Senator Stace Nelson (R-19/Fulton) provides evidence that, whatever corruption may have taken place in the past, Pierre has gotten its act together and will not let any errant misappropriation of taxpayer dollars slip past its watchful eye:
Eight bucks, for parking? Nuts to that—go park at a park along the river, and ride your bike to the meeting!
But if you can’t make that walk, our State Auditor is deadly serious: save your receipts, or no reimbursements!
Distantly Related: Senator Nelson is out eight bucks, but unlike 40 of his Legislative colleagues in Fiscal Year 2017 and 45 of his fellow legislators this fiscal year, he has not asked taxpayers to contribute one thin dime toward any out-of-state travel.
If everyone would chip in a quarter or two we could take care of that $8.00 for Stace.
Where do we send the quarters?
Free parking on Main Avenue downtown. No need to pay parking meters.
Typical over-reaction nuts in Pierre. There are a few incidental expenses that one does not have receipts for: parking, stamps, etc. Good grief. Ignore the millions in fraud and waste. Clip parking fees. Pierre’s been an inbred government town too long.
Meanwhile, Pierre chases the Holy Grail of on line retail for tax receipts. Yet on line retail is 8% of retail. Yawn. Solving the wrong problems, again. And if SD cared about on line retail then the State would pull out the stops to be an on line mecca. No chance that the State would try.
http://ritholtz.com/2017/11/jobs-going-metro/
Legislators can get state rates for meals without receipts: $6 for breakfast, $11 for lunch, $15 for supper. Not hard to save $8 on eating (e.g., Burger King dollar menu for lunch) and cover parking expenses.
Plus, legislators are getting $142 per diem and, I believe, 42 cents per mile. I don’t know what Stace drives, but a 135-mile Fulton-Sioux Falls round-trip would burn about $12 worth of gas in my Beetle, while the state would reimburse $56.70 for mileage. Consider parking part of the maintenance cost.
Considering all that generosity, I see no overreaction in requiring receipts for absolutely everything else.
Here is my theory on state gov. (or any level of gov.) funds/money. $10s, $100s, even $1,000 of dollars are amounts most people can wrap there heads around. Amounts they work with in their everyday life. So they tend to be more anal about those amounts. “$50 on a trip from Fulton to Sioux Falls and back. Are you sure that isn’t $45?” “$1,000 for various signage? Better get three bids on that so we can save the gov. $40.”
“A bill for $1,234,567.89, boy that’s a big number, it must be the exact amount they need. Oh, and the project needs an extra $499,999, of coarse it does!” Like a Peter Principle but with money. At the lower rung you pinch pennies, saving a pittance. At the higher end, money flies out the door because that’s how it works, better not question that or you might look stupid
Yes mtr. That was my thought when the Pierre airport proposed spending over $1 million on a boarding ramp. Really? There’s a whopping amount of profit built into that which the government won’t bat an eye at spending.
Do I still feel it’s petty for Sen. Nelson to even submit a claim for $8 for parking? Yes. A couple bucks out of your own pocket is the cost of doing business. Or if feeding a meter chaps you too much then park on Main Avenue for free and walk a block to the meeting.
@Rorschach Please lecture me when you and your family have sacrificed as much for our nation and state as mine has. Speaking of petty? You don’t even have the courage or dedication to lend your identity to your own anonymous political attacks. Get back to me when you crawl out of your basement and actually have sacrifices before you make ignorant and petty attacks on those of us who have. Only a cad like you would begrudge a legitimate and unavoidale expense of a parking meter on a stormy day while attending hearings on the gross corruption of $62 million in fraud, waste, & abuse facilities by a lack of requirements for receipts of millions. 🙄
I tend to agree with Stace in his comments directly above.
Once again, Stacey identifies an issue related to cronyism in Pierre. But no tears from me over his unreimbursed expense – the mileage and per diem should cover his “sacrifice”.
