Back in 2019, I noted that South Dakota’s Obligation Recovery Center—the debt collection office that Governor Dennis Daugaard’s administration created—recovered $3.42 million in outstanding debts for the state. The Québec firm we contracted for that grueling work still had $81.8 million to track down, but they got tired of shaking down South Dakota’s deadbeats, and the state switched to Ohio-based Reliant Capital Solutions and Indiana-based (I’m guessing from the area code) Government Performance Solutions.
This year, the ORC (yes, ORC—we send an ORC to shake down deadbeats) contractors report that in Fiscal Year 2023, they recovered $3.66 million for the state and pocketed another $708K to cover their costs of sending all their calls and nastygrams.
Senator Reynold Nesiba (D-15/Sioux Falls) is alarmed that the ORC is having deadbeats’ driver licenses suspended:
On December 19, [Bureau of Finance and Management’s Rachel] Williams delivered the full answer. “Since the creation of the laws to suspend/revoke a driver’s license due to debt collections, 31,966 people have had their licenses suspended/revoked for debt collection,” she wrote in an email to the senator. “12,677 people currently have their license suspended/revoked for debt collection.”
Nesiba, a professor of economics at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, said he was “shocked and disappointed” to read those numbers.
“It is deeply perverse to take away a debtor’s driver’s license when we need them to go to work to pay their debts. We need to find a different strategy and set of incentives that allow one to keep their license and to legally get to work. This may require a legislative fix”… [Bob Mercer, “Capitol Notebook: State Took Thousands of Driver Licenses,” KELO-TV, 2023.12.20].
Also alarming is that while collections remitted to the state have remained roughly steady, in the $3.4M-$3.8M range, the total outstanding balance in the accounts ORC is trying to balance has grown 59% since 2019, to $130.2 million. So in Fiscal Year 2023, the ORC managed to recapture just 3% of what’s owed to South Dakota.
The ORC itself says in its FY2023 report, “Fewer customers are affected by adversarial actions (such as revoking a license).” Hmm… maybe if the ORC stops yanking driver licenses, more debtors could get to work on time, make more money, and pay down more of that swelling outstanding balance.
Yanking a ton of licenses? Dumb is as dumb does.
Maybe they’ll put the people with no licenses in hotels close to their jobs?
They hire out of state jackasses that collect only 3% of what’s owed? Dumb hiring dumber?
Who are the dumbasses that are electing these dumb Republican holes?
Granted this debt recovery was well-intended. Granted the debt recovery contract and implementation is incompetently administered.
It never ceases to amaze how South Dakota’s puff-up on their self-reliance repubs depend on out-of-state contracts.
Pay up, deadbeats!!
This may require a legislative fix- By golly, it just might be what the legislature is for… actually fix fixable fixes we find ourselves in.
You ever hear of a mirror, SD? Scary what you’ll see if you actually look. Welfare Queen Noem and her vat of meanies are being told how independent they look..by grifters and stool pigeons.
I think that outsourcing the entire (except Democrats) legislative branch, executive branch and all the rest of the twigs, would give excellent results. republicans cannot govern, they don’t believe in it.
What we really need is the old debtors’ prisons. Let some of those deadbeats work off their debts, or pay up. 90% of these people just choose not to pay their debts. It boggles grudznick’s mind the way libbies have such a soft heart for deadbeats. How do you think most of these deadbeats vote? Most are libbier than all get out, and about 25% of them are whackadoodles.
Perhaps you’ve notice the holiday spirit has not yet infected ol’ grudznick. Although the approaching feasting does provide some shimmer of delight on the horizon.
Deadbeats like Screwdy Rudy and drumpf will never see the insides of a debtor prison, because, wealthy have skewed the bankruptcy laws. A person behind in child support or student debt, at least in iowa and regardless of their medical conditions, cannot file bankruptcy.
This situation points out the limits of punishment when it comes to curing social ills. All that can be said for punishment is that it makes the punisher feel better. Trump and the incredible Rudy owe in the hundreds of millions. They won’t see a minute in jail and I’m certain they’ll retain their driver’s license, though probably not a good idea for Rudy to keep his and Trump has a platoon of drivers. The Ruling Class will take care of their own.
It is very neato they send Orcs. Orcs to busy some deadbeat legs.