“We cannot replace truth with bias — the nation cannot survive a steady diet of bullshit.”
“Banning valid terminology from government reports is both ignorant and dangerous,” Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at New York University’s School of Medicine, told HuffPost in an email. “Not since Lysenko and Stalin has government made hate, malice and duplicity official policy. The Trump administration with its seven-dirty-words policy has now elevated lying to a national standard.
March 6, 2017
Greetings! As mentioned, nine of us representatives in the House, Frye-Mueller and myself included, 3 senators including Sen. Lance Russell, wrote the attorney general in regard to the constitutionality of vehicle bills. Well, Marty Jackley made a ruling that they are not unconstitutional (darn!). The legislature as a body could pass a bill stopping vehicle bills in the future (not all bad).
This leads into SB176, you guessed it, a vehicle bill. This bill was introduced in the Senate on Feb. 3rd, the last day that bills could be introduced. It was 32 words long, with the thrust being, “the protection of the safety of the citizens of SD.” By Feb. 15th, this 32-word bill had become a 1500-word bill, with 7 sections to it. (Look up SD176 at www.sdlegislature.gov . This bill has passed the senate, 21 yeas and 14 nays, (Sen. Russell was a nay). What concerns me is that this bill is aimed at protestors against the Keystone Pipeline, once it starts in west river and the Dakota Access pipeline, once it starts east river.
For the record, I’m for pipelines and truly believe it is the most efficient and environmentally safe way to transport oil. I’m not for adding additional laws on the books when we have more than enough laws now. This hog-housed vehicle bill, SB176, has language that gives the governor the authority to declare public safety zones, and make it a felony for anyone who trespasses in these zones more than twice in 2 years. There is also language that no more than 20 people can gather near these safety zones.
I’m sure the governor’s intentions are good, as he’s trying to get out ahead and not let what happened in North Dakota happen in South Dakota. For this I applaud his efforts. I’m just not willing to give him authority to create safety zones and turn peaceful protestors into felons.
Monday, March 6th, starts the last week of the 92nd legislative session, so SD176 has to be voted on in the House, and if I have anything to do with it, defeated. It will take 35 other representatives to vote with me to stop this bill. In my opinion, it is government overreach big time.
We do go back to Pierre for one day, March 27, to address any vetoes the governor has signed. He has gone public and said that he would veto HB1072 and HB1156, Constitutional Carry and Capitol Carry, respectively.
A few potpourri items: At the Chamber Crackerbarrell, in Rapid City March 4th, the question was asked if the legislature would be in favor of a state income tax.?! After this question was asked, the crowd erupted in applause! The other Rapid City legislators did their best tap dance, talked about raising 4-1/2 cent sales tax to 5 cents, but didn’t throw out the state income tax idea. I took the mic and said that not only was I totally against the state income tax, but that as long as I was in the legislature and still breathing, it would never pass!! I know I probably came across a bit strong, but give me a break!! This governor with the approval of the last two legislative sessions, has raised taxes $335 million. Go back to 2015 and read SD1. It will make your blood boil!! My point is that if you keep feeding this alligator, it will only grow bigger, and bigger, and it will never be satisfied.
The reason I ran to represent the citizens of District 30 was to rein in government, not grow it. Thanks for reading, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent you in Pierre. Until next week…
Tim R. Goodwin, Representative, District 30
PIERRE, S.D. – An updated Governor’s Drought Task Force website is now operational and is a resource for those looking for drought information.
The website, drought.sd.gov, went live on Friday of last week.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard activated the Governor’s Drought Task Force earlier this month to monitor drought conditions across the state. Gov. Daugaard says the website will feature drought information.
“The website will include information such as the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, fire conditions, weather reports and agricultural information,” said the Governor. “We know many people are impacted by the dry conditions and we want to provide the best information we can.”
Other features on the website include a map comparing this year’s drought to the 2012 drought and a fire map showing the number of acres burned and the perimeter of the fires on state jurisdictional land.
While there has been recent rainfall in some areas, extremely dry conditions exist in other parts of the state. An emergency fire declaration earlier had been declared for 13 central and western South Dakota counties impacted by the drought conditions. Those counties areButte, Custer, Fall River, Haakon, Harding, Hughes, Jackson, Jones, Lawrence, Meade, Pennington, Perkins and Stanley.
The Governor’s Drought Task Force consists of 12 state government agencies. Task Force members will coordinate the exchange of drought information among government agencies as well as agriculture, fire and water-supply organizations.
Next meeting for the Task Force is Aug. 15 in Pierre.
PIERRE, S.D. July 12, 2016 – The Bureau of Administration has announced that the Obligation Recovery Center, established by HB1228 during the 2015 Legislative Session, will go live on July 15, 2016, and start collecting bad debts on behalf of the State of South Dakota. After a full and open Request For Information (RFI) and Request For Proposal (RFP) process, the State of South Dakota selected CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc. to operate the Center on its behalf.
In addition, an RFP was issued and contracts have been signed to hire three third-party collection companies, including Progressive with offices in Aberdeen, S.D., to work with CGI to collect state debt.
“For the past year, members of the Obligation Recovery Center Advisory Group worked to fulfill the intention of the Legislature by soliciting advice and recommendations from the stakeholders regarding the implementation of the Center,” said state Sen. Terri Haverly, a member of the advisory group created by HB1228. “The fees collected on past due obligations will fund the center which means that South Dakota taxpayers that do pay their outstanding amounts owed will not have to subsidize those who don’t.”
The contract was awarded on Nov. 15, 2015, and work began immediately. The seven-month project is on track and everything is in place and ready for state agencies to begin the process. The Unified Judicial System will be the first agency of state government to refer bad debt associated with restitution payments and court fines to the Center. Over the next six months, the remaining state agencies will be referring their bad debt to the Center as well.
CGI will lead South Dakota’s recovery efforts by utilizing new customer service processes, expedited billing and self-service options.
Custer Free Press - HFR DESIGN STUDIO 