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Aberdeen Crackerbarrel Opportunity for David Novstrup to Say Yes to Sales Tax for Teacher Pay

Quit staring at the papers, David. Look the voters in the eye and answer the question: yea or nay on HB 1182?
Quit staring at the papers, David. Look the voters in the eye and answer the question: yea or nay on HB 1182?

Senator David Novstrup, the District 3 Republican whom I will replace in the South Dakota Senate next year, sounded at best squishy about supporting House Bill 1182 to raise teacher pay at last weekend’s Aberdeen crackerbarrel. State overappropriating, schools overstaffing, Majority Leader Gosch’s still  untendered-as-a formal-amendment plan might be better, yadda yadda.

Friends and neighbors, use today’s crackerbarrel in Aberdeen (Ramkota, 10 a.m.) to tell Senator Novstrup to replace that squish with spine. HB 1182, the Governor’s half-cent sales tax to fund competitive teacher salaries, is on the Senate’s Monday calendar. Various sources say that HB 1182 is still a couple votes shy of the necessary 24 votes, a two-thirds majority, to pass this tax bill. Novstrup may be among fence sitters.

I can’t make Aberdeen’s crackerbarrel today (I’m supporting education by judging debate!), but fellow teachers, parents, and taxpayers, pack that meeting room and the Ramkota and don’t let Novstrup leave until he makes a commitment.

Remind him first that his dad, Rep. Al Novstrup, voted for HB 1182.

Remind him second that there is no viable alternative plan on the table. The Blue Ribbon K-12 panel identified the magnitude of the problem back in November: $75 million minimum to raise teacher pay to arguably competitive levels. In the three months since that report came out, no one has found the money for such a plan in the Capitol couch cushions (and as District 13 GOP Senate candidate David Bergan says, they won’t). None of the preceding ten task forces on education identified any such unused revenue in the budget to raise teacher pay. David Novstrup has had ten Sessions in Pierre to find such money, and he hasn’t yet. Unless Novstrup has somehow made fiscal magic happen, unless he can read you an exact funding source today that saves us from more regressive sales tax and still tackles the teacher shortage by raising average teacher pay to at least $48,500 this year, his time to dither is done.

And if Novstrup resorts to arguments about how sales tax is regressive, thank him for adopting the argument Democrats have been offering for years and ask him what progressive taxation options he would prefer. After he spends five minutes hemming and hawing to avoid saying income tax, ask him if this Legislature, this Session, has the political will to pass any kind of substantive tax reform. Let him stammer a couple more minutes, and then when he has admitted his inability to lead the Senate to any kind of meaningful tax reform, tell him that his only option to help teachers right now, this year, is to back House Bill 1182.

Yea or nay, David? It’s that simple. District 3 voters, if you want South Dakota to solve the problem of having the lowest teacher pay in the nation, make Senator Novstrup give you the right answer this morning.

And then take solace in knowing that when you send me to Pierre next year, you’ll have a much easier time getting a straight answer.

54 Comments

  1. Mrs. Nelson 2016-02-27 07:33

    I’m glad I am not the only one who noticed young Novstrup has an eye contact problem. He will look anywhere but AT you.

    Lack of confidence? Maybe you shouldn’t be up there, sir.

  2. oldguy7850 2016-02-27 08:11

    Cory– I’LL be straight with YOU!!!! your new solgan

  3. grudznick 2016-02-27 09:29

    Newspapers think they are entitled to free money. I bet you the town board posted all these important minutes on the cork board where people can read them.

  4. Lorri May 2016-02-27 11:07

    To paraphrase, “Give ’em hell, Cory!”

    The Novstrups have been pains in the arses of Democrats in the Legislature far too long. It’s time to get Daddy and Baby Novstrup out of there.

    So once again, “Give ’em hell, Cory!”

  5. John Kennedy Claussen 2016-02-27 11:41

    By executive order, the Governor should have requested a zero-based budgeting for the coming state fiscal year, instead of the incremental process, which is currently used.

    You would be amazed at the waste, which can be found doing such a budgeting change. It would be like a spring cleaning for South Dakota fiscally and I am confident we could and can find the money for teacher pay without increasing our dependency upon a regressive sales tax system.

    HB 1182 does not mention “education” and does not earmark monies for teacher pay, but it does increase sales taxes for the poor and working poor and gives property tax relief to the owners class at the expense of the renters.

    As Democrats, especially in Pierre, we need to stop being “New Democrats”…..

  6. Tim 2016-02-27 12:36

    It’s a shame, even Cory has given up on trying to pry some of the $600 million in freebees state republicans give away every year, out of their hands. Would seem to me $530 million in freebees would be more than enough. But what do I know, I’m just a taxpayer.

