottom. Montana is closer to the national middle at 33rd, while Iowa and Minnesota distinguish themselves at 12th and 8th, respectively.

The most improved states are not necessarily hippie havens. Utah and Arizona jumped up 11 spots, while New Mexico and Alaska climbed eight steps in the rankings. (Alaska probably rose six steps just when Sarah Palin resigned.)

The report authors note that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has boosted state energy efficiency programs with over $11 billion. But many states may see their progress toward energy efficiency stymied in the next couple years as they slash budgets to deal with deficits.

Free registration will let you download the full report here.

Obama Presides over Smallest Executive Workforce in 50 Years

Hat tip to Ned Hodgman at Understanding Government!

The Tea Party and Kristi Noem are imagining things. Noem recites the standard GOP slogans about how government is getting too big.

However, the plain truth is that President Barack Obama currently manages an Executive Branch workforce that makes up the smallest fraction of the U.S. population in the last 50 years.

Federal Government Employment Levels Through the Years (including the U.S. Postal Service)

	Executive Branch civilians	Total U.S. population	Executive Branch employees per 1,000 population
1962 (Kennedy)	2.48 million	186.5 million	13.3
1964 (Johnson)	2.47 million	191.8 million	12.9
1970 (Nixon)	2.94 million*	205 million	14.4
1975 (Ford)	2.84 million	215.9 million	13.2
1978 (Carter)	2.87 million	222.5 million	12.9
1982 (Reagan)	2.77 million	232.1 million	11.9
1990 (Bush)	3.06 million*	249.6 million	12.3
1994 (Clinton)	2.9 million	263.1 million	11.1
2002 (Bush)	2.63 million	287.8 million	9.1
2010 (Obama)	2.65 million+	310.3 million+	8.4+

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget, via Washington Post. *= Figure includes temporary Census Bureau workers. += Estimates by OMB and U.S. Census Bureau.

The Executive Branch currently has 2.65 million employees. That's only a 20K increase from George W. Bush's 2002 Executive Branch workforce. That's less than the 2.77 million who worked for Saint Ronald in 1982.

And President Obama's 8.4 Executive Branch workers per 1000 citizens is the smallest proportion on the modern chart. Under Obama, it's easier than ever for us to surround them.

But hey, why let facts stand in the way of a fun party? (By the way, still no commitment from Noem to appear with fellow radical conservative Ted Nugent to thrill her teabagger fans.)

Noem Lobbyist Smokescreen Clouds Own Positions

GOP candidate for South Dakota's lone U.S. House seat Kristi Noem lobs another publicity stunt. Talking process and personalities instead of practical problem-solving (as usual), Noem trumpets her opposition to spouses of representatives lobbying in Congress.

This stunt is funny on various levels:

1. The glossy three-fold flyer Noem sent me says she believes "the best government is the government that governs least." (Leave it to Kristi to give Thoreau such an unartful, clunky paraphrasing.) But this new noisy campaign "issue" is a call for more government and more restriction of First Amendment rights. On the profound policy issues of the day, Noem apparently doesn't want government to assume any obligation, either because she believes in Hoover-style Social Darwinism or because she simply can't wrap her brain around such hard problems. But on process non-issues that make easy-to-remember sound bites, Noem is all for more rules and regulations.
   
2. As I review PP's mail box, I don't see any explanation from Noem as to whether she will apply this rule to herself and forbid her husband and partner in Noem Insurance DBA from lobbying her on any legislation concerning insurance regulation. Would Noem extend this rule to forbid her restaurateur mother from lobbying her on food safety regulations?
3. Also missing from Noem's call to arms: a ban on lobbyists themselves becoming members of Congress. (Cue wise guy in back of room to sneeze Aaah-Thune!)
   

Really, Ms. Noem. You need to stop make Democratic blogging so easy. More importantly, you need to offer some specific solutions for the real problems facing South Dakota. If you think sending Max Sandlin to the quiet corner will put more South Dakotans to work, pave any roads, or expand access to health care, you are sorely mistaken.
-------------------------------
Coming up next: Noem's big NRA fail!

Proper Role of Government: Protecting Life and Liberty

Ned Hodgman understands that we form governments to provide some basic protections that we can't provide individually and that allow us to enjoy life and liberty and pursue happiness. Hodgman says that when government doesn't do its job, people can die. He points to some vivid recent examples:

1. The Army Corps of Engineers doesn't maintain the levees in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina hits. People die.
   
2. The Mineral Management Service doesn't enforce its rules on offshore oil platforms. The Deepwater Horizon rig explodes. Workers die.
3. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration drops the ball on enforcement of pipeline safety rules. The U.S. sees hundreds of pipeline accidents over the last five years, including this month's San Bruno explosion. People die.
   

(Don't forget: the PHMSA is run by a former oil company lawyer, Cynthia Quarterman. Perhaps to Quarterman's credit, while the PHMSA has issued 16 special permits since January 2009, only one such permit has been issued since Quarterman, an Obama appointee, took charge in November 2009.)