The point is a deeper one. He calls attention to the fact that every voucher for every payment processed by State Govt passes through many hands and is viewed by many eyes. Yet somehow we do not even know how many millions of tax dollars were misused, lost, embezzled, stolen, or otherwise misappropriated in the GEAR-UP and EB-5 scandals. How could that happen? Checks for huge amounts of money went out to Rich Benda, Joop Bollen, and others, and each one had to be reviewed and approved by several state employees. Remember, Benda and Bollen were employees of the Governor’s Office of Economic Devt, but their payroll and expenses are processed in the same manner as all other State warrants and vouchers by the State Auditor and State Treasurer. Yet somehow nobody knows anything now, never did, and more records are being shredded every day. Some may say, ‘sad’.
Yes, Mr. Rorschach, do not question Mr. Nelson for he is more righteous than the rest of us and should not have to turn in receipts. Take him at his word, Mr. Auditor, and pay him his $8. Or perhaps Ms. May can pay Mr. Nelson’s parking from her spectator pay. Which brings to mind a good question. Do the spectators get to get $8 for parking if they are smart enough to keep their receipts?
Is there a point when even those that feel entitled because they and their family have sacrificed so much to start giving back?
Nelson has made his living off the federal and state government and probably been rewarded more than adequately.
$8 is a petty amount and Nelson’s public protest about the state not paying his parking is even pettier.
More than likely Nelson was at one time or other over compensated by the state and didn’t return the money.
Simply donate the $8 to the state and spend your time and energy actually doing something about state corruption.
It is telling, indeed, that the Auditor of the State is already reviewing Mr. Nelson’s parking passes and other payments. Do you think there is some sort of perceived corruption going on, or is this the Auditor starting to investigate Mr. Nelson as part of a vast conspiracy? Will the GOAC soon be summoning Mr. Nelson to appear?
@Roger Cornelius $62 Million effectively stolen from Native kids, but you can’t get over your racist hatred and obsess over being petty and begrudging myself and others for parking meter fees. Way to miss the point.
@Grudznick Keep playing the stupid part, it suits you.
Stace Nelson,
You are the one obsessing over parking meter fees not me.
So tell me Stace Nelson, since you are in a position of authority, what precisely have you accomplished about recovering the $62 million that was stolen from Native kids?
Regardless of how you frame it, Nelson, $8 is a petty amount to be throwing a tantrum over.
Like I offered at the top of this post, we can take up a collection of our quarters to make up this significant financial loss for you, just tell us where to send the money.
Trump and Stace Nelson must have gone to same republican political school.
When either one of them is challenged they strike back with name calling, threats, and bullying as a way to distract from the topic at hand.
@Roger Cornelius If you chose to be ignorant, you are the only one to blame. The news has reported on a fraction of my efforts. The fact you are ignorant of those efforts reflects on you, not me. But that really isn’t the case, is it? If you push a lie claiming I’ve done nothing, that’s what you’re really about. Es macht nichts.
Ironically there is FREE guest parking in the Carnegie Parking lot, if you would have just told one of the city clerk’s which car you were driving they would not have ticketed you.
@South DaCola We asked and we were told there wasn’t. Most of us that attended came from out of town and had little to no knowledge of the down town area. We digress. The $8 and parking wasn’t the point. Curt and others got it above. Don’t let Roger & Grudznick’s political pettiness dilute from the real issue.
Stace is right about Curt’s having nailed the main point here: our state government has the oversight capability to reject an insufficiently documented $8 reimbursement request. There was nothing corrupt in Senator Nelson’s request, but the auditor’s office said no. Yet when state government noticed (and yes, it noticed) the improper handling of money by Rick Melmer’s pals in Platte or the reimbursement requests from Benda and Bollen, state government did nothing.
South Dakota state government can stop corruption if it wants to. It does not want to.
Stace, they tell everyone that, not true. The parking division is a greedy bunch, you just have to talk to someone with a higher authority. I always park there during the day IF I am attending a public meeting at Carnegie.
Sen. Nelson is a big whiner. Suck it up crybaby.
The poor baby would have fared better on his stormy day by parking in a free spot and not having to brave the awful, horrible, terrible weather to repeatedly feed a meter. If the weather only realized how much he’s sacrificed it would have stopped weathering for him. Someone with a sense of entitlement as big as Sen. Nelson’s should never be questioned about choosing a parking metered spot when free parking is available. He sacrifices so much for South Dakota by serving in the legislature that nobody else has ever sacrificed like him. The city of Sioux Falls gives him free parking but it’s not good enough for someone with his level of sacrifice. The Auditor’s office is getting far more than $8 of entertainment from the senator’s tantrum. So are the rest of us. You want us to send you quarters or not?