  7. Les 2016-02-27 12:36

    For those of us less capable of reading comprehension, BillB B, please just explain how this guarantees in any way shape or form the status of Ed funding.

  8. Les 2016-02-27 12:38

    Geez, Tim, we should meet for a beer. It appears hell has frozen over @ 12:36.

  9. Tim 2016-02-27 12:56

    Les, it’s not that cold. If taxes need to be raised to pay teachers I have no issue with that, I just am having a hard time understanding why big business and big Ag are getting yet another free ride. I know cutting back on some of the tax loopholes they now enjoy won’t go over in our ALEC controlled state government, but it would at least be nice if somebody tried.

  10. Les 2016-02-27 13:24

    I agree,Tim. Please reFer to my comment just above and try and pry that answer from someone’s cold closed mouth.

  11. John Kennedy Claussen 2016-02-27 14:44

    Bill B, thank you! But a regressive tax is a regressive tax. This last minute amendment, although refreshing, makes you wonder why it was not in there from day one? If they can initially omit the obvious and are allowed to do this without political outcry, then why are they not capable also to ignore the obvious waste in government as well to their likening?

    We should not tax the poor and working poor, in order, to increase funding for education. The money is there already to be found within the overall state fiscal budget. We are just not looking.

    I am pro education and pro a significant increase in teacher pay for all teachers throughout the state, but how this issue is being handled by Democrats in Pierre baffles me. The Republicans who truly want to raise teacher pay in South Dakota cannot obviously do it without the help of the Democrats in Pierre. Democrats initially held all of the cards in this legislative season on this issue, but have allowed the GOP in Pierre an easy out which has led to a further protection of the interests of the wealth class in this state.

    Republicans have always accused the Democratic party as the “tax and spend party.” Well, HB 1182 is classic example of that with the help of some Republicans, but the regressive nature of this legislative bill shows how our political reputation has mutated in a way that it now eats away at the core issue of economic justice, which is and should be the cornerstone of any Democratic proposal; a mutation only a “New Democrat” can try to justify.

    I know, someone will come up with a rebuttal to me on the grounds that the benefits of greater teacher pay will help to uplift the poor and working poor out of their current economic status. Well, let me save the need for the rebuttal argument. This “uplifting” can be done without taxing the poor and working poor.

    I also know if we get the 36% initiative passed next fall and hopefully we will, that this new reality will give the poor and the working poor a new windfall. Well, I am all for it, but let’s not put money in one of their pockets, while we are in the other pocket looking for funds.

  12. MC 2016-02-27 15:22

    Can someone show me in the bill where only the poor and working poor will be tax and the rich will not be taxed?

  13. mike from iowa 2016-02-27 16:16

    MC-you know damn good and well the poor can afford more taxes, but more taxes will kill the koch bros.

  14. Les 2016-02-27 16:24

    Obviously no guarantees to funding education in the bill.

  15. grudznick 2016-02-27 16:49

    Mrs. Nelson, I think you mean the younger Mr. Novstrup. Young Al, he’ll look you right in the eye and tell you the what-fer, it is the younger Mr. David that is flitty with his sight but his mind is sharp as a trap and he knows much more about the rules and the numbers than many.

  16. grudznick 2016-02-27 16:51

    I do contrast the haircuts Novstrup, Mrs. Nelson, just to be clear. Both styles have much going for them but the younger Mr. Novstrup has a style more hip for the kids of his age. The young Novstrup, his hair is really swell and not like Moe at all if you really think about it.

  17. John Kennedy Claussen 2016-02-27 17:01

    MC, a progressive tax system, whether you support one or not, is in relative to your income and the percentage you owe increases as your income increases due to higher percentages, which correspond with increased wealth. I am confident you already know that, but a sales tax is regressive because it is inverse to a progressive tax in terms of the relationship between taxation and income.

    A pound of hamburger costs the same for the rich and the poor at a given store, but the sales tax paid to buy that hamburger is a higher percentage of a poor persons income than a rich persons, and I think you know that, too.

    HB 1182 is regressive…

  18. grudznick 2016-02-27 17:04

    Mr. Claussen, you are righter than right when you say the Democrat people in the legislatures should have stomped their feet and gone “wah wah wah” like they always did in the past. The successes there are legendary.

    Or I suppose they could actually get something done. I, for one, look to the day that Mr. H is the Democrat leader in the caucuses and really applies all getting things done. It will be a fine day, Mr. Claussen, but until they right now all the Democrat people can do is sit and hope they like the cake that they will be served.

