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Adelstein: Re-Fund Schools, Not Corporate Welfare

Senator Stan Adelstein (R-32/Rapid City) sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee. When he gets his hands on House Bill 1060, the bill adding millions of dollars to this year's state budget, expect a little ruckus.

Senator Adelstein has noticed the five million dollars slathered onto the Office of Economic Development to cover Governor Dennis Daugaard's promise of a subsidy to French cheese maker Bel Brands to build a new factory in Brookings. Rep. Sue Wismer (D-1/Britton) tried to get a similar bump for the Department of Education but was rebuffed by her House committee colleagues. Senator Adelstein appears willing to go further, arguing that the Governor's gift to Bel Brands via his economic development "Future Fund" should go instead to our schools:

I have an amendment to remove $5 million dollars from your bill and move it from the Future Fund allocation and move it to education. The fact is that the Future Fund ended the year with a balance of over $21 million dollars. The projection we were given in Appropriations, it would still have $10 million dollars next year and then it would have in $9 million dollars in the following year. The Future Fund is a discretionary fund for the governor, and while we support economic development I think the specifics of the economic development should be in the legislative actions and not in other actions.

…$5 million dollars was committed based on an expected revenue source that didn’t materialize because the people voted against that bill….the source for that $5 million dollars was a ten-percent cut in education [Senator Stanford Adelstein, blog post, 2013.02.20].

It's good to hear at least one Republican capable of talking fiscal priorities. The Governor has all the money he needs to favor his new French friends with corporate welfare. That five million dollars should go back to the schools as a down payment on the tens of millions of dollars Governor Daugaard has taken from their budgets.

6 Comments

  1. Steve Sibson 2013.02.22

    If you Educrats continue to attack the Constitutions of the US and SD with you gun-free totalitarian police state agenda, then I support cutting education another 10%. We can start with French teachers. I oppose the fascist cheese factory and the European socialists who have rewritten America's history textbooks.

  2. Rorschach 2013.02.22

    Sen. Stan is in a position where he doesn't have to go along to get along. Unfortunately, the legislature is heavily populated with timid Republican souls who fear for their political futures if they show the temerity to take on the Governor. The appropriations committee will summarily quash this amendment, probably without discussion.

  3. buck 2013.02.22

    too bad much of the committee ,particularly the chairs, are totally controlled by the Governor

  4. Jana 2013.02.22

    Ah yes R and Buck. Sometimes it's hard to tell if SD is run like the Mafia or the Politburo and Central Committee.

  5. larry kurtz 2014.09.21

    Bingo! French cheese factory is linked to Bendagate.

  6. jerry 2014.09.21

    The smell of corruption continues to seep and seek daylight. Why Daugaard has been able to keep under the radar on all of this corruption is beyond me. Both Rounds, Daugaard, Bollen and for that matter, Jackley are deep deep in the syndicate. I cannot see how this is not treated for what it is, a criminal enterprise with all of the trappings. Extortion by fear of reprisals, money laundering, securities fraud and a whole laundry list of other charges. Where the hell is crime fighter like Elliot Ness when you need them? I thought that when crimes like these came about, we could activate the RICO Act to seek justice.

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