South Dakota is celebrating Cybersecurity Awareness Month by standing alone in forgoing millions of dollars in federal grants available to bolster cybersecurity. Just last month, Noem touted cybersecurity as South Dakota’s next big industry and remote, landlocked South Dakota as the best place for cybersecurity resources. Just last week, the Legislature’s interim committee on county funding and services said we ought to invest more on cybersecurity to prevent attacks on county governments. But as usual, the Noem Administration chooses political posturing over practical problem-solving.
However, that posturing remains highly selective. The Governor’s appointees on the South Dakota Railroad Board are deciding where to spend $58.9 million in Federal Railroad Administration funds:
Among the eight applications the board is considering are two new ones:
Sioux Falls wants $12 million for a highway overpass planned on the city’s northwest side, where the Burlington Northern Santa Fe crosses Marion Road.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation wants at least $10 million — and as much as $21.8 million — to rebuild a stretch of the state-owned Napa line in the southeastern region, so that the route might become attractive to a private buyer.
The other six requests are for $3.2 million from Sisseton Milbank Railroad; $14 million from Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern Railroad; $8.3 million from Ringneck & Western Railroad; as much as $1.9 million from Belle Fourche Economic Development Corporation; nearly $10 million from D & I Railroad; and as much as $30 million from Dakota, Missouri Valley & Western Railroad [Bob Mercer, “Rail Board Considers Sioux Falls Overpass, Napa Rebuild,” KELO-TV, updated 2023.10.11].
I don’t get it: taking federal money for cybersecurity infrastructure has too many strings and makes us complicit in the federal government’s “wasteful spending“, but taking federal money for equally important railroads, airports, broadband Internet, and other infrastructure poses no problem.
Don’t forget: this year, South Dakota is accepting $3.47 billion in federal funding to cover 47% of the total state budget.
I get it, Cory. The difference is that there’s already a railroad board to do the work. There’s no board to decide what and how to use the cyber funds.
As I’ve asserted since March 2020. “Your Governor doesn’t know what to do so she does nothing and labels it supporting small government.”
It’s your Governors way of ignoring that which she’s ignorant of.
Sounds to me you might think she is an idiot. That is what I would call her, or anyone else who ignores his/her ignorance.
What? Nothing requested to raise the elevation of the overpass in DT Pierre and prevent more truck trailer decapitations?