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…
Posts tagged as “budget”
The South Dakota Legislature holds deep respect for the committee process... until it gets a chance to disrespect public education. While the South Dakota House yesterday insisted on respecting the committee process and refused to resurrect House Bill 1223, the…
South Dakota ranks 39th for expenditures per K-12 student but 51st for teacher pay. I have heard Republican legislators respond to questions about teacher pay with that statistical comparison at both crackerbarrels that I have attended this month. Governor Daugaard…
House Appropriations felt like spending money yesterday. The committee heard five bills and approved four of them: House Bill 1147 would spend $1.274 million to increase the merit-based Opportunity Scholarship for university students from $5,000 to $6,500. Governor Dennis Daugaard…
I mentioned earlier the three bills that House State Affairs passed yesterday to put more money in legislators' pockets. I'd like to focus for a moment on House Bill 1145 and the stretchy arguments offered by its sponsor, Rep. Brian…
Rebuttal of the week to gubernatorial malarkey on K-12 education funding comes from Leola superintendent Brian Heupel, who offers this observation on Governor Dennis Daugaard's persistent shirking of responsibility for South Dakota's perennial barrel-bottom teacher pay: "The governor always says…
Senate Bill 55 is this year's revision of the current budget. As they do each year, legislators will use SB 55 to amend the current budget to reflect changes in revenues and expenses that have since accrued since legislators guessed…
When Bob Mercer calls something a "must-read," I usually believe him. But this time, when he urgently directs us to read Rep. Jacqueline Sly's (R-33/Rapid City) "wise words" on the challenges of funding education, he wastes my time. The House…