From the first time I ran for the State Legislature, school funding at all levels has been one of my major issues. I strongly supported the bill that raised the state sales tax rate in 2016 to support education and provide property tax relief.
We must protect civics education, arts and sciences courses, and other ways of ensuring that young people receive a well-rounded education, not just training. Job skills should not come at the expense of educational fundamentals that provide the longer-term, broader perspective that is so important for good citizenship and a rewarding life.
At the same time, workforce development depends critically on education to make workers more productive, benefiting workers and employers—and the state as a whole. Apprenticeships, internships, dual credit courses, and other innovations have great potential for getting and keeping a job.
This all starts before children even start school. South Dakota is one of only seven states that provide no state funding for pre-school education and no regulation of pre-school operations.
Enhance Elementary and Secondary Education
I believe that all regental institutions have the potential for major improvements in quality and prestige regionally and nationally. I pray our legislators and governors have the vision and provide the leadership to realize that potential. That won’t happen without more resources.
We must recognize the value of liberal arts and sciences in this time of near obsession with “practical” courses. Education has value beyond getting a job. Research can have practical applications and facilitate workforce and economic development, but scholarship can also have value in its own right.
Our technical colleges provide education that is crucial to workforce and economic development. They also deserve enhanced support.
Support Higher Education
I supported Medicaid expansion during all eight years I was in the Legislature. Everyone has the right to health care under any conditions. In 2022, the voters overrode the Legislature and governor’s inaction by supporting Constitutional Amendment D, 56% to 44%—a margin of more than 40,000 votes. Amendment D also says that the state “may not impose greater or additional burdens or restrictions on eligibility or enrollment standards.” In other words, the voters have spoken: they want Medicaid expansion without unnecessary restrictions like work requirements.
Despite voters’ express wishes, the Legislature put Constitutional Amendment F on this year’s ballot, to put a work requirement on unemployed persons who otherwise qualify. Both District 17 legislators voted for putting Amendment F on the ballot. I oppose this Amendment and will work to defeat any attempt to use it.
Imposing work requirements created great difficulty in other states. Eligible recipients are disqualified because they fail to meet complicated and confusing paperwork requirements—even though they qualify—leaving them without insurance when they need it. Arkansas, the state with the most experience, denied coverage to thousands of eligible citizens, but employment was unaffected.
Multiple studies of Medicaid expansion show that people without health insurance go without needed health care and/or medication, then desperately seek out expensive emergency room care, shifting costs onto the rest of us. Some die because they seek care too late.
Medicaid expansion (including for the unemployed) is pro-life.
I, of course, also support continuing to seek solutions for the meth and opioid crises affecting our state.
Expand Medicaid
I am a strong proponent of repealing the death penalty. I helped cosponsor repeal bills throughout my time in the Legislature and will continue to do so. Alternative bills that would forbid the death penalty on persons suffering from a documented severe mental illness when they committed a crime have met some success in the past. I remain hopeful that persistence will pay off.
There is no evidence that capital punishment deters crime. Keeping the death penalty puts the United States, including South Dakota, in company with some of the most oppressive, recessive countries in the world. Most religious denominations have continually called for repeal out of respect for the dignity of all persons. Repealing the death penalty is also pro-life.
Repeal the Death Penalty
Throughout my eight years in the Legislature, I either sponsored a bill to exempt food purchased for home consumption from the sales tax or testified for someone else’s bill. My bills would have raised the sales tax rate just enough to make up for lost revenue. They would not have changed the base on municipal sales taxes, so city sales tax revenue would not be affected.
South Dakota puts a heavier tax burden on low-income families than do most other states, but a lower burden on the rest of South Dakota families. In other words, we put higher rates on poor people. Exempting tax on food at home would ease that burden.
Initiated Measure 28, although unclear, seems to be intended to exempt food at home from the sales tax. If it passes (which I favor), the Legislature will need to clarify it. My previous bills would be a good starting point for that. I have studied South Dakota’s sales taxes, researched and published academic papers on all 50 states’ sales taxes, spoken on them, and taught them for more than 40 years. I believe I could help the Legislature get it right.
Exempt Sales Tax on Food
Anti-refugee/immigrant bills have not fared well in the Legislature in the past. In my experience, committees heard testimony from a few out-of-state proponents followed by multiple opponents, including the Governor’s Office, religious groups, the Chamber of Commerce, and others. These bills made little progress, usually dying in committee. I hope that happens again this year.
Depending on the new Legislature’s make-up, we may see another round of anti-immigrant activity. I will continue to advocate for religious liberty, tolerance, and openness to people seeking a better life free of oppression and violence. These are federal government issues over which the state has little or no control. In my view, they come from a few extremists who do not represent the views of the vast majority of South Dakotans.
Defend Legal Immigration
I respect the U. S. Constitution as much as the next person, but I also believe in reasonable interpretations of it, including the Second Amendment. Justice Scalia wrote in District of Columbia v. Heller that
“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited . . . not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. . . . Prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons [are] lawful under the Second Amendment . . . [including] prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”
My first speech on the House floor opposed a law that allows “sentinels” to carry concealed weapons onto to schools. I have consistently voted against such bills and will continue to do so.
Prohibit Concealed Carry
Some people can’t manage on their own because of physical disability, emotional or mental conditions, memory loss, or other difficulties (often associated with age). The state assists those who lack financial resources.
The state helps support people who must live in assisted living centers, nursing homes, or memory care units, but can’t afford to pay for their own care. As a rule, the state’s goal is to cover less than 100 percent of providers’ costs. How can these institutions survive if their reimbursements are less than their costs? “Private pay” residents fill in the gap: residents with financial assets are “taxed” to help support residents without assets, impoverishing private pay residents. This vicious cycle has already forced some facilities to close—including in District 17. Eventually this system may be driven to collapse.
The nineteen Community Support Providers (CSP) across the state care for adults (and some children) with developmental disabilities—often complicated with mental health or behavioral issues. Sesdac in Vermillion is a good example. If the state doesn’t cover these providers’ costs, there are no private pay residents to tax. Bake sales and GoFundMe pages won’t fill the gap. Some of these providers may also have to close.
Some CSP employees’ wages are below market wages, even below poverty income levels, resulting in very high turnover. That means instability, uncertainty, and stress for clients who need the emotional security that would come from working with the same direct service provider over an extended period.
The parent of a CRP resident asked me, “What are we doing for the least of these?” My answer: “Not enough.” At some point we must own up to our responsibility to “the least of these.” Patching holes in the safety net and hoping there won’t be another tear is unrealistic and can go on for only so long. We need longer-term, more comprehensive solutions, not stop-gap, “on the cheap” fixes. When will we face up to those needs?
Help the Least of These
Education and health care are crucial to workforce development: well-educated, healthy workers are more productive, then employers can afford to pay them more. Unless we adequately support education and health care, we’ll be stuck with low wages.
If low taxes attract business investment into the state, we should expect competition for workers to result in higher wages. Why is it that, even though we have some of the lowest state and local taxes in the country, we also have some of the nation’s lowest average wages?
I think it’s time for a longer-term, more comprehensive look at our tax structure and how it’s affecting the economy. I have introduced bills to fund such a tax study, but so far to no avail.