Rapid City blogger and columnist John Tsitrian does a good job of taking apart Governor Dennis Daugaard’s rebuttal to Tsitrian’s diagnosis of South Dakota’s anemic economic growth.
But Tsitrian’s response also reminds me that Governor Daugaard supports the proposal from Speaker G. Mark Mickelson and others in the Legislature to raise legislative pay:
Tsitrian correctly explained that, unlike other elected officials, legislators have not received a salary increase in 20 years. The proposal he described would increase legislator pay from $6,000 to 20 percent of South Dakota’s median household income, which would currently be $10,200 and would allow for the salary to keep up with inflation in the future.
I personally support this proposal. We need legislative pay to keep up with inflation, so that a wide spectrum of candidates can afford to consider legislative service [Gov. Dennis Daugaard, “SD Lawmakers Have Earned a Pay Raise,” Rapid City Journal, 2017.12.08].
But aspiring yet poverty-stricken candidates shouldn’t put too much stock in the Governor’s support for automatic legislative pay raises. In 2016, the Governor supported a new K-12 funding formula that was supposed to raise average teacher pay in South Dakota to $48,500 and should give teachers a 1.7% raise next year. Yet the Governor’s plan only made 54% of the necessary progress toward that target salary, and in FY2019, he’s proposing 0% raises for South Dakota teachers.
Of course. Why do the people of SD vote for things and then the Governor and SD officials change what the people have voted for? Why have elections on things? It is definitely a corrupt state as far as I can see. Sorry but hope more people can see the writing in the sky. The citizens and their votes don’t count. It is so much needed to have new blood in South Dakota.
Thanks, Cory. Our elected reps haven’t had a raise since ’98. I think it’s time to play catch-up and support an immediate raise to a bit over $10k, consistent with inflation during the past couple of decades. After that I support a performance-based raise that’s tied to SD’s economic growth using a metric like GDP per capita changes, including a reduction in salary if the GDP per capita number goes negative, as it has since 2011.
Let’s do for legislators what they do for teachers. Let’s make sure they are paid at the salary that would make them the 50th state in the nation. New Mexico has the lowest salary at $0. That’s what SD legislators should be paid.
Make it merit pay. If a vast majority of Democratic voters agree wingnuts did a good job, then they get a small hike. If not, they go back to zero pay and start over. Shouldn’t take them long to know what Democrats expect of them.
State workers are getting how much of a raise? Teachers? As these legislators are getting a raise then they will not need to get the lobbyist incentives to block the citizen votes, no?
Recruiting and retaining quality teachers is important. Recruiting and retaining quality state employees is important. Recruiting (leave the retention to the voters) quality legislators is important. SD is strengthened by doing all these; don’t let negligence on any one of these distract from fighting to increase all of these. We will create quality only by raising all up, not holding all down. The teacher pay increase (albeit not perfect) was a win that showed that working together, focused, with intention will succeed. (It also taught us that constant vigilance is required after a “win.”)
I will not use, “what about . . .” to hold anyone back. I choose not be lured into divisive tactics to perpetuate failure.
True that o, true that.
A person should not have to be independently wealthy in order to serve in the state legislature. Yes, they have failed to keep their promise to fund education adequately, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
How about we cut the funding for taxpayer funded trips to partisan or special interest conventions and use that money to offset some of the cost of the pay increase?
There you go, Darin. That’s the compromise.
How about no legislature at all. If 50 million can vote for The Voice over the internet and soon all voting will be by mail, who needs ’em in Pierre? Every committee can be done on Skype. Every vote can go to all the voters who choose to vote, that day. New things are good, no matter what Grudzie says.
Change is bad, Mr. Lansing, it is bad in most cases. But no legislature would be a wonderful change. Can you imagine the chaos?
Change is bad??? We’re not talking about adult diapers, Grudzie. We’re talking about reasons why South Dakota’s economy is stagnated while the rest of USA is booming.
Daugaard’s rebuttal of John Tsitrian’s point was weak – as hell. In fact, John’s point is so rock solid that it takes a Trump-like dishonest integrity lacking numbskull just to even try to muddy the waters which one needs to look through in order to get John’s crystal clear point.
I actually thought Daugaard was above this kind of crap. Turns out, I was wrong.
not this year guvner! maybe after Medicaid expansion