As I page through the new statewide Single Audit Report for FY 2015 (yes, we’ll get to the Department of Education this morning), I notice the list of primary government capital assets. If South Dakota had a rummage sale, if we cleaned house and sold off our state assets, we could raise $3.9 billion:
97% of those capital assets are infrastructure—roads, bridges, tunnels, drainage systems, water and sewer systems, dams, lighting systems, etc. Less than 1% is in equipment and vehicles that one could actually buy and take home.
Don’t give the Republican ideas Cory! They will do what they always do – sell whatever they can real cheap to their opportunist cronies, call it “getting rid of big gub’ment” and tomorrow we will pay $5 tolls every 50 miles to drive on SD highways that won’t get a shred of maintenance until they can’t be driven on anymore.
Optimistic,ain’t you? Most of the bridges and roads are in dis-repair. Waters are dirty,etc. What would it cost to update infrastructure?
Some vulture capitalist would likely give you a few cents on the dollar,force the state to raise taxes to fix the problems and then sell the state for a trillion or two. American style greedery.
as previously stated, gold at recent prices (not today’s high) worth $72,000,000,000.00 (billion) came out of San Francisco’s Homestake, not counting the other mines spreading from Sturgis to Sundance (60 miles or so of scarred Black Hills). The Black Hills were stolen from the Indians right after they killed Custer who surprise attacked them, defending their established way of life.
the state bought the empty hole for $____________ and is now hoping to score big in the origins of the universe, a lofty goal.
too bad the Indians didn’t have a reversionary clause in their title, like most ranchers do on railroad right of ways. or like the Indians had on 1200 acres of west RC that fat, happy white people who refuse to change the name of Harney Peak, bask in eternal sunshine and margaritas, black leather and expensive chrome motorcycles.
the state is considering giving another gift. (1500% interest on short term loans to poor people!)
oh, the Indians DID have a reversionary clause, but the mayor, churches and the guard got congress to pass another law taking Indian land again in the 1950s, without telling the Indians.
hmmmmm? as grudz would troll, “i’m jus sayin….”
I guess the 1980 SCOTUS decision paying the Indians $16,000,000.00 (million) plus interest (not at 1500%, thank god) for the taking (the theft and genocide) where the court said there has never been a case of more rank dealing, must have covered these Rapid City citizens’ acts of their parents as they now sit on their decks and drive their german audis, and chew up the limestone ridges for gravel roads.
maybe not
The Mexican company that bought the Rapid City cement plant is now doing a $90 million upgrade to the plant. Funny how a Mexican company could make a go of the plant while the State of South Dakota – according to Bill Janklow – could not make a go of it. I still wonder what Bill Janklow got out of that deal. He also had a plan to pay one of his contractor friends to take down the quartzite stone walls from the Sioux Falls penitentiary. Basically the contractor was going to get to keep the quartzite and Janklow was going to pay the contractor to take it. There was probably some sort of kickback involved with that too, but public uproar killed that plan.
Janklow was a piker compared to Rounds though. Imagine how much Rounds must have gotten when he actually paid his friend Joop Bollen take that $120+ million revenue stream off of taxpayers’ hands.
With one party controlling everything, poor sunshine laws, and a docile press corp, South Dakota is proving to be one of the most corrupt states. How many more taxpayer assets have the GOP party sold or given away that we don’t even know about?
“Less than 1% is in equipment and vehicles that one could actually buy and take home.”
Well, let us not be giving our GOP friends any new ideas. You really do not have to “take (it) home” to conceivably sell it. Back in the early 80s, Janklow explored the possibility of selling the state capitol building…..Yes! The state capital building..(?)
Luckily, the deal fell through. It was going to be sold to a private entity that was going to use it as a tax shelter (not sure exactly how), while the state of South Dakota was going to benefit from the sale in some one time monies (in the 100-200 million category I believe) and then lease back the state capitol building for a dollar a year under a 99 year lease….. I am not sure what we were going to do after the year, say 2080, perhaps the old territorial building in Yankton would still be available then (?)….
Some thing tells me, that Trump would like to do the same thing with the White House….:-(
well rohr, we don’t know how far along daugaard, Regent’s and plant Heather Wilson, SDSM&T, have moved toward committing SD to taking the nation’s, the continent’s and/or the worlds hazardous nuclear waste.
I would say the purity of our state, such as it is, is a profoundly valuable natural resource. It’ll absorb all kinds of sights, sounds, smells, spills, extractions, deposits, wind, waves, and solar, geothermal, agricultural development, and drying-out, before the planet is no good anymore. Republicans will give it away for private profit.
Rounds wants to get rid of EPA, and DOE, is it?
the Indians already know that not one more square inch of the reservations can be squandered by white people for non-native sustainability.
I talked to the RC Journal Editor today about the format changes to the RC Journal. In the conversation I learned that some students at SDSM&T were trying to get a printed newspaper going again. Too many years ago I was an editor of the TECH newspaper. In those days any kind of student rights were mostly non-existent. Running a paper was a bit like walking on the edge of a razor blade. Anyway, the editor said he was trying to help the students get a printed paper going again and already they had gotten the administration red hot about what they were writing. I have no idea what, but my guess is the new President is not really thrilled about an independent voice on campus. Whatever, I hope they get the paper going again even if they apparently are not going to call it THE TECH.
On another front, I got a laptop with W8.01 on it upgraded to W10. It took 2 hours and 26 minutes from start to finish, but it appears to still be working.
Sell the Capitol? Who makes any money on that deal? I’d love to see some contemporary accounts of that plan.
(Douglas—is this your first laptop? How’s that keyboard feel? If those Mines journalists are already riling the administration, I’d love to see their work. But how will I make hyperlinks to their printed paper?)
my 8.01 won’t upgrade to W10, so far. software developers expect us to give away our time unrestrictedly just so they can put more advertising under our noses and blaring in our ears on-screen. annoying and manipulative.
this is not about “embracing change”. our privacy has been stripped from us so they can harvest data to sell products.
if we used the world’s resources to benefit every human being to its greatest potential, and cancelled this profit incentive for the 1%, i’d be happy.