Governor Dennis Daugaard is not ready to pay for competitive teacher salaries yet, but he is ready to pay for lawyers. In the FY2017 budget proposal released yesterday, the Governor asks for $2,449,502 for the Extraordinary Litigation Fund.
As commenter Jake Cummings notes, South Dakota uses the Extraordinary Litigation Fund (ELF—because Christmas is coming!) to defend bad laws like our oppressive abortion restrictions. In his December 2011 budget address, Governor Daugaard asked for an emergency amendment to the FY2012 budget to put $1.04 million in the ELF to brace for abortion-related litigation, and the Legislature complied.
The ELF was also used to pay a big chunk of the expenses of the Darley litigation, which arose from EB-5 czar Joop Bollen’s secret and illegal lawyering on behalf of the state when a stiffed EB-5 investor recruiter sued. That lawsuit cost the state over $500,000.
Governor Daugaard did not explain in his budget address, nor does he explain in the budget book, why the Extraordinary Litigation Fund needs $2,449,502. I would like to speculate that the Governor is bracing for the cost of corruption, specifically the $18.55-million lawsuit 35 Chinese EB-5 visa applicants have filed against the state for duping them into investing in the doomed Northern Beef Packers.
But there is another explanation. According to a report the Government Operations and Audit Committee reviewed at its September 22 meeting, the ELF is in the hole by over $1.4 million. In December 2013, Seattle-based Attachmate Corporation audited the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications and claimed that it found thousands of unlicensed copies of its terminal emulation software on state computers. Attachmate gave the state an ultimatum: pay $5 million in license fees, interest, and audit charges or lose access to all Attachmate software. BIT conveniently cited IRS regulations as compelling a switch to a different vendor’s software. BIT and Attachmate still went to court in June 2014 (see 32CIV14-000116), with the state arguing that it had deployed Attachmate’s software in compliance with the software license agreement. The parties reached a confidential settlement that apparently involved a payout of $1.49 million.
Attachmate won a settlement from Montana over similar software license allegations in 2008. The company is one of the most avid enforcers of software license ageeements.
So if I’m reading everything correctly, the Governor’s $2.45 million request will backfill that loss and leave the Extraordinary Litigation Fund with just $1.03 million to duke it out with the Chinese investors and whoever else comes a-callin’ to hold South Dakota accountable for its corruption in FY2016.
$2,449,502 is a surprisingly precise number. As a citizen of South Dakota I’d like to know how this number was arrived at. The request by Governor Daugaard for more money for the Extraordinary Litigation Fund is another sign of a state government out of control. Every idiot with a computer knows you can’t just use software without paying licensing fees, many do but it’s still illegal. To learn our state has been doing it should really make us question the competence of the ruling cabal in Pierre. They are more and more proving to be an incompetent kleptocracy willing to take the entire state down in their quest to line their pockets.
Does Jackley actually get paid to be this bad?
Looking at the headline to this story I have a theory why Daugaard may have requested this amount. Add another $498 and the amount would round off to $2.5 million. It’s all about appearances in Pierre.
Your correct Mr. Nemec, basic sales techniques from a used car salesman. His seat cushions probably have the 500 bucks to round it off from the last corruption payoff he received. The chickens have most certainly come home to roost with this request. The request should be denied for the reason of frivolous law suits. you know, the ones the republican supposedly hates. You cannot win lawsuits that are political in nature and harmful in their intent. Jackley should have to reimburse the state for being such a knucklehead of an attorney. If you are a failed barrister, you are in as that is the prerequisite of the job of Attorney General in the state of South Dakota.
OK, Rounds/Dudley didn’t know about EB-5. Didn’t know about Joop and his private corp. Didn’t know about Benda. Didn’t know about the Platte folks. Didn’t know about “thousands” of illegal state computers. Don’t know how to insure our state’s uninsured. Exactly what is it they DO know????
A $2.5 million outlay is the starting price for being stupid and in power.
Somewhere inside that thick skull, I suspect Dennis Daugaard is a rational person. He’s not very deep and he seems to prefer things that are straight up. It must be very stressful to have to be responsible for such a conniving and deceitful bunch of egomaniacs. It’s pretty pricey, too.
I too am curious about where that money will go. The State has insurance and it is typically the duty of the insurance company to supply a legal defense to help resolve claims against the State. Add to that the many smart and experienced lawyers in the Attorney General Office, and we have multiple lawyers already paid and available to defend claims.
Why did we go into debt for another $2.5 million dollars given the resources we had available that we had already paid for? That doesn’t seem to be fiscally responsible. It will be interesting to see who gets this money and learn what their relationship is to the Governor’s office.