    Sit, and prepare for the cake. There is your fork.

  19. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-27 17:42

    John KC, can I campaign as an “Old Democrat”? What’s the proper marketing line there? ;-)

    Old Guy, I’ll use your line, as long as no one takes it as an anti-LGBT statement. Maybe I’ll elaborate: “I’ll be straight with you; you can be whatever you want.”

  20. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-27 17:42

    Lorri, are atheists allowed to give anyone hell? :-D

  21. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-27 17:48

    Tim, have any of the naysayers come forward with a bill or an amendment to repeal any of those sales tax exemptions? On December 9, I posted my very specific plan to cut just 13% of the sales tax exemptions and get enough money to pay for Blue Ribbon teacher pay raises and Medicaid expansion; on January 10, we published Dakota Free Press Bill #3 to raise $630 million in new revenue from repealed sales tax exemptions. The folks who wanted an alternative (albeit still relying on our frowned upon acquaintance the sales tax) have had those two options staring them in the face since January, but none of them have taken those alternatives seriously. Tim, I’ll still advocate for tax reform, but right now, since no one wants to play that game, they can make the choice: raise revenue through the only means the GOP will support, or leave teacher pay in the gutter for another disastrous year.

  22. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-27 17:55

    Let’s clarify again: The Schoenbeck Amendment, Section 17 of HB 1182, dedicates the money raised by HB 1182 as follows:

    From the proceeds of this Act, each year sixty-three percent shall be dedicated to increasing teacher salaries by school districts, thirty-four percent shall be dedicated to reducing the property tax levies for general education for all classes of property, and three percent shall be dedicated to increasing instructor salaries to competitive levels at postsecondary technical institutes.

    Legislature can come back next year and repeal that if they dare. They can try some other trick to keep us from noticing that they aren’t doing what HB 1182 says they have to do. That’s the thing: no bill or package of bills will solve this problem for us. Solid K-12 funding is not some perpetual motion machine we just flick the marble into this year and let go on its merry way. We need to elect legislators who will grease and gas and tighten and polish that machine every year. We need to toss wishy-washers like Novstrup and public-school naysayers like Omdahl, DiSanto, Heineman, Jensen, and the Greenfields and replace them Legislators like me who will tell you straight every year, “We will fulfill the funding promise of HB 1182 and we will keep trying to build a majority to either pass tax reform or put it on the ballot for you all to decide at the next election.

    HB 1182 is the guarantee. Once it passes, we will need to elect guarantors.

  23. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-27 17:57

    By the way, was anyone able to get to the Aberdeen crackerbarrel to hear where David stands today on HB 1182? Any other crackerbarrel input from around the state?

  24. Tim 2016-02-27 18:23

    Cory, you know damn well nobody in the ALEC controlled and payed for SD legislature will even touch that pony. Elected Democrats won’t touch it either, all we as taxpayers can do is try to make enough noise that they notice. We may have to accept the regressive tax for now to get something with teacher pay done, but the noise has to continue or it will never get better or get changed.

  25. larry kurtz 2016-02-27 18:35

    My youngest daughter and her mother are in Aberdeen for a soccer gig: does that count?

  26. grudznick 2016-02-27 19:17

    The barrels are full of crackers, Mr. H, and Lar’s daughter’s mother was a hit in Aberdeen.

  27. John Kennedy Claussen 2016-02-27 19:27

    Cory, you need to campaign as a Truman “Fair Dealer.”

    “When given the choice between a Republican, and a Democrat who acts like a Republican, the voters will choose the Republican every time.” Harry S. Truman

  28. grudznick 2016-02-27 19:33

    The Argus is starting to expose teachers who got fired. I think it is important for all of us to understand that these teachers do not necessarily fall into the bottom tier of the SILT. Many of them were fired for heinous crimes against nature and not for being bad teachers. Some of the best teachers have been heinous, going back over time.

  29. Jenny 2016-02-27 19:34

    Grudzie, you are so funny, talking about the Novstrup hair! ( Al’s is typical SD farmer boy style, looks like Dave’s is receding more but it still looks nice). I thought they were bros, not father and son!

  30. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-27 19:39

    John KC, if Truman said that 60–70 years ago, why haven’t South Dakota Democrats internalized that message?

    Tim, I agree: ALEC has too many GOP pawns standing between us and progressive tax reform. Let’s change that.

  31. grudznick 2016-02-27 19:49

    Ms. Jenny, I for a long time thought the brothers Novstrup were indeed brothers. But I was verbally beaten about the head and shoulders for saying so, so now I simply acknowledge one is young and the other is younger, and both are bulletproof in Aberdeen because of their rock-ribbed representation of that fine town.

