Video: Sutton Rejects New Taxes, Puts Faith in Economic Growth, Paints Noem as Part of Failing Status Quo

Democratic candidate for governor Billie Sutton spoke to about 40 voters at a Chamber-sponsored forum at the Aberdeen Ramkota today. I offer three key observations:

1. The Ramkota was better lit than the last several times I’ve gone there to hear candidates speak.
2. Sutton is prepared to brand Republican nominee Kristi Noem as a creature of the status quo at a time South Dakota needs change.
3. Sutton wants to invest in lots of good programs and services that he’ll have a hard time paying for campaigning as a “taxed enough already” fiscal conservative.

Sutton opened with a mild eight-minute speech, telling his personal story, citing some key Legislative accomplishments in which he’s had a hand (like raising teacher pay out of last place), and listing things we need to fix, like creating a needs-based scholarship, lowering the tuition burden on college students, and reducing the food tax, which he says is throttling upward mobility for the middle class. He also made good use of his current job (the kind of private sector job his opponent hasn’t had for at least eight years) to talk about the people he works with as an investment advisor who are struggling to save money for their kids and their retirement:

Sutton then fielded about 30 questions and comments from the audience. Sutton said he agrees with Dennis Daugaard that expanding Medicaid makes good financial sense for South Dakota:

Sutton doesn’t say how we can lower tuition, but he says that the state covered 60% of the cost of a public university education as recently as under Governor Rounds but has since slacked off, now covering only 40%:

Referring to Sutton’s comment in his introduction that Minnesota and Wyoming spend more than a hundred times as much per Pell Grant recipient on needs-based scholarships, local Republican candidate for District 3 House Carl Perry asked how we could fund such scholarships. Sutton said he’d raid the Future Fund, since education is our future:

A questioner said agriculture is facing its hardest time in decades. Sutton said he can advocate for South Dakota producers at the national level thanks to his Legislatively tested ability to build relationships across the aisle and speak with anyone who’s willing.

Sutton calls for more transparency in government. His participation in the GOAC hearings on GEAR UP motivate him to advocate longer retention periods for state e-mails and fiscal records. He also says everyone supports the campaign finance reform that IM22 offered but which the Republican Legislature repealed:

Sutton mostly dodged a question about our tax system’s over-reliance on gambling, sales tax, and fees. He said it’s up to voters to legalize sports betting. Most importantly, he said we’re taxed enough now.

My Mansfield neighbor Larry Stroschein, who shares Sutton’s taste in hats and needs to convince Sutton to grow a proper cowboy mustache, said the tax on a quarter of his farm land as doubled in recent years. Stroschein asked what we do about that; Sutton says we need a conversation. In one statement that deserves far more extensive discussion, Sutton said agricultural land is taxed unfairly and might be better taxed based on actual use.

With Game Fish & Parks holding meetings down the hall, someone mentioned nonmeandered waters. Sutton stayed off that thin ice, again just saying we need to continue the conversation:

A questioner noted that water supply shortages are hampering economic development. Sutton made no commitment to increased state funding and instead said he’d push for more support from Washington (which suggests a line he intends to pursue against Kristi Noem, who’s been in Washington and apparently not driven enough water funding our way):

In one of his most Daugaard/GOP-sounding statements, Sutton said the first step to supporting education is to grow the economy. He also praised the Governor’s emphasis on career and technical education, which he says offered students in his hometown of Burke some great opportunities. Sutton did veer off from the GOP’s business-über-alles messaging by emphasizing that economic development has to include housing and infrastructure.

Sutton avoided advocating for wind power and other renewable energy sources, saying he wants to focus there on local control:

…and he signaled a willingness to talk about a special tax on electric cars (an idea that surfaced in the House this Session and fell one vote short in a full House floor vote) to make sure they’re paying their fair share to maintain the roads they use:

…but asked about ethanol, Sutton immediately said he’d support using more of that home-grown energy and using state money to boost that market:

A running-mate question got us off track into some political mirth. Sutton said he’ll announce his lieutenant governor pick “soon”. He subtly teased some searching across the aisle. He also noted, to the audience’s delight, that he can ride a horse and shoot a gun but that “we have some big issues to tackle here in South Dakota” that perhaps warrant more attention.

Fresh off surviving his primary, District 1 House candidate H. Paul Dennert testified to Sutton’s readiness for the job. Rehearsing another anti-Noem line, Sutton said he doesn’t want our politics “to devolve into what’s going on Washington; I want us to continue having South Dakota solutions.” He also emphasized that he managed to serve on Appropriations and Senate State Affairs… a comment that could set the stage to remind voters of Noem’s committee foibles.

Asked about NAFTA, Sutton didn’t have details (ahem!), but he reminded us that we feed the world:

Howard Swenson asked Sutton if he could get voters to look past party labels. Sutton said he won two elections and gone unchallenged in two more in a district that’s more Republican than the rest of the state. He said he will never focus on party affiliation.

Aberdeen economic development honcho Mike Bockorny noted that South Dakota has lost its competitive advantage on university tuition and asked how we can reclaim that advantage. Sutton suggested we can make some progress by reprioritizing our budget and by bringing in a third party to review our revenue projections to see if we’re leaving too much money on the table for reserves instead of investing in tuition relief.

A good Democrat in the crowd tried to get Sutton to advocate a corporate income tax. Sutton said nuts to that. He acknowledged we have corporate income tax on banks and insurance companies, but no, no way is Sutton going to talk about any new tax. On this issue, he will talk just like his Republican opponent: the only way out of budget trouble is to grow the economy.

Sutton has championed early childhood education throughout his Senate career. He continues to advocate for pre-K… but to avoid talking about increasing spending, he’s floating the idea of public-private partnerships. In some more detailed policy paper, he may also break out the long-term math he mentions here: “You’re either going to pay for it or you’re going to pay for it later with higher dropout rates, increased incarceration, issues that are costing us a lot more money on the back end than if we’d make a small investment on the front end.”

Special education? Yeah, the Legislature is studying that: the interim committee on the extraordinary cost fund for special education is meeting next week on Wednesday.

Sutton says the Governor’s Office of Economic Development needs to be less top-down and communicate better with local economic developers, who he says are the real drivers of growth:

Sutton says we won’t incarcerate our way out of the drug problem. We need to offer more services and resources (add that to the list of things Sutton’s is hoping economic growth will pay for) and eradicate the hopelessness that drives addiction. But pay attention at the end, where Sutton gently ties his policy position to his personal story and shows how his transformative personal narrative informs his governing: “Just like I couldn’t do it alone, they can’t do it alone either. You have to be able to have a support system, and I’m dedicated to that.”

Sharon Stroschein asked Sutton if he likes using task forces. That’s clearly an invitation to dig at Noem’s primary-season argument that task forces are just government bloat. One does not tell Sharon no, so Sutton sank his teeth into the question, noting that Governor Daugaard “did a really good job” of using task forces to bring lots of “people on the ground” together to discuss and solve problems. “I don’t believe that state government is always the answer. I believe that our local communities are the answer. And in order to get things done, they need to be at the table, and that’s what a task force is.”

In a follow-up comment right after I hit my Off button, Sutton said Noem’s political attack on task forces suggests that she will rely on her staffers and old Pierre hands, meaning more top-down governance and less transparency.

Sutton isn’t throwing punches yet. He’s just making the rounds, showing everyone he’s the sensible centrist, and telling everyone we need to do better, without getting into the details of how much it will cost to do better and where we’ll get the money to do it. But he’s positioning himself to co-opt the argument for “change” that Kristi Noem offered primary voters and portray her as part of the government machine that needs changing.