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September 17, 2012 · By Gordon Garnos · 1 Comments
ballot box
AT ISSUE: Among the ballot issues we will be voting on in just a few weeks will be “The Big Three,” Referred Law 14, Initiated Measure 15 and Referred Law 16. These are the biggies as far as the issues go because they involve money, big money, taxpayer money.
THE LINES HAVE been drawn for the three big items among the ballot issues we will be voting on in just eight weeks. During that time we probably will be bombarded with all kinds of media material, radio, television and newspapers from both the proponents and the opponents in each of these issues.
Even though I wrote about the ballot issues before, a review of “The Big Three” I feel is necessary. Also, I¹m including the names of the leadership on each one of the three.
REFERRED LAW 14: It is about big money. The idea is for the state to set aside money for economic development grants. The South Dakota Chamber of Commerce is backing the issue while the opposition will be led by the state Democratic Party.
Governor Daugaard is in favor of this ballot issue, but won’t be campaigning for it because state law forbids the governor from state funds to promote or oppose referendums. And, he said, he is too busy doing his job as governor. The opposition will be led by Democratic legislators.
INITIATED MEASURE 15: It is somewhat in two parts. In one part, if this measure passes, it will send annually $90 million only to the schools in South Dakota and $90 million only to build up the state’s Medicaid funds. But first, the voters have to approve raising South Dakota’s sales tax by one penny, from four to five cents to raise that needed $180 million. One penny doesn¹t sound like much until one realizes that is one penny for every dollar spent.
Supporting Measure 15 is the group, Moving South Dakota Forward, headed by Andy Wiese. Besides school districts and teachers wanting 15 passed by the voters, nursing homes, hospitals and other health providers support it as well.
The reason is because they say current reimbursements for Medicaid is so low it is driving providers to refuse to accept Medicaid or to raise their prices for privately insured patients.
Governor Daugaard is opposed to Initiated Measure 15, but he said he doesn’t plan to campaign against it.
“I think we should increase our state revenues though increased economic activity and not through increasing tax rates,” he said.
Among the groups opposing 15 are the South Dakota Retailers, South Dakota Farm Bureau and the National Federation of Businesses of South Dakota.
REFERRED LAW 16: This is probably the most controversial issue on the ballot. If the voters approve, it will be the most extensive reform measure ever to hit teaching/education in South Dakota.
It will bring in incentive pay and teacher rankings and it will eventually eliminate teacher tenure, or what is now called teachers’ continuing contract rights.
Wade Pogany, executive director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, which supports Initiated Measure 15 but is not involved in this one, said, “the impact could be tremendous.”
The educators from pretty much across the state are very much opposed to this initiated measure. Such “reform” has never been done before, at least to this scale. However administrators and school boards are pretty much divided on this one.
The passed legislative bill, which was supported by the Governor, was then referred to the voters by the state’s teachers and the South Dakota Education Association.
A reminder
Of all the talk lately about our nation’s economic woes I was reminded what Alexander Tyler, a Scottish professor at the University of Edinburgh, wrote back in 1887. He had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years ago:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.
“The average age of a civilization from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From great courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back to bondage.”
Sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it.
Let’s dance
A few weeks ago I wrote about the Vivian dance hall being inducted into the South Dakota Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame. The other day I read about the Vivian High School alumni sponsoring a rock n’ roll reunion dance in the hall. What a great idea! I hope they had as much fun there as we did B.R.N.R. (before rock n’ roll) came around….
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South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that Judge Lawrence L. Piersol dismissed a constitutional challenge to South Dakota’s method of execution brought by death row inmate Donald Moeller. Judge Piersol’s ruling follows a hearing on October 4, 2012, during which Moeller told the court “I want to pay what I owe. I believe the death penalty is just in this case.”
Perhaps those who believe that Big Bird, Elmo, Kermit and Miss Piggy need a taxpayer subsidy to help with early childhood education missed the “Tickle me Elmo” craze that generated millions of dollars, and they undoubtedly were unaware that Kermit and Miss Piggy went Hollywood a long time ago making millions in the process. Or, perhaps they haven’t flipped around to the hundreds of channels on their televisions and envisioned the bidding war to bring Big Bird to a privately funded station. As strange as it might seem, Big Bird just might be the perfect symbol for this election.
This year the U.S. is expected to spend $2.8 trillion on health care. The tab for Medicare alone will likely cost taxpayers $590 billion, with 25% of that sum going for patients in their last year of life. Given the anemic state of our economy and the huge strain on our medical resources, should government step in and decide how care is to be allocated among the sick and dying? Should Big Brother determine whose life is worth saving and whose is not by rationing health care?
In 1271, Marco Polo left Venice with his father and uncle, and traveled 5,600 miles east to meet Kublai Khan, grandson of Ghengis Khan, who was Emperor of China, Korea, North India, Persia, Russia and Hungary. Emperor Kublai Khan had requested 100 Christian teachers, but only two preaching friars were sent by Pope Gregory X, and they turned back in fear while crossing an area being attacked by Turkish Muslims. Marco Polo was employed by Kublai Khan as an envoy for 24 years.
“The average middle-class family with children would pay about $2,000 more. Now, that’s not my analysis; that’s the analysis of economists who have looked at this.” That was how Barack Obama described Mitt Romney’s tax plan to millions of potential voters at the Oct. 3 presidential debate. To be certain, as even the Tax Policy Center notes, Romney’s plan would lower everyone’s tax rate by 20 percent. So, where does the claim come from?
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"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the party over to the so-called moderates wouldn't make any sense at all." - Ronald Reagan, Nov. 10, 1964 |