  32. Roger Cornelius 2016-02-27 20:34

    From the comments here it seems that not many are supportive of 1182 and that is okay. 1182 has done one thing, it has opened the long closed door on teacher pay and that is a good thing. If the good voters of South Dakota will vote for Democrats the next time they will be able to show you real tax and education reform.
    Now about all this extra money in the state budget that is just laying around waiting to be applied to teacher pay. It is probably true that the state has money to do a lot of things including infrastructure maintenance and improvement.
    Why don’t politicians want to touch this hot potato? The simple truth is that so much of state money is being paid to friends and family, financing pet projects, and granting no-bid contracts (Lawrence & Schiller and their $1 million advertising contract).
    What it comes down to is that republicans will protect programs that benefit their cronies, friends, and family. Until that wall of republican protection is knocked down republicans will continue with their irresponsible spending.

  33. John Kennedy Claussen 2016-02-27 21:01

    Cory, because that message has been lost. Although, I believe it is still embedded in the hearts and minds of most South Dakota Democrats even today. It has become ignored, unengaged, and or marginalized in the post McGovern era starting in 1980 for South Dakota Democrats.

    Democrats over the past thirty-five years in South Dakota have become to manipulative and pragmatic, because that was the lesson young and ambitious Democrats in our state at the time took from the rise and fall of McGovern in South Dakota. That is, if they wanted to win in South Dakota after McGovern as Democrats.

    For a time this strategy resulted in great electoral successes, but overtime it served to the benefit of a few within the party and not to the party as a whole. We became merely a congressional party. These qualities were further emboldened in the 1990s when national Democrats in a great want to regain the White House after twelve years of Reagan and Bush emulated and paralleled these qualities resulting in the legitimatizing of the whole “New Democrat” idea, which ushered in welfare reform without corporate reform, a dismantling of Glass-Steagall, the Bush tax cuts, a blank check for the Iraq war, support for the Alito nomination, bankruptcy reform before credit card reform, and even the conservative Heritage Foundation’s idea of health care reform; though the latter mentioned is better than nothing.

    As a side note, one could say that Tony Blair’s success in the UK with his “New Labour” mantra of the 1990s was a further example of parts of the left trying to reinvent themselves, in order, to win again, but what did we get for that? Well, we got Bush/Blair, the 10 Downing Street memo, and the Iraq War.

    Now today, we wake up as a Democratic party in South Dakota without a single statewide office holder. And like a people who are occupied, to survive means often to enable and if that has already become engrained in our politics do to past manipulation and pragmatism, then it only naturally becomes our first reaction for survival or political survival in this case today and why the Truman message has been lost, disengaged, and or marginalized.

    Only when we are willing as a party to take inventory as to how we got here will we figure out how to get out of this political quagmire which we are in today as a political party; and being “kinder and gentler Republicans” has finally lost its inertia for us as Democrats in South Dakota and overtime it has proven Truman’s political calculus to be right all along.

  34. Kris 2016-02-28 06:04

    john keendy clauson my frends look at republcans and democrats the same. all curropt! all owned by corps that screw us over. all a game and we duped an fiten each other. gotta do sunthin way different!!!!!!!!!!

  35. Kris 2016-02-28 06:05

    go green partty dudes!

  36. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-28 08:50

    Kris, is the Green Party circulating petitions to gain recognition in South Dakota? Has the Green Party sent representatives to Pierre and to the crackerbarrels to support the teacher pay plan? What are the Green Party’s official policy positions on raising teacher pay and on reforming taxes in South Dakota?

  37. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-28 08:51

    John KC, care to join me on a Truman Democrat ticket?

  38. John Kennedy Claussen 2016-02-28 12:03

    Cory, I would be happy too. Let me know how I can help.

  39. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-28 12:24

    John KC, you have multiple opportunities:

    1. Take out a petition and run for Legislature in your district (which district are you in?)
    2. If your district already has a solid slate of Truman (McGovern? Wellstone?) Democrats, give them a call, tell them “Thanks!” and “Go get ’em!”
    3. Send those candidates some money.
    4. Send me some money via my online fundraising form, and I’ll help local Dems of similar passion and persuasion get to Pierre with us.

     
    If you’d like to do some more private political plotting, give me a shout via my contact form.

  40. Douglas Wiken 2016-02-28 13:39

    Cory, you don’t have to give em hell. Just remember:
    Harry S Truman: No, sir, I don’t give ’em hell, I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.