Here’s what I think happened. Sen. Nelson didn’t feed the meter in time and got a parking ticket. But his overinflated pride in his overinflated self didn’t want to advertise that fact to either the auditor or to us, so he asked for parking meter reimibursement in the hope of covering his parking ticket which the auditor wasn’t going to pay. Am I right, Sen. Nelson? Come clean about your parking ticket and help us to understand why a big tough gun-toting marine whines so much about parking.
Leave Stace alone, he’s a good dude! At least he’s trying to fight corruption in the State!!!
Just look what a bone spur (real or imagined) was able to do for Donald Trump. It seems to me that Sen. Nelson could find himself a medical doctor with military experience who understands Sen. Nelson’s sacrifice to diagnose a bone spur, if you know what I mean, and qualify the ever-suffering senator for a handicapped parking pass – which should satisfy his sense of entitlement at least as it pertains to parking.
By the way, what ever happened to the GOP Partyists who engaged in so much gnashing of teeth at Bill Clinton’s draft dodgery? They have seemingly been in hiding since the illustrious ticket of W and Dickerd Cheney. At least Sen. Nelson and the GOP Party outrage machine may take comfort in the fact of having a president who respects the fact Sen. Nelson was never captured.
Again, the overriding point here is not that Nelson sought reimbursement for actual expenses related to his attending a Legislative meeting. The point is that when Stace Nelson, not a friend of the GOP establishment, tries to get reimbursement, the auditor goes by the book. But when Richard Benda, erstwhile friend of the establishment, wanted to buy magazines at the airport or poorly documented translation services or drinks at a Manila go-go bar, no one in Pierre blinked until Benda was dead.
@Rorschach You’re a coward who hides in the shadows throwing fecal matter at better people than yourself. I’m a service-connected disabled veteran and rate handicapped parking per statute. My pride keeps me from accepting it and I loath giving up my USMC license plate. There was no parking ticket and your claims as such are slanderous. Now scurry back to your grandma’s basement and leave good honest folk free of your ignorance and petty politics.
Tell us about your service-connected disability, Sen. Nelson. Were you combat wounded or was it some less auspicious mishap that rendered you disabled? We’re all eager to hear about this particular sacrifice that you saw fit to bring up. As you know, they make handicap hang tags for your rear-view mirror so there’s no need to give up your USMC license plate to satisfy your sacrifice-based sense of entitlement to prime parking.
Meanwhile, back on the topic at hand … thank you Cory for researching the details and connecting the dots.
Mr. H does indeed tie the dots together showing that the auditors who said the Midcentral people were not doing the right things and demanding receipts and the education department was not getting receipts from the Midcentral people and the Other Gearup people were not tracking their working time and so forth.
This shows that the auditors say you must provide documentation to get reimbursed. Be it for an $8 prime parking spot or a contract to teach kids Gearup.
Keep your receipts, people, and don’t whine about it if the auditors won’t pay you if you don’t. Blame it on the GOAC if you must to get sleep at night, but keep your receipts. That’s grudznick’s advice for the day.
Mr. Rorschach, I thought Mr. Nelson said he was on bases behind lines of safety. Of course he was never captured. Plus, can you imagine how he could single handedly decimate any dozen men who tried?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HfK2VKIWJLE/maxresdefault.jpg
@CAH When you allow Grudznick & Rorschach to slander legislators who come on here with their made up claims and fecal matter throwing, it encourages others to avoid interacting
@Rorschach In 1992 a felon ran me over with his car resisting apprehension. I intercepted him at the house of a young woman who was a material witness, whom he had threatened to kill. I was on foot.
@Grudznick I spent 18 1/2 years overseas, much of the work was not on military bases. My last year was working out of the US Embassy in Manila working counterterrorism, force protection, and criminal investigations. Philippines is ranked in the top 15 dangerous countries in the world. I received the Secretary of Defense civilian medal for combatting terrorism for risking my life doing so.
