Last updated on 2018-04-30
Seth Tupper does the homework on the Jackley travel budget question and finds the Democrats and Kristi Noem are probably wrong to imply that Marty Jackley is expanding the Attorney General’s Office travel budget to support his gubernatorial campaign. The Democrats and Noem have been dinging Jackley over one page out of the 327-page “Blue Book of Other Funds.” Tupper looks at the other seven pages concerning the A.G.’s office and finds the following:
Six of the eight funds had travel expenses. Between 2016 and 2017, travel expenses increased in three of the funds — including the one cited by the Democratic Party — but decreased in the other three funds.
The fund that the Democratic Party drew its figures from is named “Attorney General-Other.” The Blue Book says the fund receives revenue from record-check fees, consumer affairs settlements, drug seizures and purchases of bound copies of the attorney general’s legal opinions.
Jackley said the travel expenses in the fund are for the Consumer Division of the Attorney General’s Office. His office spokeswoman followed up later with an email attributing the division’s increased travel expenses in 2017 to a pair of factors: consumer settlement agreements, which include mandates to spend money on items such as training or education for investigators; and increased activity by the division’s elder-abuse team, pursuant to recommendations and resources stemming from a 2016 report by an Elder Abuse Task Force created by the Legislature [Seth Tupper, “Jackley Denies Democrat Claim of Campaigning on Taxpayer Time,” Rapid City Journal, 2018.01.14].
Tupper adds everything up and finds the office’s total travel expenses dropped 1.7% in FY2017. Jackley also provided Tupper with documents showing he put fewer miles on his state care in FY2017:
Further documents from Jackley’s office showed that his personal travel vouchers totaled $4,803.51 in 2017, up from $4,054.20 in 2016. Those figures are for expenses such as meals and hotels. Jackley travels in a state-owned vehicle, and records from his office show the vehicle was driven 14,097 miles in 2017, which was down from 15,674 in 2016 [Tupper, “Jackley…,” 2018.01.14].
Democrats should thus drop that particular fiscal angle of attack on Jackley. Tupper finds that maybe Kristi Noem should, too:
Through September, the 2017 travel expenses for Noem’s office were $74,260.99. That amount was the 16th highest among the 435 members of the House [Seth Tupper, “Noem Ranks 16th in House Travel Expenses,” Rapid City Journal, 2018.01.14].
Where Jackley was able to produce documents showing that, no, his office isn’t spending higher record amounts on travel, Noem can only send her flunky out to say she’s entitled spend inordinate amounts of our dollars on travel:
Justin Brasell, of Noem’s governor campaign, responded to Journal questions about her travel spending. Brasell said South Dakota is larger and more rural than most congressional districts, which leads to higher travel costs. For example, Brasell said, some congressional districts in New York are 10 to 15 square miles, while South Dakota is a single district encompassing 78,116 square miles [Tupper, “Noem…,”, 2018.01.14].
Funny: one would think those higher travel costs would mean Noem has been holding lots of public town halls around our large rural state.
Noem was quick to suggest Jackley is a big spender, but it should surprise nobody that she’s the real big spender. She’s the poster child for everything that regular people hate about Washington politics. It’s not just everybody else’s congress member that’s the problem. It’s ours that’s the problem.
and purchases of bound copies of the attorney general’s legal opinions.
Are these sold under the heading of comedy or tragedy? Maybe Ripley’s Believe it or Not?
while South Dakota is a single district encompassing 78,116 square miles [Tupper, “Noem…,”,
As for this one, there isn’t a place in the state Noem’s horse can’t get to. She uses it for campaign photo shoots, she might just as well use it to get to her constituents. What did I do with the “horse sense” joke?
The libbies should lay off the lies against Mr. Jackley for he is a swell enough fellow.
Cory,
Perhaps Jackley has FEWER AG miles as he was out campaigning more and not doing his job the people actually elected him to do!
Grudz, your “fine young fellow” seems a bit too eager. He’s been positioning for the governor’s job for several years. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see him already looking at a run for the House or senate using the governorship as just a stepping stone. Worked fine for Smilin’ Mike.
I typed “swell enough fellow”, not “fine young fellow.” I think he’s swell enough for most. Not the top of the notches, though. If I thought he was the top of the notches, I would have typed something else. I have no opinion or knowledge of Mr. Jackley looking to run for the President or the Senators. He might, if Mr. Heuther doesn’t beat him to it.
John, that is possible. However, the 1,577-mile difference between FY2016 and FY2017 can be accounted for by 3.5 round trips to Sioux Falls. Absent detailed travel logs from the AG’s office and from the Jackley campaign, we’re going to have a hard time pressing this line of attack.
Mr. H, you should not throw in the towel so quick. Maybe you should wrap it around Mr. Jackley’s neck for all his wasting of taxpayer dollars for putting up with the E-B5 nonsense and then not slamming the boot hard down on Mr. Joop. Mr. Jackley’s fattest transgression is not driving 3.5 times to Sioux Falls for dinner, it is not stomping on Mr. Joop.
Nice to know that because South Dakota pays such high wages, has the best education of all 50 states, low to nil poverty, that the only thing progressives can gripe about is the mileage on a travel budget.
Ms. Debbie, South Dakota does have the best education of all 50 states and for those who decide to work harder has low to nil poverty. Heck, I think our motto is “work harder and you will have low to nil poverty.”
I take it back. Jackley’s increased travel isn’t rooted in corruption.
Nice Try Grudznick !
but numbers don’t lie . SD ranks dead last in education , but you are pretty high up there on the income inequality. Motto is” who needs to offshore your money when you can hide it in SD- Man How is a person to vote Democrat when the hottest topic is mileage ? One would hope that the Dems take some lessons and find a cause
[Here, Deb, instead of trying to change the topic every time to what you think I should write about in every post, busy yourself reading these 134 posts on teacher pay.]
The “hottest topic is mileage” is only one issue of many to come in the campaign for governor. By the time Nov. 06, 2018 rolls around it will likely be a moot issue.
The hottest topic Democrats need to campaign on is Trump, Democrats need to marry every republican candidate to Trump.
That’ll be easy, Roger, if Kristi wins. We just pull up her tweets of her with Donald and Ivanka, and Billie wins 52–48. Marty has a picture or two with Trump as well, but we’ll have to work a little harder to box him in on Trump issues with legal questions.
I’m guessing Drumpf could espouse codified law at least as well as Jackley, afterall, he knows more about wedges than any man alive, he is smarter than his lawyers and his generals.
And if all them missing fraudulent voters can ever be found, Drumpf would probably be Genadmiral god or something.