From The Brookings Register
Posted: Friday, January 22, 2010
By John Kubal
Editor's note: this is the first of two reports on Brookings/SDSU Day at the Capitol. In Friday's Register, reporter John Kubal interviews District 4's trio in Pierre: Sen. Jim Peterson, D-Revillo ; Rep. Steve Street, D-Revillo ; and Rep. Val Rausch, RBig Stone City.
Leave in the dark and early morning cold at 5:50 Wednesday; return home in the early morning dark and cold at 12:15 a.m. Thursday. Such was the annual jaunt to Pierre for "Brookings /SDSU Day at the Capitol."
In between the departure from and arrival back in Brookings came: two longer-than-usual , near-harrowing charter-bus rides on ice-slicked roads; some very careful walking on ice between the capitol and nearby buildings ; recognition on the floors of the South Dakota state Senate and House of Representatives; the opportunity to meet with the six lawmakers from District 4 (Brookings, Deuel, Grant and Moody counties) and District 7 (Brookings city and several nearby Brookings County cities and towns); visits and briefings by state cabinet officers ; SDSU ice cream served up by university faculty and officials; and an hour of schmoozing
and socializing with all of the above in a reception at the Discovery Center.
For The Brookings Register, the longest day offered the opportunity to talk with our six lawmakers and hear their earlyon viewpoints on what they see as the major challenges facing South Dakota's 35 state senators and 70 state representatives this session.
If there's a bottom line and one key issue to the challenges facing them, our lawmakers pretty much summed it up in nine words: painful budget cuts; painful budget cuts; painful budget cuts. No longer a freshman
Democratic Sen. Pam Merchant, District 7, who captured the seat long held by District 7 Republicans, now back for her second session, serves on three Senate committees: Commerce; Health and Human Services; and Taxation. Bills are starting to come forward for parceling out to committees before they die or move to their respective floors.
Merchant said she is "trying to delve in much deeper into the departments and their workings" and their "costs of doing business individually."
She said "one of the issues in the forefront will be taxation to fund highways ." Merchant sees the potential "for lowering the gas-tax portion of that: down to three cents (a gallon)."
She added, "I think it's a lot more palatable; and I've actually heard from a lot of people who want me to support that, so we have money directed to the counties. So I will support it."
Turning to "revenue and sales tax," Merchant noted that they had dropped back to levels of 2007.
She explained, "So we're either going to have to do one of two things, probably: Impose a lot of cuts or plug some holes with some of the reserves."
Merchant said, "I frankly do not support the flat-lining , the zero-increase of cost of living for K through 12, higher education, and Medicaid providers. We can't go backwards; I'm a little concerned about that.
"We need to hold the line and reassess our revenue stream. That's the big-picture thing we need to get to in this session."
South Dakota: trading ties to Canada
Over in the House, Republican Rep. Carol Pitts of District 7 chairs the Health and Human Services Committee and sits on the Commerce Committee. For her, "The budget is the big issue this year."
As a member of Commerce, Pitts has the opportunity to participate in an area South Dakotans may not give much thought: a sort of foreign policy that ties our state to Canada.
At the invitation of the Canadian Embassy, she joined a handful of legislators on a 10-day tour of Canada this past summer. Following that visit, Canada reciprocated with a visit to the Commerce Committee by Martin Loken, Consul General Senior Canadian Representative for the Upper Midwest.
Pitts pointed out that "Canada's really our biggest export market for South Dakota. The South Dakota-Canadian connection is strong."
Looking at the committee she chairs, she noted that the pace there "would start picking up."
Pitts noted that because none of the controversial bills had come forward, she had yet to receive "a lot of e-mails' from her constituents.
Pitts said she was hoping to hear more from the Brookings-SDSU visitors to the capitol; and she went out of her way to visit with some of them. And come Saturday, she will weather permitting be back in Brookings for a legislative forum. If she can't get home, she added, "I will anticipate calling in."
Smiling, she said, "I want to represent people the whole term." 'It's the services for them'
For Rep. Larry Tidemann, R-Brookings , District 7, and chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the big issue is "budget with a capital 'B'" . He added, "The budget for South Dakota is not fat. There's a lot of lean."
Expaining the budget in simple terms of its impact on South Dakotans, Tidemann said, "People have to put it in perspective that it's the services for them. It's for their needs."
Specifically citing social services, he said, "Medicaid is the one area we're increasing, that the governor put fourth as an increase. And that's about $52 million more."
He explained that part of that increase "is driven by the poor economy. More people are unemployed ; more people are then going forth and using the social services programs."
Citing what he saw as an "interesting thing," Tidemann pointed out that "68 percent of the people on Medicaid are children. I didn't realize that either until going through the process."
"So it's not because somebody is not working; because it's the children who are qualified and that's who's receiving the benefits," he added.
Tidemann pointed out that during this session the House is looking to budgets for "2010, 2011 and out into 2012. You can't do it by looking at just this year. Because when you run out of the stimulus money, you have to replace it with general funds or cut the program."
The stimulus money went into social services, health, human services, the higher education budgets. Those dollars equate to people."
In concluding, Tidemann explained, "Until the revenues start going up, we have to look at how do we provide the best need for the people without hurting."
John Kubal may be reached at jkubal@brookingsregister .com.
