Our U.S. Senators’ support of the big liberal Farm Bill perhaps supports State Senate Jeff Monroe’s assertion that the South Dakota Legislature will not use the new remote online sales tax to give us a break.
Speaking to the Pierre School Board Monday, Senator Monroe (R-24/Pierre), who voted against raising the sales tax and teacher pay in 2016, muttered some angry Fox News assertions about big government to predict that the Partridge Amendment, the law that is supposed to drop our sales tax by one tenth of a percentage point for every $20 million in new revenue that we take in via the newly authorized Wayfair sales tax, will go poof:
You are never gonna see government lower a tax. To me, it’s a no-brainer. I mean, it’s just not gonna happen [Senator Jeff Monroe, transcribed audio, from Jody Heemstra, “Many Discussions About Online Sales Tax Collections and Education Funding Expected in Coming SD Legislative Session,” DRG News, 2018.12.11].
Senator Monroe did not, of course, base this assertion on expert analysis of the Governor’s budget or studious caucus nose counts. He just thinks his Fox News philosophy explains everything (which is why our White House and our Legislature are filled with idiots):
When government gets money, they’re not gonna let go of it, they’re just not gonna. In theory it would be good for the taxpayer, bad for everybody that’s dependent on state taxes, which means state employees and Medicaid people and providers and you guys, but you’re just not going to find government not grabbing money when they can keep it. That’s not going to happen. That’s my philosophy [Monroe, in Heemstra, 2018.12.11].
Monroe’s “philosophy” is also, apparently, that schools are just dependent leeches to be disdained and defunded.
But Monroe’s philosophy seems to show in national-level Republicans’ embrace of even bigger government handouts for all those dependent farmers and their abandonment of any semblance of deficit-hawkery.
Still, Senator Monroe exposed the contradictory nature of his lazy crotchetiness by blaming the dwindling revenue projections on weak enforcement. To clarify: Monroe is mad about big government, but he says the reason the online sales tax collections aren’t living up to expectations is that government isn’t big enough to enforce it.
Rep. Mary Duvall (R-24/Pierre) joined Senator Monroe at the forum. Rather than insulting public educators, Rep. Duvall simply predicted “heated discussions” about the Partridge Amendment.
Dr. Monroe’s Bonecracker Caucus may ebb and flow in the number of members, but the power it wields remains constantly immense.