I thought the Governor’s K-12 Connect plan to use federal coronavirus relief dollars to provide free home Internet to lower-income families was more in the ballpark of good uses of CARES Act dollars than much of her fiscal flim-flammery. But apparently, according to comments state budget chief Liza Clark made to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee yesterday, the families targeted for this assistance aren’t interested in free Internet:
She said the governor’s K-12 Connect program that had $8 million earmarked to get Internet service to K-12 students’ homes had now been revised down to about $500,000. What caused “the huge difference?” asked Representative Randy Gross, an Elkton Republican. Replied Clark, “They just haven’t applied for the program” [Bob Mercer, “Demand for Covid-19 Financial Relief Is Less Than S.D. Legislators or Noem Officials Planned,” KELO-TV, 2020.12.07].
South Dakotans are also leaving coronavirus housing assistance largely untapped:
The Legislature in an October special session recommended how the governor should make available hundreds of millions of dollars. One area was $9 million for housing assistance; numbers on Monday showed less than $3 million had been requested so far [Mercer, 2020.12.07].
Hmm… could it be possible that the folks who could benefit from this assistance just aren’t hearing about it? Maybe if the Governor spent less time touring the country running for President and more time telling South Dakotans about the help they can get for their kids and families, that money would be heading out the door to stimulate South Dakota’s economy instead of sitting in the state’s bank account collecting dust and interest.
Kristi’s Five-Year Plan.
Obviously, Kristi Noem is running for President in 2024. She has been at it for a year already.
Just think… a candidate whose claim to fame is encouraging a deadly virus to spread.
Cory, that was the exact problem identified in the 1980 Grueshow case I identified in an earlier comment – the State’s failure to provide notice to eligible families of the availability of the benefit. The federal courts held that this failure to provide adequate notice violated the Due Process rights of potential recipients.
I believe the State argued that the mere written existence of the law describing the availability of the those benefits in Grueshow was sufficient notice, but the courts disagreed. The constitutional obligation to provide Due Process requires meaningful notice – notice that is reasonably likely to reach the affected individuals.
Anyone know what type of notice, if any, was given to potential recipients in this case?
For the K-12 Connect Program, letters were supposedly mailed on October 26th to eligible households. Enrollment closed on November 20th. I’m not sure how they determined which households were potentially eligible. The school district I work for received notification of the program via letter/memo. We then sent information out to parents, I don’t know if it was all households or just those that were eligible for free/reduced lunches as that was the income threshold to qualify.
We have no money for delivering the vaccine. How about that, if you want the vaccine, you may have to go to the UK or Europe. We “forgot” to budget the funds for the shots.
“Congress has yet to appropriate any money for vaccine distribution. While the federal government has spent billions of dollars developing vaccines to prevent COVID-19, not a single federal dollar has been passed for the purpose of conducting the inoculation campaign itself.”
Get on the Go Fund Me site to fund a shot for yourself. Pay as you go here in the land of bull$#:+
Cinch up those mom pants GNOem and head on back to South Dakota to try to get some vaccine here. It’s clear that your dear leader has screwed the pooch on this deal as well.
“The head of the Trump administration’s COVID-19 vaccine development project on Tuesday said he “literally” doesn’t know anything about President Donald Trump’s planned executive order to prioritize vaccinations for Americans.
White House officials announced the order, which they said reaffirms Trump’s “commitment to America first,” on Monday shortly after The New York Times reported that the Trump administration passed on Pfizer’s offer to sell the U.S. additional vaccine doses in mid-2021.”
Absolutely rudderless we are. Meanwhile, other countries are moving forward to care for their citizens.
Cory is correct, probably a lot of low income families haven’t even heard about the free internet program since it’s only been available since Oct. Typical of SD and republicans in general to blame it on the poor and pretend it’s their fault. So where will the money really be spent? Who is pocketing it? Quit gaslighting the poor.
