A little post-game on Governor Daugaard's State of the State Address, courtesy of SDPB:
- Rep. Bernie Hunhoff says he was pleased with the speech: "straightforward... not a lot of gamesmanship." He does question the REDI fund boost, saying availability of credit isn't South Dakota's main problem in economic development. Hunhoff notes with more favor Daugaard's words on state travel and the "big corporate giveaways" in the tax refund.
- Sen. Todd Schlekeway really likes the REDI fund boost and ethanol partnership, Gov. Daugaard's apparent "aggressive" approach to economic development (we do love that word aggressive). TS also likes the talk about more local control for school districts... perhaps, I suggest, as a consolation prize for our whacking all of their budgets?
- Rep. Kevin Killer: Four years? Heck, says Killer, we need a ten-year outlook, especially on Rep. Killer's home turf with its huge population under 18. Killer likes the Cabinet-level tribal affairs position, a move Killer says his fellow Rep. Ed Iron Cloud has introduced as a bill the last couple years.
- Sen. Larry Tidemann admires the governor for getting the speech done in his allotted 40 minutes (well, 41). He also digs Daugaard's attention to value-added agriculture.
More on SDPB's Statehouse tonight! You've got to love the Legislative session!
Update 15:44 CST: ...and hot off the press, reaction from state Dems chair Ben Nesselhuf:
DEMOCRATS ENCOURAGED BY GOVERNOR'S SUPPORT TO CUT WASTE IN GOVERNMENT
Wasteful spending on state airplane travel and corporate tax rebate programs may finally be grounded in South Dakota. Democratic state legislators say they welcome Governor Dennis Daugaard's announcement on Tuesday that he'll seek to stop such waste.
Daugaard delivered his first State of the State address on Tuesday, adopting several Democratic initiatives from previous sessions. "We are heartened by the new governor's openness on airplanes and corporate tax welfare," said Rep. Bernie Hunhoff, the House Minority Leader. "He delivered a very straight-forward speech with little gamesmanship, and that's refreshing. We are here to work with him on cutting the bureaucracy, not just on airplanes and corporate rebates, but all other areas before we even consider shifting education and Medicaid expenses to local governments."
Rep. Mitch Fargen, the Assistant Minority Leader from Flandreau, said he was encouraged by Governor Daugaard's admission that South Dakota state government faces a budget crisis. "As a candidate he couldn't see a problem, but apparently there's been a miraculous election day conversion. Now that we all agree there's a problem, let's get to work on the solutions."
Rep. Fargen said Democrats may disagree with the governor on some of his budget remedies, however. "We don't think that the answer is for state government to decrease its responsibilities for education. The K-12 schools' share of the general fund has already fallen from 39 to 30 percent over the last eight years. Any further cuts will create increases in property taxes — and South Dakotans already pay a bigger share of school funding than property owners in other states."
Sen. Jason Frerichs, the new Democratic leader in the senate, said he was encouraged that the new governor is willing to stop some of the harmful policies of the past — especially related to school reserve funds, small school enrollment size and others. "He expressed a willingness to work with rural South Dakota and small towns. That's a refreshing change from the last eight years."
Frerichs said he was also heartened by the governor's willingness to split the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs into two departments. "Veterans felt they were getting short shrift from the current bureaucracy, so this is a big improvement for our veterans."
Rep. Kevin Killer, a Democrat from Pine Ridge, said the governor's intentions to create a cabinet-level Secretary of Tribal Affairs is a good start. "The meat will be in the follow-through. There have been promises in the past, and many promises broken," said Rep. Killer. "We have four of the ten poorest counties in the United States and the people who live there are going to be affected for better or worse by the work of this new office."
The Democratic leaders pledged to work with the Daugaard administration to jump-start economic development. "We need good jobs in South Dakota, and we need to invest our scarce economic development resources in the best possible ways," said Hunhoff. "We hope to work with the governor's office to create a data base so lawmakers and the public know how much is being spent on business loans and grants, and know the purpose and goals of each investment."
"Governor Daugaard indicated in his State of the State speech that TransCanada Pipeline should probably not have qualified for a tax rebate program amounting to tens of millions of dollars," Fargen said. "We need more transparency in the process so we can come together to make smarter decisions on economic development investments" [Ben Nesselhuf, reaction to Governor Daugaard's State of the State Address, press release, 2011.01.11].
I don't care much about the airplanes. I don't care about how much the Lt. Governor makes.
Tell us how much money will be cut from education, both K-12 and higher ed. This is the issue that will define this session.