You two are cowards who don’t even have the courage to throw your dishonest fecal matter under your own names.
I thank you for your service, Mr. Nelson, as I do all others who served just as valiantly, and I am glad you provided it and were not captured, and by golly I even wish they would give you your $8 back. I am sorry you were injured. On Friday, I hope you have a tremendous Veteran’s day.
Then, I hope you try to join civilized society with the rest of the people, many of whom also served without all the chest thumping and entitlement bullying tactics.
Sen. Nelson has been disabled since he was in his 20s! The hell you say. That explains a lot.
Just ignore Ror, Stace. I don’t know what’s gotten into him and Grudzie is just an ornery old fart.
There are certain people on here that like to rile you up, Stace. It’s entertainment for them. ;)
When I see a strutting peacock I do like to ruffle the feathers, Jenny. The fact is, it’s not “dishonest fecal matter” to ask why someone parked at a parking meter when free parking was available. And it’s not “slander” to ask if someone got a parking ticket. For one thing, slander is a false spoken statement while libel is a false written statement. A question is not a statement anyway.
Sen. Nelson is the most thin-skinned politician except for maybe Trump. To whine publicly about feeding a parking meter with your own quarters and bluster about slander when someone asked if he got a ticket. That’s just blowing things way out of proportion. To suggest that nobody should question him because of sacrifices to his country and his state, that’s hubris. The senator is no John Wayne. John Wayne wouldn’t be whining about parking or claiming to be disabled. For a leatherneck, Sen. Nelson is made of a kind of buttery soft doe leather. He brings the drama.
Oh for goodness, sakes, I see Stace as likable in spite of his shortcomings. We all are a little thin-skinned at least he’s not hiding his. Stace is Stace. I have come to respect him and his determination to fight corruption in state govt.
People submitting false or unsubstantiated claims to be paid taxpayer money seems like corruption to me. Even if it’s only for $8. Wrong is wrong.
When he feels the need to remind everyone over and over again about his service, it tends to get tiresome. People with the need to brag about their greatness, prolly aren’t.
Look back at US history not everyone was a hero and many were reluctant, non-limelight seeking folks.
Then there is Drumpf.
Stace is no Donald Trump and that is a good thing.
@Rorschach, Iowa Mike, Grudz.. Yes, you are all victims.. How dare someone refute and rebuke your petty anonymous internet bullying from your granny’s basements. You three clowns wouldn’t make a pimple on a good man’s keester. That’s right Rorschach, I’ve been busted up since 1992 and I still managed to serve another 7 years in the Marines and another 10 as a civilian NCIS agent. Foreign concept to slimy little internet trolls who can’t even muster the wherewithal to stand behind their insults and lies with their own little names. You dont want to be called out for being the slimy cowards you are? Your insecure about my service? Don’t poke the old Bull elephant and make it relevant. Now slither off back to your granny’s basements.
@Jenny Right back at ya. These little trolls? They’re annoying like mosquitos. Unlike the hated mosquito, these air thieves don’t have the courage of their convictions to bother you in person. 🤔 Guess that makes them lower than a mosquito and as relevant. 🤣 What they are doing though is a disservice to all who wish to engage in thoughtful discussion. Their slander opens up Cory to liability. I am sure he would have more people participating in his blog if these trolls were not allowed to hide while throwing their fecal matter. They have successfully derailed a good discussion with their personal attacks and petty ignorant comments. Mr “H” wouldnt allow such in actual debates, doing so here hurts his efforts in the end.
Cory,
Do comments by those posting here really make you liable for a slander lawsuit?
Yeah, Nelson -I’m all busted up, too. But, I stand by what I said about your incessant braggadocio. It does get tiresome. Then the threats start flying. You are gonna kill us all or some damn thing.
Smoke a bowl and lighten up.
Roger, no. But good grief, I’m dismayed by how much this discussion runs toward peeing on Stace rather than discussing the broader policies.
Cory,
Stace is pissing right back.
My humblest apologies to you, Master and all others except….
I will bid you a good evening for now.