Come on, Kristi, lives in her alternate universe. She’s learned to lie with the best of them and she’s not going to change. It will lead to many more deaths in the state. That’s an easy one to predict because it’s just a fact. Trumpies now hate doctors and health care workers and masks. Let them, just stay away from them and be careful, let them infect each other and have a merry Christmas.
If she can beat Nikki Haley in South Carolina, then maybe doubtful she runs..Will Moscow John run you think.
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/minnesota-covid-19-housing-assistance-deadline/89-1319aec5-371e-4dbc-92d8-bea5f8155556
Okay Gov Noem and Republican leaders, do your jobs and get the word out about housing assistance like the decent Democrat Governor in MN is doing . Don’t blame it on your fellow hardworking South Dakotans that are probably too tired and worn out at the end of the day to even know much of what is going on with covid relief funds. Communication can go a long way, take some tips from Gov Walz and his Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan who are urging Minnesotans to apply for Covid housing assistance. Don’t just say that South Dakotans are not interested.
it just always seems like Democrats are always more genuine and compassionate in wanting to help the poor and low income people. The differences here with MNs Democrat leaders and SDs Republicans are an example.
BCB, I want this aid to get to every family in need. But as I review Grueschow, I wonder: does it apply here?
In Grueschow, the feds created a program to help low-income people pay their winter heating bills. South Dakota had to submit a plan for distributing the funds for federal approval, then carry out the law’s clear intention to distribute that aid to eligible households. South Dakota failed to give full notice to South Dakotans of the aid for which they might be eligible, and the courts cried foul.
The CARES Act did not specify to whom the states should distribute their aid. South Dakota got $1.25 billion with far fewer strings than the aid in question in Grueschow. Grueschow was a federal case, because the federal law created a specific class of recipients entitled to federal help. The CARES Act does not appear to create a specific class of potential litigants who have been denied assistance or due process thereto. There is no one person in the state who, under the criteria of the CARES Act, is legally entitled to any CARES Act money. Any entitlements were created solely by the state.
Plus, in Grueschow, the state’s notification was not just inadequate but misleading. If Kristi sent letters, or if she directed school districts to send letters, and if those letters correctly laid out the eligibility criteria, this case might have a harder time in court in establishing an error by the state.
And I wonder: in Grueschow times (1980), we didn’t have websites. Does posting the information on a public website take the place of sending letters?
But we know simply putting up a website doesn’t notify the public. I’ve been banging away on my website for 15 years, and a majority of South Dakotans still don’t know it exists.
[Pause, consider sinking into depression, then say nuts to that! and get back to having more fun than anyone in South Dakota on the Internet….]
But people won’t just magically find my blog or any other website: they need to hear about it. At the very least, we needed to see Kristi on the news every day, saying, “Hey! There’s a pandemic! Put on your mask! Stay home! And if your kids are staying home, and you can’t afford good Internet, go to https://k12connect.sd.gov/ and find out how we can hook you up!”
Cory, it is correct that Grueshow was based on a program targeting low income families. If there is no targeting nor other directive for the COVID money and it is 100% within the State’s discretion on how to spend it, then any judicial help becomes just as much a fantasy as Trump’s hope the courts with overturn the election and declare him “infector in chief” for another 4 years.
If the State adopted either a statute or administrative rule directing expeditures, however, then a failure to provide
notice to qualified recipients could mean a possible judicial remedy as it it did in Grueshow.
Don’t assume low income families have digital devices to connect. A Chromebook or iPad might be a prerequisite.
Good point SuperSweet, when you don’t have the hardware, all the free internets in the world ain’t gonna do you any good.
Cory, SR’s comment at 2020-12-08 at 10:30, about the K-12 Connect Program, raises the question whether this program create a similar constitutional “property interest” as the program litigated in Grueshow did.
If so that would be an example of a State law that supports the same right to due process as the federal law relied upon in Grueshow, including adequate notice, before the State can lawfully extinguish that property right.
Thus, it would seem reasonable to explore the statutory and regulatory basis for the K-12 Connect Program, along with the type of notice given, to determine whether any qualified potential recipients were overlooked or excluded from adequate notice of their right to access this program.