$10 million here, $12 million there… pretty soon, we’re talking real money!
House Bill 1091 would throw another $10 million dollars in state money toward recreation. Representative Larry Tidemann (R-7/Brookings) and a whole bunch of other Republicans want to appropriate $10 million in emergency funding (half from the general fund, half from the Other bucket) to build a year-round rodeo practice facility at South Dakota State University.
Again, by “emergency”, the Legislature means something that “is necessary for the support of the state government and its existing public institutions.”
Hmm… necessary? If rodeo practice gets called off because of snow, do SDSU and state government as a whole collapse? And hey, I’ve always thought that practicing sport outside made one tougher. Who’s supposed to be tougher than the kings and queens of rodeo that every single South Dakotan aspires to emulate?
But hey, the Governor needs more campaign venues, and we can’t have her parading around with Old Glory on Old Paint in the rain. If you don’t like rodeo, you’re a communist! With Biden Bucks fueling a great (if ungrateful) Pierre spending binge that will stimulate the economy in Brookings and statewide, expect swift and unanimous Yea-haw! on HB 1091.
Work like this will have SD ready to face the challenges of the next pandemic (or the present one for that matter)!
Rodeo is a sport that reminds us of our nation’s Mexican and Indigenous roots. Rodeo is as American as tacos and enchiladas. When you watch rodeo, you are watching a sport developed by Indian-Spanish vaqueros. But, we can’t learn about that history under Noem’s cancel culture, where she wants to cancel the history of this country.
I have no problem with rodeo facilities, but, really, does it have to be inside? Real cowboys rodeo outside.
Rodeo is an alleged sport that is cruel to all participants, two legged or four.
This will give the governor something to do after her political barrel racing. Elon Musk was correct about college being mostly for fun and not learning. You have to wonder about his yearning to go to Mars. Isnt it for the fun of it?
It’s all about the soft skills Cory. An example, when USD had storm days and the streets were closed, walk a wagon to the liquor store which we knew would be open. Wagon back for a full day of military training playing Risk. Learning the various disadvantages of the world, holding Kamchatka for instance or how easy Australia is to hold but hard to break out of. Ask Djokovic on that one. If you have a talent for the dice and deep knowledge of mathematics you can conquer the world.
Yeah! NDSU will soon have a 50 million dollar indoor practice facility for football.
Nothing better than those football championships, y’know.
And a certain percentage of every tuition dollar goes for athletics, too.
Maybe Musk is on to something.
Kristie is building a big rodeo arena in Huron, just 75 miles from Brookings. I’m sure that facility in Huron will see minimal use. Huron has hardly any hotels, so the chances of that town attracting anything during the winter months is slim.
Many high school students do daily commutes to another town so they can get with another school or schools to form a sports team. There was a football coop called Northen Border which consisted of Bowdle, Eureka, Leola and Frederick. The Bowdle players had to travel 60 miles to Leola where they practiced. If that can work in high school sports, why can’t that work for the SDSU Rodeo team to travel to Huron to Practice?
Rodeo stock is notorious for being carriers of infectious diseases like bovine TB not to mention being victims of horrendous abuse.
Half the money will go towards monitoring the bathrooms for proper sexual orientation.
What a waste!
What favorite contractor will get the job, architectural firm, law firm, developer?? The list goes on, corruption be thy name. Also, buckobear is onto something, what about the transgender ropers, barrel racers and the like? Where will they pee?
The Pierre Capital Journal used to publish the recipients of Future Fund dispersals but darned if I can find anything recent. Anybody know?
I am a huge fan of ranching. I could take or leave rodeo because I didn’t grow up around it, really, and it is a far cry from the productive virtue of ranching and keeping working animals. At the same time, I rode a lot of BMX growing-up, so I get the allure and respect the event.
That said, I wish we had a great high technology economy (non 5G based I assure you) that was clearly accessible to South Dakota High School grads.
Rodeo is to ranching like BMX is to mining.
Doubt the Governor will fuss and fume over this horse facility as she did last year when the legislature helped fund the Bioproducts Institute at SDSU.
Hey MFI. I agree that it’s abuse to the 4 legged, but for the 2-legged it’s self abuse
@Dale – A fine 5G transmitter has been attached to the North side of the building I live in.
I’m regrowing hair on my bald spot and can make love non-stop for eleven hours.
Hoping for a second transmitter.
Yee Haw …
I’m reminded of a friend who found himself flunking out of college during the draft era of the 60’s and so decided to join the Rodeo Club and learn to ride bulls as a sort of transitional activity. During the spring season, he rode 12 bulls, was thrown off 12 times and as he said, never opened his eyes once. He was drafted, became a paratrooper at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, jumped from a plane 8 times and never opened his eyes once. Broke his ankle on the eighth jump. Returned to college but forsook Rodeo Club.
“That said, I wish we had a great high technology economy (non 5G based I assure you) that was clearly accessible to South Dakota High School grads.”
Yes that is needed !
Emergency funding for a rodeo for a college? Another 12 million for a shooting range, state owned ?
In 2002, we sold our profitable State Cement Plant for some cash (now all spent) and 14,000 acres of South Dakota land to Mexico.
Now, $22,000,000 for a rodeo and a shooting range? Ridiculous.
Rodeo and shooting? Sports, right?
So Intel , a corporation based in Santa Clara, California is spending 20 billion (Yes, $ 20, 000, 000, 000) on 2 chip making plants in
Ohio ! That’s real money from a real corporation! About 4 times the 5 billion dollars the State spends.
