If the South Dakota Attorney General says the action you’re about to do is illegal, do it anyway.
That’s the message we got from Governor Kristi Noem today, as she ordered State Treasurer Josh Haeder to issue $32 million in federal daycare assistance (welfare! socialism! big liberal government!) despite killer Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s warning that the Governor needs Legislative approval to disburse those funds:
“Like most South Dakotans, I have no confidence in the attorney general or his judgment,” she said in a statement. “He cannot be considered unbiased when asked to offer an opinion by the very same house members who are currently considering his impeachment. Just yesterday, the Senate unanimously supported DSS’s authority to send these grants, which is also consistent with longstanding practice.
“This wrongly-reasoned memo from Jason Ravnsborg doesn’t get the basic facts right and doesn’t change anything” [Joe Sneve, “S.D. Attorney General Says Daycare Grants Aren’t Ready, State Treasurer Cuts Checks Anyway,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2022.02.10].
Far be it from me to stand in the way of (a) more public assistance for child care or (b) any official declaration that Jason Ravnsborg is wrong, dumb, and irrelevant. I appreciate Ravnsborg’s effort to argue that the Legislature has sole authority to appropriate new federal funding received by the state, but the Legislature has regularly ceded that power to Governor Noem, and the autocratic Noem gleefully cited the Senate’s continued capitulation in Senate Resolution 701, in which the Senate passed the Biden bucks by saying the checks she’s writing right now may come from a new bucket but still fit within the spending authority granted by last year’s general appropriations bill (per SDCL 4-8B-10), not to mention the governor’s general authority to accept and disburse federal funds (see SDCL 4-8-17).
Perhaps the only real point left to make is that Noem proves that Ravnsborg and his impeachable offenses have left him utterly powerless in Pierre. He holds up a Stop sign, and the Governor burns right on by, saying he has a conflict of interest and is giving bad legal advice in a desperate attempt to save his paycheck and political career.
Jason, resign now. Get out of law, and go into a new business. Maybe you could get a grant to start a daycare.
He must have a lonely walk to his office. Better watch that hard floor under the dome.
Probably shouldn’t start a daycare if he can’t tell the difference between a deer and a human.
Well, it more or less goes along with my feeling that the AG statements on ballot measures is worth as much as a bucket of warm spit.
Mr. Ravnsborg, funny looking as he may be, still is the General Attorney for South Dakota.
What an embarrassment.
Like Mr. H said:
I was checking on the Mr. Karr fellow, too. He looks like a giant Oompa Loompa, about to pop. He is clearly insaner than most. My granddaughter has friends that run a day care, and they could really use the help that the Messrs. Karr and Ravnsborg are trying to withhold from people.
Does that make grudznick seem libbie? Or just saner than Mr. Ravsnborg?
Weigh in, all you libbie friends out there.
Well…is a resolution approving the federal money through an appropriation awaiting action in the House?? I’m not clear here on the procedure used by the legislature…the Governor says its part of last year’s appropriation bill…so is that action still in effect??Ravensborg,s decision has to be based on some precedent, doesn’t it?? Seems to me the Governor got impetuous again and jumped the gun….I am not sure this Governor should get a blank check and a pass on this appropriation…no way to run a railroad or a day care…she is pandering for votes.
Good questions, Mr. Blundt. Mr. Ravnsborg, not being a qualified law dog or even remotely competent probably can’t answer. But a whole slob ton of lobbists hanging around the Capitol with pens in hand probably can.
I think it all simmers down to a sauce that tastes like Mr. Ravnsborg is incompetent. Oh yeah, he also killed a fellow from Highmore City.
Oh, ‘Znicky!
Libbie, Tillie, Alice, who can say? I would bet my pocket change right now that you were born under the Cancerian moon due to your broad, bony, hard, shell protecting the softest, sweetest, butteriest crabby innards. Your granddaughter can probably work you like a big softy. Ha!
My sails would be de-winded if it were not so.
Ms. Mammal, the birthdate of grudznick is lost to the sands of time. What matters is that the moon stays out there where it belongs.
He should go and talk with the people of Highmore City grudz. It could be a teachable moment.
He should indeed, Mr. Anderson. Despite being an artistic fellow, you do have some good common sense thinking going on.
Why is this money still in Pierre? This is 2022 and that money has been collecting interest. Other states have been doling out money to everyone, but not us. Let’s hold it back or send it back, unless it goes to certain industries. Daycare facilities needed this money last year and the year before.
This pisses me off because last April, my neighbor received several $1000’s of relief money from the Canadian owned farm equipment factory here. They were never shut down during the pandemic but were considered an essential business. They all made their wages PLUS the bonus.
At the same time, daycare workers were pulling their hair out with closures and loss of wages. Two owners almost folded because they opened in 2018 and could barely make it. Parents were also stressed and it was a mess. Why no help then?
Oh that’s right, in SD farm animals and equipment are more important than our children and grandchildren.
Arlo, the resolution passed by the Senate has no legal effect; it just signals that the Senate isn’t going to stand in the way of the Governor’s free spending.
M makes a good point that this money was available last year. It could have been put to good use already. But Noem has sat on it, as if waiting to make a power play amidst a contentious Legislative session that is tarnishing her brand.
Isn’t the bottom line that, in this instance, Noem is doing a good thing. The money is there. Daycare needs it. Finally they are getting the financial help available from the federal government.
I can about imagine the stipulations magats will dump on daycares so they aren’t allowed to protect their charges from covid, aren’t allowed to teach kids anything that will make them feel bad, make white people look bad, and force the children to play cowboys and Indians with the cowboys always winning.
Isn’t this normally called “Democratic liberal socialism” by the Republicans?
Needlessly mean spirited.
I haven’t really been following this money. Are all daycares in the state getting funds? Big ones, little ones… what is Noem’s criteria? Is it to be used to hire more people?… increase wages? Anyone have something to inform this lazy person?
Noem’s criteria is simple. She’s on the ballot this year. She wants to laud over the lard to impress people that she’s doing more than staring at her reflection in the mirror [“Mirror, Mirror on the wall … “]. Hence, the rodeo complex, gun range and a bag full of patronage and pork barrel payouts so she could get her photo taken at the ribbon cuttings, riding in on a horse and holding the ‘Merkin flag. It’s a better use of the flag than beating cops with it as Trump’s maggots did on 1/6/21, but still a disgrace.
The other thing she wants is to nix Ravnsborg name from the Noem GOP ticket this year. Desperately. Their profane chemistry is toxic to each other and to the entire SDGOP ticket.
I see this statement by Noem as further proof she is responsible for that Ohio phone bank’s calls. She’s freaking out that she won’t shake off Ravnsborg. And Ravnsborg seems aware of it and hopes to damage her.