As our federal government reopens (no thanks to Kristi Noem, who voted for continued fiscal flagellation and chaos), we learn South Dakota's Mount Rushmore donors get no cash back:
According to the deals between the Interior Department and the states, Congress would need to specifically authorize the repayment of any money spent that states had donated to fund the sites.
“These funds from states are donations, not loans,” an Interior official said. “It would take an act of Congress to authorize any sort of reimbursement.”
One caveat: If a state donates money for more days than necessary — for example, it donated money to operate a site for 10 days and the government reopened after seven — the state would get the remaining balance back [Darren Goode, "States Won't Get Paid Back for Reopening National Parks," Politico.com, 2013.10.16].
Black Hills Central Reservations, the Rapid City Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Mount Rushmore Society are thus each out $15,200. They got their fair share of advertising out of Governor Daugaard's private-sector posturing, but if they really want their money back, they can send refund applications to Congresswoman Noem.
Just watch. Gov. Daugaard will claim that the state fronted the money & never got the money from the donors. Thus it's state money that went to DC. We shall see.
We should be giving those Denny supporters the middle finger, for this. NO More NOem.