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.

Our state still has a few weeks to go for its tourist season. We won’t know if it has been a good period or not for some time yet. But as one couple told me, more tourists are traveling the “back roads” this year. Is your community’s front door open for them? Remember, hunting season isn’t that far away.

The problem: Getting and keeping needed medical personnel in the state’s and nation’s small towns has become very difficult over the past several years. A solution? The South Dakota Legislature has recognized this for some time and came up with a possible solution during its last session, a bonus to those personnel who stay for three years. Is this a big enough carrot to hold them?

When it looked like South Dakota was going to be in a financial bind Gov. Daugaard proposed a daring 10 percent cut in spending by every department in state government. Actually, there were two other possibilities offered that proponents thought would keep the state from using red ink. Daugaard thought his savings plan was prudent and his greatest achievement. His critics thought the Governor’s plan was needless.

The Criminal Justice Initiative task force recently named by Governor Dennis Daugaard has its work cut out for it. The Governor named the 18 person panel to see if it can make South Dakota’s prison system more efficient and economical, perhaps more in line with neighboring states of North Dakota and Minnesota. Are there alternatives to our prison population in the state, and us still having the death penalty for such atrocious crimes? There are, but implementing them could be very political.

Every now and then South Dakotans get an alert of a scam going around in attempts to bamboozle money out of primarily the elderly. Usually I read about it and get the attitude, “It just won’t happen to me.” But an attempt did happen to me and today’s column tells the story. A scam amounting to several hundred dollars was averted by me when I went to the police station rather than going to where I was told to go.

When South Dakota’s voters go to the polls Nov. 6 we not only will be casting our ballots for President and legislators, we are being asked to mark our ballots on seven issues. Two of them are contentious as they relate to money, lots of money, in this case more money for education, but the others are also important. So it is best to read up on them as well.

South Dakota’s teachers have turned in almost twice the number of petition signatures to refer House Bill 1234 to a vote of the people in November’s General Election. The teachers’ immediate dislike for the bill was extremely obvious for the Governor’s idea to get more money to our teachers and, at the same time, improve the education system in the state. Like most issues, there are two sides and on both sides public education plans are in the offing.

Answering what we will be celebrating this week, the probable response would be “the Fourth of July.” But the fourth of July is just another day on the calender. The traditional celebration is Independence Day of long ago. But not so long ago that we forget the meaning of the day. So many of us have forgotten the basic reason we celebrate the Fourth of July, like we forget the reasons for so many other national observances.

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