  41. grudznick 2016-02-28 16:15

    I heard that Novstrup the younger is going to retire from the legislatures, and the young Novstrup will run in his place. You scared one off, Mr. H!

  42. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-28 16:30

    Excellent, Douglas! I’ll remember that in my debates with Al. (Scared is right, Grudz!)

    Roger, it is interesting to see how many folks even on this teacher friendly blog are uneasy about or outright opposed to HB 1182. I agree that the funding mechanism is regressive, that we’re not tapping the wealth we ought (the wealth Americans for Prosperity is trying very hard to insulate from any taxation), and that the Dems offered a much better, bolder, and more effective plan.

    But then I go to Tim’s line: “We may have to accept the regressive tax for now to get something with teacher pay done, but the noise has to continue or it will never get better or get changed.” That’s the pragmatism to which I unhappily resort. Get the door open, solve teacher pay now, and then haul the public and the Republicans through that door this election and next year to have an honest discussion about tax reform.

    (But I wonder: if we make tax reform a central issue in this campaign, do we play into Republican hands and distract everyone from focusing on education, voter rights, and corruption? Is the public ready to talk honestly about tax reform, or do we need to focus on beating up Republicans on other issues?)

  43. Darin Larson 2016-02-28 16:42

    Cory, the election year issue in SD should be education. That is the issue that is important to everyone, easily understandable, and is the issue which Democrats have been leading the charge on for years. Those who opposed 1182 should be on the firing line. Those who were late to the party should take their fair share of criticism.

    1182 was generally supported by the whole political spectrum, save the extreme right. That is the issue to run on this year.

  44. Darin Larson 2016-02-28 16:45

    Anti-corruption is also a good issue, but it is harder to pin against any one particular representative in the House or Senate.

  45. Les 2016-02-28 16:59

    Not if you go to their voting records, Darin.

  46. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-02-28 18:04

    Darin, I agree that we all need to hoot and holler about education on the campaign trail. If you’re running against someone like Lynne DiSanto or Phyllis Heineman who votes against HB 1182, you wage holy war and exhort the voters to elect someone who supports our schools. If you’re running against someone like Al Novstrup (which I am!) who voted for HB 1182, you say it took Al 30 years to come to the party, and we can’t be sure he’ll stick around, so we need to elect someone new who is committed to education. Everyone gets that issue immediately, and this year, they’ll vote on it as a primary issue.

    Corruption is a little harder to sell, as it does require digging through the voting records for specifics. But we can also say legislators in general should have been paying more attention to where our money goes and less to potty bills and gun bills and other embarrassing bills.

    And since I’m a three-point guy, I’ll add protecting voting rights. That’s trickier than either of the above issues, but with those three issues, I have topics I can mix and match for different audiences.

  47. 96Tears 2016-02-28 18:05

    The old goat’s a bully, which means he’s an older version of the chicken gutz kid. The only difference is he thinks he can get away with his Boss Hogg bluster because nobody’s stood up to the blowhard. Yet. You’ll go through him like a hot knife through butter, Cory.

    Now let’s dump the Greenfields and Brown County’s legislative delegation’s IQ and integrity will grow exponentially.

  48. grudznick 2016-02-28 18:18

    I think Mr. Novstrup, the elder, has a record of anti-“corruption.” Mr. Novstrup took down a whole water district if I recall my readings correctly. He is the champion of open meetings and has backslapped a number of governments that tried to skirt them with deviousness. Mr. Novstrup will be a tough nut to crack for Mr. H.

  49. John Kennedy Claussen 2016-02-28 21:16

    Cory, I heed your suggestions and will do my best to help out. I will also let you know if I have any other ideas. I live in an interesting legislative district. Where I live apparently dogs do not need leashes, state legislators can have a minority interest in a corporation which does business with the state, and if you run for congress is it okay to swap donations with other congressional candidates’ political families throughout the land. I live in District 12.

  50. grudznick 2016-02-28 21:36

    That Mr. Curd has a pretty swell haircut.

  51. Douglas Wiken 2016-02-29 13:05

    Education is not a winning issue for Democrats. People are already pissed off by sales taxes on everything and property taxes on ag land jumping about 15%. Mercer writes it is only 5 bucks per hour per teacher. There are still many people working 40 or more hours every week of the year getting not much more than $5 per hour. Many of them work much harder than any teacher.

    Education is important for sure, but it is not a winning issue when almost every taxpayer sees it only as an excuse for more taxes.

  52. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-03-01 22:12

    Ah, 12! John KC, sic ’em!

    Douglas, we can counterprogram Mercer.

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