The elephant holds his trunk high
pats his back till he makes himself cry
Snorts “I’m better than you”
And I’m so humble too
That I’ll tell you myself, semper fi
grudznick still holds the personal opinion that anybody, busted up ex-marine or not, who tries to swindle taxpayer money by not providing documentation is engaging in corruption. Corruption, I say! Corruption! Let me say it again: Corruption!
It does not matter if it is $8 or $1,000,000, it is corruption. That is what grudznick thinks. Disagree with me if you wish.
Stace Nelson writes:
More people participating, and people participating more. I support letting commenters present opinions anonymously, but very few people are going to endure the anonymous public smears that Bob Newland and Stace have endured and still keep coming back.
Mr. Evans writes:
Nobody smears on my good friend Bob without getting slapped in the face with his hat. Bob is more capable than Mr. Nelson in intellectual endeavors and discussion. Don’t worry about Bob, Mr. Evans.
What is being overlooked by the Nelson sympathizers is that a state senator hurls vile insults at South Dakota voters that dare challenge him, he ducks the issues and launches into self-serving comments about his accomplishments.
Scroll up and read some of Nelson’s comments or better search the blog for other threads and read how he demeans voters.
Nelson has been writing Trump type Tweets long before Trump was on the scene.
He has inferred that Cory is liable for slander because of what the commenters post. That is a lie.
Hopefully there will come a day when South Dakota voters and voters around the country become exhausted by temperamental politicians and restore this country to sanity.
Roger’s criticism of Stace above qualifies as a legitimate expression of opinion that I’d allow to be posted anonymously. I’d also allow Roger to post empty grudznickian smears under his real identity.
It’s the combination of anonymity with mockery and empty smears that tends to drive me away from this place.
It is an empty argument to demand that people post using their real names, this debate has been ongoing since the inception of blog postings and doesn’t change.
People post anonymously for numerous reasons, including a real fear of relation, their employer might fire them for something they say on the internet, or fear public ridicule, etc.
I have been physically threatened for comments and once had to actually call the Rapid City Police Department.
I post using my real name not to gain credibility, but because my conscience wouldn’t allow me to post anonymously.
Roger Cornelius writes:
Yes, that’s why, as I’ve said above, I support letting commenters present opinions anonymously. Mockery and empty smears aren’t opinions.
Cory, this bullying of Stace has gone on long enough I think.
True, Roger, Stace and his detractors share a proclivity for personal brawling.
Do you folks realize how tired I’d be if I exerted myself with equal vigor in challenging every personal insult Pat Powers throws at me? Consider his latest post about me (sometimes I notice) in which he attacks me over my brag post for trying to imitate Donald Trump with my claim that “I publish more information and more analysis more regularly and get more people reading and talking about more Legislative topics than any sitting legislator.” Notice that Powers doesn’t refute my claim; he just resorts immediately to the ad hominem. I could spend all week in his comment section (if Pat didn’t block me) or here in a whole separate post defending my good name and calling Pat bad names. Instead, I just note that he avoided refuting the facts of my central claim (because he can’t—even Stace Nelson, who does a pretty good job of communicating with his local constituents, does not provide the same breadth or depth of commentary on South Dakota Legislative issues) and go on to the next substantive, non-personal topic on which my logic, evidence, and literary style will crush Pat’s press-release-addled peepings.
And don’t even get me started on our friend in Mitchell. He’s been throwing urine balloons at my Google juice for years, but do I spend the bulk of my day responding to his insults (or cyberbullying, if that’s what we want to call it)? Of course not. I go focus on the biggest bullies in the state, the powerful GOP establishment figures who slide money and favors to their friends under the table and intimidate everyone else into silence.
Jenny, go back and remind yourself how this thread developed. I offered a small measure of constructive criticism about parking at a meter when free parking is available then expecting taxpayers to pay for it. Sen. Nelson went immediately to Defcon 3 with the “i’m entitled/I’m better than you” attitude that’s so unbecoming from anyone – especially from a politician. I’m not one to let that attitude go without a response.
Now, Sen. Nelson the big bull elephant would love to resolve this disagreement with flying fists. I have instead challenged him to settle it like civilized people with a poet slam. The gauntlet is down, and everyone is invited. Just know that I am not unarmed.
Why don’t you comment under your real identity, “Rorschach”?
