I've been hard on Steve Sibson over the past few months. I kicked him out of my comment section when he started to sound obsessed with turning every discussion into a personal attack.
Maybe Koch Industries hands out subsidies to little bloggers all over the country to create the appearance of a groundswell of popular sentiment that really just apes the anarcho-capitalist line of the corporate plutocracy. Any takers?
I leave Sibby's blog off my RSS feeds for the same reason I put Bob Ellis's "Dakota" Voice blog in quote marks: his blogging consists far too much of straight reprints of right-wing propaganda from World Net Daily. (Gordon Howie's Right Side SD is falling into the same trap. Bad Gordie, bad!)
However, I still love it when Sibby drops the globalist Marxist theorizing and gets back to his Mitchell roots. In his latest post, one of just a handful since his defeat in the District 20 Senate election last November, Sibby takes on all three of his local legislators for proposing tax increases. He finds Senator Mike Vehle, Representative Lance Carson, and Representative Tona Rozum, all Republicans, all challenging Governor Dennis Daugaard's vow not to raise taxes:
"You've got to be careful when you use reserve funds, because those are one-time funds," Vehle said. "You've got to have ongoing revenue for ongoing expenses. It's like paying your mortgage out of your savings account."
He has proposed a series of increases in the state gas tax and the fee for licensing vehicles in the state.
...[Carson] said Vehle's proposal to raise fees for license plates has some merit. Carson said he recently looked at the cost of licensing two vehicles and noted how inexpensive the cost was for that.
"I think the license plate fees need to go up," he said. "The nice thing is that most of that comes right back, come to the counties."
...While budget cuts will surely be discussed, Rozum said new forms of revenue need to at least be on the table.
"I have talked to a lot of people, constituents, and there seems to be positive feelings for potential increase in state sales tax," she said. "That's a few people, maybe two dozen people, so we will have to see."
She said Vehle's plan to hike the gas tax and license plate fees seems to make sense [Tom Lawrence, "Vehle, Carson, Rozum Have Their Minds on State's Bottom Line as Session Begins," Mitchell Daily Republic, 2011.01.11].
Wow! Republicans who recognize that we have to pay for the services we receive! There's hope for Pierre yet.
Alas, poor Sibby just sees "three big government tax and spin GOP liberals." I do look forward to hearing whether Governor Daugaard says the same thing when he summons Vehle, Carson, and Rozum to his office for a little budget chat.
(And hey, Steve! Keep up with the original South Dakota content! It's your best work!)
The only tax increase that I can see as gaining any favor among a majority of voters: Increase the sales tax by a penny, and exempt groceries.
I wonder how much extra revenue that change would generate annually -- or would it cause revenues to go down?
This measure might pass in a referendum, but only if it includes some guarantee that any new revenue won't be spent away simply because it's there.
Hi, Stan! Rep. Marc Feinstein wants to do a plan along the lines you suggest: exempt food from the state sales tax, tack another 0.3% on the tax for other goods and services. (I'd have replied sooner, but I couldn't remember which rep. had proposed it!)