The Problem

South Dakota is facing a massive budget deficit brought on by fiscal mismanagement.  While the Republicans like to paint themselves as the party of limited government and fiscally conservatism, their actions speak louder than their words. 

Seven of the last 8 budgets have spent more money than the state has taken in.  In fact, since 2005 our state budget has grown by a whopping 32%.  Why has state spending grown so rapidly?  It has grown because state government has grown by 5.5% over the last seven years with the addition of 1,500 net new jobs.   That’s a new state employee every 48 hours.

South Dakota cannot afford to continue the misguided fiscal policies advocated by Republican leaders and rubber stamped by a Republican legislature.  The problem is not that we are facing a national financial crisis.  We have been in a recession for a year and half, but we’ve spending more than we have for 7 out of the last 8 years. It’s time for a true fiscal conservative in Pierre.

The Solution

We need to cap state spending increases at 3% or the rate of inflation until we’ve dug ourselves out of the deep financial hole the business as usual crowd in Pierre has put  us in.  Schools are required by law to do this, the state should be too.

The state has at least 1,800 contracts, many of which are no bid, potentially costing the state tens of millions of dollars a year.  We must eliminate no bid contracts. Governor Daniels, a Republican from Indiana, did this and saved the taxpayers there $170-200 million annually.  It’s simple, when the power of the marketplace is not being used to set the best (not necessarily the lowest) possible price, the taxpayer is being cheated.

State spending is out of control.  The Governor has three state airplanes at his disposal and, as seen in USA Today, he does not file flight plans for “security reasons” so no one knows where these planes are going and who’s on them.  The Republican legislature has defeated efforts to reduce the state aircraft fleet.  Nebraska sold their state plane because it was too expensive.  Surely our Governor can get by without three airplanes. 

We also employ a $200,000 year federal lobbyist who happens to have contributed more than $100,000 each political cycle to GOP candidates.  South Dakota has three Washington lobbyists and they don’t cost the state a dime.  Their names are Johnson, Thune, and Herseth-Sandlin.  It’s time to end wasteful state spending and pay-to-play politics.  The people of South Dakota deserve better.

We need to reduce the number of state employees.  The first step is to eliminate so called “phantom FTE’s”.  These are positions that are funded but never filled.  These dollars are currently labeled salary salvage and used to fund other unappropriated items. We are not in a position to be funding jobs for people that don’t exist, and I hope we never are.  This practice must be eliminated.   The consolidation of departments should also be examined.  We need smaller, smarter government.

I support a total suspension of out of state travel by legislators.  When facing a budget crisis, you don’t go on vacation.  This is something Representative Turbiville and I disagree on.  He voted against a moratorium on out of state travel (HB 1199).  It’s time for some new priorities in Pierre.

We need to make tough decisions and change the culture in Pierre in order to deal with the budget crisis we are facing in South Dakota.  Raising the sales tax 25%, an idea as my opponents support, is not the answer.  We need to end wasteful spending, eliminate no bid contracts, and trim government so we can fund the things South Dakotans care about such as education and alternative energy development.