In perspective, Noem’s 22 million dollar projects is .0011 of what Intel is spending on those 2 chip plants. That’s 1/10th of 1 percent !!!
Plus here’s a 6 minute video of Intel’s $20, 000 , 000, 000 (20 billion dollar ) chip making plant in Arizona !
Both sums are real money. Tax payers versus investors money.
Intel started in 1968 with about $2,500,000 of investors’ money. Now it has $50 000 000 000 in annual revenue (Yes, that’s B as in Billion, or about 10 times what the State of South Dakota receives).
It’s really how smart do you wanna be?
A great high tech economy has to be created by people who will start with $2, $20 or $200 and say, hey, I wanna prosper big time !!
It’s doubtful a political party will start something great like Intel, AMD or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Agriculture is only 20% of SD GDP. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-dakota#:~:text=Today%2C%20agriculture%20generates%2020%20percent%20of%20the%20state's%20economic%20activity.
So whether any person in South Dakota wants to get involved in the high tech industry, either software, hardware, internet, e-commerce, applications , artificial intelligence or anything new, we really should not “look outside” our borders.
Why can’t we do it here? We can! $2 or $200 and some desire! (Hewlett Packard started with $538 in the 1930’s)
Go to youtube and Google. You can learn about technology for free!
Intel chip making plant in Arizona
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/intel-investing-20-billion-bring-chip-manufacturing-ohio/story?id=82395975
Also, the 14,000 acres went to a Mexican Corporation, GCC.
Sorry. Here’s the video on the Intel chip plant in Arizona–
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/ohio-dewine-intel-largest-investment-state-history
You know, put new state-funded rodeo facilities in Huron and Brookings together with Noem’s big speech to the national rodeo convention in Vegas last fall and all of her rodeo posing (even though she herself never did rodeo, did she?), and maybe we see that she really does have a plan for South Dakota’s Next Big Thing: she’s building the infrastructure and connections to make South Dakota the host for the biggest rodeo competitions every year. Maybe the Huron will become the Superdome of rodeo. Maybe the SDSU facility will become the year-round training facility for rodeo champions.
ABC, maybe rodeo is the best Noem can offer. South Dakota doesn’t have the workforce, capital, or access to markets to support a world-class technology manufacturer (see also: Gateway Computers). But we have lots of livestock and just enough rural folks who are willing to rebuff any charges of animal cruelty to make rodeo a viable economic investment.
We could be the rodeo capital of the world, get cowboyin’ degree at SDSU, and then we’d be full Yellowstone TV series (very popular) without the mountains.
Once again, this is a MALE dominated activity, like the gun shooting fun guys like to have. Some women, some children participate, but overall, everything in this stinks of satisfying just the male species of this state.
My brother and I are the only members of our family left in SD. Everyone else left because they couldn’t make a living AND they do not fish, hunt or rodeo but enjoy the outdoors in many other ways. Most no longer visit for the 4th of July or All School Reunions because they enjoy their own activities instead of 3 days of rodeo and a pathetic parade.
SD is a state that has been redefined and is being rebuilt by people with small minds. Life is more than fishing, hunting, and rodeo.
There should be a moratorium on new building. Fix up what we already have first. There are still school buildings without air conditioning or proper heating, with poor ventilation, and outdated facilities. Such misdirected spending.
An indoor rodeo arena, an expansive shooting range, expanding Custer State Park Campground. Spending like drunken sailors (isn’t that what the Pubs say the socialist Dems always do?)
Thank goodness we are driving on pristine roads and our bridges are set for the next 50 years, right? Poverty has be extinguished here, right? We no longer have regressive taxes and our workforce is happy and making a livable wage, right? Top of the line healthcare for all South Dakotans, right? The affordable housing crisis here has been solved, right? All South Dakotans have equal access to high speed internet, right?
Here in South Dakota, our priorities are in perfect order. Let them eat cake……right?
Dana, Noem only supports spending on things she thinks will please her base, not things that best serve the general welfare. That’s what we get for electing such a superficial, self-absorbed governor.
ABC for governor! Seriously!
I remember the Gateway fiasco as a good idea executed poorly and managed incompetently. Still, there was a willingness among the leadership in Pierre to at least try and challenge the critics to do better. Governor George S. Mickelson’s tenure wasn’t a panacea, especially on environmental issues and gambling, but it did encourage Republicans and Democrats to be part of creating progress or stand out of the way. He took the risk with a temporary tax to create the REDI loan program, and while 3 percent interest loans wasn’t much of a tool to chase smokestacks, it did demonstrate an earnest interest to shoot for bigger projects … like the supercollider and value-added ag processing.
Democrats, like Bernie Hunhoff, responded with ideas for rural development and micro-enterprise efforts. The give and take of the viable two-party system in Pierre rose to the occasions to solve problems, including the crises rising from the tragic death of the governor and the inspired people who died with him in that awful plane crash. Bill Janklow came back and politics swung back to pleasing “the audience of one.” And politics and governing continued to dumb down with the crooked Mike Rounds administration and the hapless nice guy Dennis Daugaard.
ABC’s epistle harkens to thinking big as a state. I have no idea what the people of our state expect with Noem and her big spending, misused Biden bucks boondoggles other than to see her at the ribbon cuttings during her re-election year, riding in like Lady Godiva in boots, a hat and holding (and insulting) our American flag. Dirty deeds done … well, there weren’t cheap.