Hodgman offers a somewhat more reasoned response to government shortcomings than you'll hear from the teabaggers:

At the heart of Americans’ dissatisfaction with Democrats, Republicans, and politicians in general is not the legislative process or politicians’ foibles, as irritating as those things can be day in, day out. At the heart of people’s anger is real concern and fear about their safety and the safety of people they care about. In the richest country in the world, life remains unpredictable in large part because of government agencies that don’t push harder to inspect, monitor, and get in the face of life’s daily problems. Pushing them harder to do their jobs is our job [Ned Hodgman, "The Problem with Politics Is Toothless Government," Understanding Government, 2010.09.25].

Now don't anyone go quoting Ben Franklin on security and liberty here. We're not talking about giving up civil liberties to catch terrorists. We're talking about enforcing rules to make sure public works, oil rigs, and pipelines are built correctly so they don't collapse or explode. That's why we pay taxes: to create a government with the resources and the teeth necessary to ensure security and liberty.

South Dakotans Get 11% More Federal Aid Than Average Americans

Republican less-government platitutdes notwithstanding, South Dakota remains a welfare state. Mr. Woodring draws my attention to a report in that Sioux Falls paper on the Census Bureau's 2009 Consolidated Federal Funds Report. The Census says South Dakota received $9.5 billion dollars from Uncle Sam last year. That's up from $5.1 billion in FY2000.

Put that $9.5 billion in perspective: The federal government spends eight times more on us than we spend on ourselves through our state government's general fund expenditures. Self-reliance, anyone? (Thank-you notes may be sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington D.C. 20500.)

Mr. Woodring finds our windfall is unsurprising and ascribes it to our being "a largely rural state with lots of roads." True... but the biggest beneficiaries of federal largesse are our biggest urban counties. Minnehaha and Pennington lead the list with $1.9 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively. The only two counties in the top ten that are not also home to one of South Dakota's ten largest cities are Shannon (6th, $236 million) and Meade (8th, $210 million).

My home, Lake County, got $104 million. Madison's city budget is around $18 million.

And while we get a fair amount of money for laying new concrete and asphalt, over 50% of the federal dollars we get go for direct assistance like retirement and disability payments, Medicare payments, unemployment compensation, student aid, farming subsidies and housing assistance. As I've reported previously, roads are not at the top of the list of our handouts from Uncle Sam. It's not even Indians who make South Dakota a big welfare state. It's old folks, sick folks, kids, farmers, and other friends and neighbors who need help.

South Dakota ranks tenth in per-capita federal expenditures. Our "best" category: we rank 4th in direct payments other than retirement and disability. Overall, Alaska is first. (Funny how states like South Dakota and Alaska breed such rampant biting of the hand that feeds them.)

Naturally, the number I really want to compare is our average per capita contribution to the federal coffers. I can't find the 2009 figure, but according to the Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract, in 2006, the average South Dakota income tax return submitted 77% of the national average per taxpayer's return. Say it again, dear readers: welfare.

Face facts, friends: South Dakota survives on federal assistance. And contrary to the good Dr. Blanchard's paraphrased comment in Ledyard King's report, it really is a contradiction for South Dakota Republicans to play to the Tea Party by crying about federal spending while assuring us they'll protect every federal program that keeps South Dakota afloat.

Weekend Reading for Madison's LAIC Board

Hey, Dustin Williams! And Linda Salmonson, Mark Stoller, DeLon Mork, Jerry Johnson, Chris Giles, Karen Lembcke, Doug Knowlton, Jeff Bloom, Mike McDowell, and Floyd Rummel. Yeah, you. All of you. You're the board of directors of the Lake Area Improvement Corporation. You're supposed to be boosting economic development here in Madison and Lake County. Quit reading the boring reports Dwaine Chapel submits. If you want to know how to fix Madison (and that's our shared mission), here are some things you should be reading:

1. Why Rural Communities Need Artists. Mike Knutson brings back some great lessons from the Midwest Rural Assembly. Among those lessons, Knutson points out the importance of the arts to economic development. Art isn't just a couple John Green prints hanging in the lobby. Art is the force that brings visionaries to town and keeps them here to help solve problems.
2. Progressive on Purpose: The Levelland, Texas, Economic Development Corporation has a blog. Their executive director, Dave Quinn, uses it to post local news and photos. He communicates with the public. He invites comments. He takes negative feedback and responds to it in a way that invites more discussion. Dustin Linda, DeLon, et al., your executive director does not do that. Your executive director should.
3. Economic development depends on government. LAIC board, how many of you are Republicans? How many of you are lapping Kristi Noem's talk about how government is too big? Read last night's paper, the story about Kevin Streff's success with Secure Banking Solutions. Highlight the sentences that remind us SBS got its start in the Heartland Technology Center, a project built on tax dollars. SBS's new facility is planned for the tax increment finance district created by the city to use tax dollars to cover the developer's infrastructure costs. Yesterday's MDL article reminds us that SBS has thrived in part thanks to grants from the National Science Foundation and the USDA. SBS's expansion and jobs are great for Madison... and they wouldn't exist if we ran our country according to the anti-government rhetoric of some of your favorite Republicans.
   

Happy reading! The Madville Times is happy to help.