Press "Enter" to skip to content

Noem Already Slacking Off, Needs More Time to Write Budget Than Daugaard

Kristi Noem, Not putting much muscle into the state budget...
Not putting much muscle into the state budget…

Governor Dennis Daugaard was inauguarated on January 8, 2011. In his State of the State Address three days later, Governor Daugaard deemed the 127-million-dollar structural deficit “the dominant challenge” of the 2011 Legislative Session, laid out the two key principles “that guided me as I crafted the budget proposal,” and promised to deliver that budget the following week. Eight days later, eleven days after inauguration, Governor Daugaard presented that budget.

Governor Kristi Noem was inaugurated on January 5, 2019. Facing no apparent budget crisis thanks to Dennis Daugaard’s far superior job of managing state finances than his predecessor’s, Governor Noem delivered a State of the State Address with a hodgepodge of seemingly edge-frittering but unfunded priorities frosted with a vow not to raise taxes. On January 17, 2019, Governor Noem informed the Legislature that she will present her budget proposal on January 23, eighteen days after her inauguration.

Dennis Daugaard, facing hard budget choices and a huge deficit fueled by historic recession and mismanagement, presented a complete budget package on his eleventh full day on the job. Kristi Noem, with mid-year expenditures coming in $7.449 million ahead of projections but with mid-year cumulative expenditures running 1.7 percentage points hot compared to the preceding two-year average, apparently needs seven more days, 63% more time, to come up with what will likely be a far easier and less bold budget.

I hated Governor Daugaard’s first budget. I felt it did real damage to South Dakota’s economy and culture. But Governor Daugaard dove into a hard job and got it done. Governor Kristi Noem and her closest advisors are signaling they don’t plan to work harder on actual policymaking than Noem did in Congress, where she achieved… what? two overdue Farm Bills and… remind me… anything else?

Looks like four more years of phoning it in for Kristi.

11 Comments

  1. Debbo 2019-01-17 21:26

    Looks like shes spending her time trying to emulate Michelle Obama’s great arms. Wish she would have picked Ms. Obama’s intellect.

  2. John 2019-01-18 00:21

    Then she’d require more than a mail order degree.

  3. mike from iowa 2019-01-18 07:52

    Noem is determined to prove once and for all that women can’t do the jobs of male counterparts.
    It is patently obvious male wingnuts can’t govern. Now we will get incontrovertible evidence women whackies can’t govern, either.

  4. Jason 2019-01-18 12:27

    Nobody in SD except Cory cares when she delivers it.

  5. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-01-18 12:35

    Jason cannot speak for anyone else in South Dakota. Jason also cannot refute the fact that it is taking Kristi Noem longer to do an easier task than it took Dennis Daugaard to do a harder task.

    It is reasonable to suggest that all voters should care about the effectiveness and efficiency of our elected officials.

  6. Jason 2019-01-18 12:37

    Take a poll Cory and find out.

  7. Dicta 2019-01-18 12:51

    I care when she delivers a budget, Jason. Are you joking?

  8. Jason 2019-01-18 12:57

    Why Dicta?

  9. Roger Cornelius 2019-01-18 13:30

    “Nobody in SD except Cory cares when she delivers it”.
    Jason’s comments shows exactly when South Dakotans, old and young, including Jason, need civic lessons

  10. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-01-19 09:52

    Jason, you keep looking for an argument other than the one I made. I don’t need a poll to establish from the evidence presented that Noem is slower at writing an easier budget than Dennis Daugaard. You apparently find that sloth problematic, because you are trying to distract us from talking about yet another firm, well-evidenced, and indisputable criticism of Kristi Noem.

    Noem is showing already that she is an inferior governor to Daugaard.

    As your next Governor, I promise to offer a clear budget outline in my Inaugural Address and, if possible (assuming the outgoing Noem administration will cooperate with my transition team and direct BFM to provide all necessary data), to present my actual budget in my State of the State Address to the Legislature on the first day of the 2023 Session.

Comments are closed.