Wait—coronavirus is blowing holes in South Dakota’s budget and everyone else’s, and Governor Kristi Noem says we probably don’t need a Special Session?
Governor Kristi Noem says a special session in June is unlikely.
That’s when the state will report April tax collections—when economic activity across the country slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Noem says she anticipates a serious budget shortfall because of the virus.
She says all options are on the table, including dipping into reserves [Lee Strubinger, “Noem Says June Special Session Not Likely at This Time,” SDPB, 2020.05.06].
Declining to convene the Legislature to direct how to deal with the budget shortfall suggests several possible and perhaps overlapping intentions:
- As Noem suggests to SDPB, South Dakota may finally spend some of its rainy-day funds, now to maintain the promised raises and employment levels in K-12 schools and state government and thus provide vital economic stability to communities across the state during a hard year. But if GDP drops 10% or more, we could easily burn up our entire current reserve making up for lost revenues. However much we deplete the reserves, Noem will need to work with the Legislature in the post-coronavirus Session (which might not be until 2022, her big reëlection year) to come up with new revenue streams—taxes—to replenish our cushion for the next great crisis.
- Noem plans to show Donald Trump a good time at Mount Rushmore, then beg him for executive privilege to use coronavirus relief dollars for purposes other than Congress intended.
- Noem is going to give her national right-wing audience a huge thrill by cutting the state budget 50% or just shutting down the state government in October and showing what happens when we leave everything—teaching, fixing bridges, plowing I-90—to personal responsibility.
- Whatever dollars she finds or cuts she makes, Noem doesn’t want the Legislature interfering with or scrutinizing her executive fiat. Some legislators may be too busy boozing it up during Session to pay attention, but even a few legislators doing their due diligence during a Special Session—calling witnesses, asking questions in committee, checking in with LRC and BFM to get hard data on state spending—pose a threat to exposing whatever new raises for kin and video studio enhancements she may sneak by us during a crisis.
Whatever the Governor thinks is going to happen, the Legislature is the proper appropriating authority, and its management of appropriations during the greatest public health and economic crisis of our lifetime is vital to ensuring that we gather and deploy our public resources as effectively and fairly as possible. If Governor Noem thinks she can and should go this budget storm alone, she is wrong. Legislators, get ready to exercise your constitutional authority to call yourselves into Special Session (Article 3, Section 31: written request by two thirds of the members of each house) and make the changes necessary to South Dakota’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget.
NOem’s the Queen of the Silver Dollar
And she rules this corrupted kingdom
And her scepter is a Fox pass
And a make up stool her throne.
And the jesters flock around her
And fight to be her flavor
Just to see how little queeny makes rules up on her own.
Wow, Ryan Maher (R) Isabel just opened a can of whoop arse regarding false numbers from the corrupt kingdom. Good for him, we need accurate numbers for employment and we need accurate numbers for Covid19, non of these are accurate.
“Federal surveys that look at some of that information are conducted only once a month. The March federal survey missed the initial surge of new virus-driven unemployment claims; the April survey is expected Friday, May 8.
By excluding people from official employment data, the state is not presenting an accurate picture of overall unemployment to the public and policymakers, said state Sen. Ryan Maher, R-Isabel.
“You’re fudging the numbers; you’re not being truthful about the situation,” Maher said. “They always say South Dakota’s unemployment rate is 2% or 3%, but even before the virus hit, your unemployment rate was probably closer to 10%.” Rapid City Journal 5.7.2020
Very good reporting on the self employed being denied any kind of unemployment help. The article is about a small business owner who is not able to work because of this pandemic and because of that, not able to get any kind of assistance.
The Rapid City Journal is fast becoming a news paper that is worth the patronage, Not as good as the Dakota Free Press, but working on it.
But if the president of the state senate can simultaneously also be an ag secretary, then why can’t a governor be the legislature, too? #BananaRepublic #Trumpism
Nice poetry, jerry. Here’s a number Noem can’t beg drumpf to change- 76693 bodies of drumpf’s inactivity in times of troubles.
You have missed one of the more obvious reasons why she doesn’t want a special session. She Has helped get serious primaries against some of the legislators and she knows many of them are ticked off at her two cronies Langer and Greenfield. The sham investigation/cover-up of their lies and drunkenness along with the lieutenant governors is still hanging over their head. Having a special session would allow the house to consider a plan of impeachment of the lieutenant governor and official actions against Greenfield and Langer in the Senate.
Thanks mfi, but I trumped it (stole it) from my bestest gal Emmylou Harris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D8ia29U8Zo
I took the liberty of being liberal with the words though.
Yo Cory: [If Governor Noem thinks she can and should go this budget storm alone,] “really” she doesn’t seem to do anything alone. You know how it is when snow-queens go to the little snow queens’ room, they take a powder together you know. The great orange oligarchy is omnipresent and moving their pawn at will.” No, originality is not her strong suit” nor is independence, as she announced so indignantly to a media questioner yesterday. It is amazing to me to watch the pawns that are adopted into the king’s court, elevate themselves to ridicule until they fall out of favor and become statistical road kill.
It has become one of those days when the tail wags the dog to levels heretofore unsurpassed in my memory at least. Thank you DFP for the platform! Mike Livingston, Midland SD.
Mr. Livingston, you seem to have hit on something that makes it clear to me that “snow-queens/flakes” like NOem, always claim to hate government and yet they have sucked the teat of that government all of their lives to make healthy profits from the working poor and middle class taxpayers backs. They have the ability to get away with that with lies on top of lies. I look to see her cast out like used cat litter after the 4th of July farce at Rushmore, roadkill indeed. Looking forward to the comedy.
When we look at it, it’s really incredible that any governor in this situation would not call a special session. There are going to be special sessions all across the US map this summer.
This is a set up ripe for over-the-top, trumpism level crookedness.
The lawyers in the legislature should sue her. Hiding behind the courts may be the only way to achieve minor legislative checks and balances. But there is one problem to suing the governor – all the judges are appointed by the governor — without legislative (senate) consent. State judges are not the most apolitical judges in nation.
I think Axios has an error in this chart. It shows SD in a positive budgetary position.
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Is the excellent reporter Seth Tupper still at RCJ?
BTW Way To Go RST! SOCIALISM the Lakota Way! Tribal Buffalo Herds On 40 sq Mi and at Pe Sla’ as a cultural pride and economic enterprise. They’ll have to shoot intruding non-indian cattle, imo! Shut down the highways to keep out Red Neck Grattans like our Cowgirl Noem in her white supremacists camo cap. Ha!
Ms. Leslie, there are about a dozen bison on Reynolds Prairie, with sub-par fencing, and when they escape they remain wandering the woods until the locals shoot them.