Dusty Johnson isn’t the only Republican candidate for governor inviting charges that he wants bigger government. In Monday’s debate on public TV, Jon Hansen, of all people, says he wants to split the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources back into two agencies:
House Speaker Jon Hansen, for example, told South Dakota Public Broadcasting viewers that, on day one, he would split the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources and return them to separate stand-alone departments, as they had been before [Bob Mercer, “GOP Governor Candidates Engage in 2nd TV Debate,” KELO-TV, updated 2026.04.14].
Governor Kristi Noem buried the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the pro-business Department of Agriculture in 2021 to cut inspections of factory farms and cramp conservation. The 2021 Senate tried to stop that merger but fell one vote short. Jon Hansen was in the 2021 House but took no action to stop the Ag/Enviro merger then.
Hansen cleverly avoids any appearance of enviro-leftism by saying he wants to re-separate DANR because agriculture “deserves its own department.” I support his proposal because the environment deserves its own department, separate from the diametrically opposed exploitationist cravings of the ag-industrialists who control the Department of Agriculture.
But here Jon Hansen and I are agreeing again on a nice liberal idea. That’s not going to win Hansen any Republican primaries!
By the way, in Fiscal Year 2021, the last year the Department of Ag and DENR stood apart, the Legislature appropriated $47,558,714 for Ag and $25,977,065 for DENR, a total of $73,535,779. In FY 2022, the first year of the merger, the Legislature gave DANR $71,722,731. Merging the two departments saved only 2.5%, less than $2 million, from their combined budgets. For Fiscal Year 2027, DANR is getting $98,407,404, 33.8% more than the combined FY2021 pre-merger appropriation. That’s an average of 5.0% budget increases on ag and ENR functions each year since the merger.
I completely agree Corey: Environmental concerns are many times at odds with ag and have little to do with ag. The departments should be separate.
Combining these departments was one of the dumbest things the Noem admin did and always seemed a bit sketch to me.
If South Dakota wants the benefits of a little more efficiency they could consider merging Game, Fish and Parks with DENR. I don’t know how the hook and bullet folks would like that because they have a little bit different purpose, but most states have the environmental regulatory functions (clean air, clean water, water rights, mining, landfills, radiological issues) in with the ecological functions (wildlife, fisheries and public land management} but in separate divisions within the same department.
I don’t think these issues are a matter of liberal or conservative ideology. It’s more what works best. I never understood why DENR moved in Ag. It just didn’t make sense.
Apart from marriage most mergers are bad. I was chair of Fine Arts and the powers that be merged Fine Arts and Photography. It was caused by the elimination of an overall first year program. Disaster, for instance Fine Arts basically lost three classes that stressed drawing. Need I go on?
I think the ag folks would like their own department back. It makes sense.
Charles and Heather Maude, the West River lawbreakers just endorsed Mr. Hansen.
Recall that the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Supervisor Jack Isaacs (now retired), Special Agent Travis Lunders and District Ranger Julie Wheeler received death threats just for doing their jobs then were thrown under the bus by the Trump Organization’s agriculture secretary. Extremists are screaming that Agent Lunders came unannounced to the Maude ranch in 2024 in full tactical gear to serve the summons to appear in district court because the Maudes blew off civil remedies after breaking federal law. The Forest Service denies the agent was outfitted with “any tactical uniform, gear or assault weapons” even though it is widely known property owners in that part of South Dakota are militantly opposed to gubmint especially those of Democratic administrations but love all that subsidized crop and livestock insurance anyway. Heather Maude is a Wyoming native and her parents are Trump supporting Earth haters, too.
The charges have been dropped but the case is not resolved after the Maudes allegedly stole access to public land by claiming it as their own then after being advised of their crime blew off a civil remedy because a Democrat was sitting in the White House. Blame lies with the State of South Dakota, Custer County and the lawyers who drafted the Maude Family Trust and neglected to order a survey. Maude Hog and Cattle has been providing product to Wall Meats which is heavily subsidized by the USDA and Charles Maude has received nearly $300,000 in ag subsidies since 1995.
Separating DENR and Dept of Agriculture only makes common sense. They are two different departments with two different purposes and missions.
Sadly Noems efforts to supposedly streamline government was not vetted properly or she would not have pushed this through the legislature.
Earth hater Dusty Johnson is begging for more federal pork to trench West River for a Missouri River pipeline that would lift water nearly two thousand feet in elevation then pump it a hundred and fifty miles for lawns, Rally campgrounds and Ellsworth with tax dollars spent on carving through Native America for white privilege instead of empowering communities to harvest snowmelt and rainwater while rural communities are still dependent on politicians who exploit need.
My close personal friend Lar knows this more than most. For every 100 people who join the Catholic Church, of which he is fond, 800 leave. They are re-evaluating how to exploit their needs.
But Lar, some of us like green lawns and can’t pump it all out of the crick. The crick by grudznick can’t top off everybody, so some of that river water will have to suffice. Minus the sardines…leave those behind.
Also, Lar, as Mr. Kloucek, the least effective in the legislatures ever can attest, Wall Meats are good meats.