Cory writes:
Those seem like pretty good analogies, Cory. Do you allow either of those bloggers to anonymously mock, smear, bait and provoke you in the Dakota Free Press comment sections?
Do you allow any commenters here who don’t give you their real names?
The way some on here go full frontal for perceived insults is flat out amazing. I’m with Ror. Some people make mountains out of little pebbles just because they can and then claim they are the victims.
Grow up and/or grow a pair. For those of you too lazy to bother to read, mike from iowa is 1000% true as to who I am. I am a mike and I am from, and proudly so, iowa. Soon to be 65 years worth.
I’d asked Cory:
“mike from iowa” writes:
Cory,
Sen. Nelson’s brash and crude political style invites criticism, like I said earlier Nelson out trumped before Trump was on the radar.
Nelson, Trump, and those like them wallow in chaos and believe it is an accomplishment. Their politics of threats and name calling deserve a response from the public.
Hey mfi, happy soon to be Medicare birthday, you deserve the new found freedom of healthcare. May the system continue to work for you as it has worked for so many millions before you.
Thanks. Jerry, but I have been on Medicare since 2010 when I was forced out of farming and put on disability. Then put on SS at age 62. Of course, wingnuts found out and want to strip away all my retirement to give to the koch bros.
Kurt: When Cory initially wrote his blog he didn’t allow anonymous commenters, and he didn’t have many commenters. It was only after allowing people to comment anonymously that his blog took flight and far eclipsed any other political blog in South Dakota.
Anonymous writing in the political sphere is a long and storied tradition in America. Benjamin Franklin published anonymously under the name of “Mrs. Silence Dogood.” The Federalist Papers were written anonymously under the pseudonym “Publius” in response to other essays written anonymously by “Cato” and “Brutus” that became known as the anti-federalist papers. And Abraham Lincoln wrote anonymously under the name “Rebecca” to lampoon a political opponent – which nearly got him killed in a duel when the other man found out who “Rebecca” was. (Incidentally, the man Lincoln antagonized – James Shields – was born in Ireland and became the only man ever to represent 3 different states in the US Senate).
Political dialog now is no worse than it was 250 years ago. They got really nasty then too. What Cory is doing is facilitating dialog, some of which is enlightening and some of which is less so. But we’re all making use of the opportunity he gives us to share our opinions either under our own name or a pseudonym.
So what am I about? I’ll borrow the words of Mrs. Silence Dogood: “I have likewise a natural Inclination to observe and reprove the Faults of others, at which I have an excellent Faculty. I speak this by Way of Warning to all such whose Offences shall come under my Cognizance, for I never intend to wrap my Talent in a Napkin. To be brief; I am courteous and affable, good-humour’d (unless I am first provok’d,) and handsome, and sometimes witty…”
I’d asked Cory:
Do you allow either of those bloggers to anonymously mock, smear, bait and provoke you in the Dakota Free Press comment sections?
“mike from iowa” writes:
Grow up and/or grow a pair.
This wasn’t aimed at Master- just to the poster(s) I described in the opening paragraph, Mr Evans. Would you be looking to prolong the festivities or do you think people that post here can’t figure things out and need your interpretations?
Kurt is obsessed with anonymous posters. I think that is the Gestapo in him that seethes out. For a supposed librarian or is it libertarian, he certainly demands control, both want to shhhh you for speaking out though, so there is that.
Roger, I do get what you’re saying. A “brash and crude political style” does interfere with the message on other issues. Even when he isn’t being brash and crude—and I don’t see anything brash or crude in his wry observation on his receipts in the context of a GOAC show hearing on real corruption—people who have heard him be brash and crude on other issues will only hear brashness and crudeness and will use the opportunity to turn the discussion toward getting back at him for past brashness and crudeness, to the detriment of discussion of the valid political/historical point he was trying to make.
It is corruption to submit claims for reimbursement from the taxpayers without providing the proper receipts. CORRUPTION! It does not matter if it is only $8 you are trying to rip off or $8,000. Do as the law requires your self, or keep your ignorant yap shut, say many in the legislatures. Attempted thievery by one in the legislatures could be grounds for a special hearing.