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Rep. Bolin: State Insurance Company Not a Budget Priority

Rep. Jim Bolin (R-16/Canton) took the House floor last Tuesday and argued against the proposal from "our fine Governor" to create captive insurance companies—i.e., state-run, state-funded pools to insure a variety of state facilities. House Bills 1185, 1186, and 1187 appropriate a total of six million dollars for this purpose. All three passed the House last week with their funding intact, unlike a host of other bills that have limped out of the House with their appropriations dropped to a placeholder buck pending the resolution of economic forecasts and budget priorities.

Rep. Bolin doesn't need to wait; he already has his budget priorities in order. In a stemwinder against HB 1185, the incandescent Cantonian made a brilliant and specific case against funding a state insurance pool over other more pressing fiscal needs. He listed several of the Governor's requests for one-time money that he supports: funding Ross Shaft upgrades at the Lead science facilities, replenishing emergency funds spent in this fiscal year, helping low-income seniors make their tax payments, and recruiting medical students for rural areas. But he said the Governor's captive insurance company doesn't make his cut:

But on this program, I must draw the line. In a year when revenue increases appear to be minimal, and in age of fiscal uncertainty, we're planning to spend four million dollars on a very questionable and unneeded program that we have not deemed necesary for the last 125 years. Now I want to emphasize again, this state has survived the Great Depression of the 1930s, repeated forest fires in the Black Hills, grasshopper plagues, the farm crisis of the 1980s, and the recent Missouri River floods without captive insurance companies.

Furthermore, we're making this financial decision at the same time that we as a state, we're proposing to change our financial responsibilities by pushing the sparsity programs for rural schools, among other items, onto the local taxpayers [Rep. Jim Bolin, remarks on House Bill 1185, South Dakota House, 2015.02.24, timestamp 49:25].

Rep. Bolin refers here to a budget trick the Governor is using to inflate the state's increase in K-12 school funding from 1.5% to 2%. The state is "saving" $2.6 million by making a portion of funding for the sparsity adjustment, technology, and assessment programs to local school districts. Expect to hear more about this issue as the Legislature finally rushes toward discussion and passage of the state budget.

Showing he's not just a naysayer, Rep. Bolin lists a number of other programs that are more worth the six-millio-dollar investment:

People, this is not so much about captive insurance companies or even if I may say emancipated insurance companies so much as about our financial priorities as a state and as an elected Legislature.

There is no need to go down the captive insurance road. The four million dollars mentioned in this bill and the two million in the companion pieces of legislation can be better spent in a wide variety of areas or... in terms of our current financial situation, maybe we should just let it fall to the bottom line.

The choices we might make with this money might include fighting the pine beetle plague in the Black Hills with extra funds, buying down tuition for in-state students in our Regental universities, funding needed programs at tech schools, or helping community support providers who do much for those less fortunate in our state for a pittance. Community support providers face tremendous problems because of high turnover in their workforce because of low wages.

The bottom line is this: that this expenditure of one-time money for this purpose should not be a priority for this Legislature [Bolin, 2015.02.24, 50:23].

Pine beetle, tuition relief, tech schools, social services—those are all areas where various advocates have identified real, current harms that increased funding would immediately ameliorate. Self-insuring state buildings responds to potential, future harms that have not happened; HBs 1185, 1186, and 1187 spend money that does no immediate, tangible good for the state.

Rep. Bolin didn't win the day—the House voted 50–20 for HB 1185 and by bigger margins for the other two bills—probably because he again reminded his fellow Republicans that low wages lead to high turnover and difficulty filling jobs, something legislators don't want to think about as they take no serious steps to address South Dakota's rock-bottom teacher pay and the resultant teacher shortage.

Or maybe Rep. Bolin lost because he cited the Steve Miller Band and his colleagues are all Lynyrd Skynyrd fans. Rep. Bolin crescendoed to this impassioned plea: "In the name of Billy Joe and Bobby Sue, don't let 'em take the money and run, vote red!"

Some Republican legislators challenge the party line by saying outlandish things. Rep. Jim Bolin challenges the Governor with passion, fun, and grown-up budget priorities. I've got to respect that.

9 Comments

  1. Jana 2015.03.02

    Way to go Representative Bolin!

    Guessing that Tony and the Gov were not very happy with this and who can blame them. They rule with an iron fist and the legislature and the people of the state are only here to do their bidding.

    In a homage to Leonard Nimoy, there is an intelligent life form in Pierre!

    Spock also give us this that the Governor and his son-in-law should pay heed to:

    "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

    SPOCK, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

  2. Nick Nemec 2015.03.02

    These captive insurance companies will become just another place to stash funds. As if we don't have enough slush funds in Pierre.

  3. Disgusted Dakotanb 2015.03.02

    Daugaard beat his Democratic opponents by claiming to be a conservative limited-government Republican. Very skillful of our Chicago lawyer in chief to bait and switch as he has. He has increased state government and spending 4 years in a row and has signed off on tax/ fee increases a plenty.

  4. Deb Geelsdottir 2015.03.03

    Those damn liberal Democrats are so lousy at economics! Just look at Gov. Dayton in MN. He's one of the most liberal governors in the country. He's raised taxes on the rich, never shies away from regulations on business to protect the people and environment, pours money into education, embraced Obamacare and Medicaid, supports fair help for the poor and immigrants.

    It's Pathetic! Pathetic I tell you!

    So how did MN manage to be sitting on a $1.86 BILLION SURPLUS?

    Just how did that happen?

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2015.03.03

    Rep. Bolin could fund a lot of his priorities with Minnesota's budget surplus. I wonder if he'd back the state insurance company in Minnesota's situation.

  6. Tim 2015.03.03

    In order for SD to have that surplus, business would have to pay their fair share, anybody here expect the ruling party to do that?

  7. Moses 2015.03.03

    CH when are you speaking in Sioux Falls.

  8. mike from iowa 2015.03.03

    Cory-Walker in Wisconsin claims to have a huge surplus( actually it is a deficit) but he is going to skip state debt payment just because. Surplus/deficit depends on how you cook the books in Wisconsin.

  9. Deb Geelsdottir 2015.03.03

    Yes Mike. Scott-Fiscally-Responsible-Conservative-Walker is skipping a payment on Wisconsin's indebtedness because the state is broke thanks to his economic policies. Oh, Walker's Republican economic scheme of hacking off large chunks of the education budget while giving tax breaks for the rich has worked perfectly ---- if by "working", he meant destroying the state's economy now and into the future.

    Oh yeah, the payment skipping will make the indebtedness even worse by adding to costs. Good old Republican Economics.

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