It’s time to grow South Dakota

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We South Dakota Democrats are proud of our state and its hard-working people.  South Dakotans believe in simple fairness and in the value of our people.  We enjoy a quality of living that you can’t find any where else.  Our job is to hold onto what makes South Dakota great … and to make South Dakota an even greater place to live, invest, earn livings, raise children and retire.

To fix the problems, you must honestly evaluate them and provide the leadership to solve them.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

On one hand, the administration in Pierre says prosperity has arrived in South Dakota.  In his administration’s 2010 Initiative website, the Republican Governor announces that South Dakota’s Gross State Product not only reached its goal of increasing $10 billion last summer, but “but we did it two years ahead of schedule.”  Those words ring hollow against economic reality in South Dakota.  Let’s evaluate the problems:

  • South Dakota’s wage earners make the lowest average salaries than wage earners in any other state.  This has been the case since 1978, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Even in this time of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, South Dakota’s unemployment rate is less than half the national rate.  Yet, South Dakota has the highest rate of households where adults work more than one job and where both parents must work jobs to make ends meet.  The problem in South Dakota is not unemployment, it’s a crisis of underemployment.  And the problem is paychecks that are insufficient to pay mortgages, raise children, afford health care and support hometown Main Street businesses.  Consumer purchasing power is compromised by poor pay, and hurts South Dakota businesses.  It’s time state government rethinks its tax giveaway strategies to the largest companies to challenge the low pay crisis in each community.
  • South Dakota is home to six of the nation’s 11 poorest counties, and it’s no surprise they are located on reservations.  Yet, where is the leadership and determination in Pierre to create statewide solidarity between races to solve the dilemma of multi-generational poverty and hopelessness?  We can do more than shrug our shoulders or offer lip service instead of solutions.  We can return to the path of sincere reconciliation between races in South Dakota and resolve to resurrect families from the cycle of poverty.
  • South Dakota has the nation’s fourth greatest potential to generate electricity from wind, but our state lags far behind other states in getting the job done.  We have an amazing opportunity for wealth that grows as long as our nation needs green energy resources.  South Dakota has the undeveloped capacity to become an energy-rich state, but that distinction is going to our neighboring states.
  • There are tax-giveaway programs and 3 percent loans to give large employers to come to South Dakota, but what about existing businesses and new business startups?  Where’s the emphasis?  South Dakota Democrats believe the 21st Century workplace will see more and more incomes earned at home with the expansion of consultants and virtual offices.  We believe the availability of internet communications has changed the way businesses can be  built in rural areas as well as cities.  We think state government needs to rethink the strategies for small business support and education services, mentoring and venture capital programs, particularly as they relate to regional development strategies using federal, state and local agencies.

EDUCATION FUNDING

How many legislators and governors campaign on the education bandwagon, and when in office fail to deliver?  South Dakota Democrats believe that we owe the next generation the best public education system that we can produce.  However, there is a greater dedication every year in Pierre to expanding government reserves and savings accounts and to expanding state bureaucracies rather than making education the highest priority.  As a result, South Dakota state government makes the lowest contribution to public schools than any other state, yet local tax effort (property taxes) in South Dakota rates in the middle of the nation.  As a result, teachers in South Dakota remain the worst paid in the nation, forcing teachers to leave our state.  Also, South Dakota has the distinction of having the highest incarceration rate of juveniles, according to the Kids Count Survey last year comparing states.  South Dakota’s poor support for education is a major factor in young people feeling they need to leave South Dakota, rather than to stay and make their livelihoods.  Here are some solutions offered by Democratic legislators:

  • Place state government budgeting on a system of Zero-Based Budgeting, which seeks to prove the need for state expenditures and budget growth.  South Dakota Democrats have fought for a reduction in spending on bureaucracies.  Democrats also believe interest collected from reserves and saving accounts should do more than fatten slush funds.  Let’s divert these available funds to increase state funding for education.
  • Limit the growth of state full time employees.
  • Reform the law so that the legislature must pass its annual allocation for education before passing any other spending bills in Pierre.  If legislators want to make education the highest priority, then make it the first portion of the state budget passed before any other allocations are made.  Presently, education funding gets compromised against other spending needs on the last days of the legislative sessions and gets shortchanged every year.
  • Strengthen state support for post-secondary technical schools which are the training grounds for better paying jobs and economic expansion depending on a higher trained labor force.

Democrats believe that economic development depends on maintaining a first-rate, competitive education system.  High quality employers considering a move to South Dakota consider the quality of public schools as their most important criterion for relocating to another state.  Failing to make education funding the highest budget priority is also a failure to support a competent economic development strategy.