It should come as no surprise that the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader should be the first to post Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Heidepriem's education proposal. See it here.
I had faint hope that Heidepriem would be able to elevate himself above the pit viper Steve Jarding has become famous for...low-rent, lowest-common-denominator politics. Apparently not going to happen. Last week Jarding was setting up numerous debates and only then inviting Daugaard, knowing he could not attend, and then criticizing the Lt. Governor for refusing to meet Scotty head-on. Now, it's education.
"Public education in South Dakota will not get a meaningful increase in funding unless other areas of state government can be cut first, the Democratic candidate for governor, state Sen. Scott Heidepriem, said today."
Really?! Well, for all he lacks in ability as a candidate, he apparently has a sound grasp of the obvious.
Heidepriem has spent the last six months talking and talking about how South Dakota is a victim of fat cat Republicans who have spent their way into a huge budget crisis.
What he hasn't done is give a single example of where he would cut or who or when or how much.
South Dakota doesn't have much money. There's not a lot of fat.
And, people in South Dakota know they want to pay their teachers more. But they also know they don't have much money to give. Politicians routinely place more budget priority on the classroom than who is there inside the classroom teaching our children every day.
Can't hang a plaque on a kid or a teacher. Given the two candidates for governor, right now I'm in Daugaard's camp. Heidepriem loses credibility for a lame education "plan."
2 comments:
Heidepriem talks about selling airplanes and ending no-bid contracts like it's going to crate some kind of windfall for SD. He proposes a ton of new spending and talks about trimming the state budget.
Here's his "specific" cuts, from his website:
"Taxpayers deserve specific budget cut ideas.
We will introduce a bill to eliminate Washington lobbyists, sell off some or all of the 10 unneeded state airplanes, eliminate phantom FTE positions that are never filled (currently these dollars are labeled “salary salvage” and end up funding other unappropriated items).
We also support a total suspension of legislative out-of-state travel and a reduction in state legislative salaries in the spirit of shared sacrifice. We will work with our Republican colleagues to find other savings, but we must be careful that we don’t pass the costs of essential services onto local units of government and masquerade such actions as “cuts.”
If program cuts are not enough to balance the state’s books, we will seek a modified across-the-board budget cut."
I'm seeing about $10 million in one-time funds and I'll be incredibly generous and give him another $10 million in yearly cuts.
I don't see how he's going to pay for all of this education spending that he's talking about, not to mention the ethanol handouts he wants to do (buy a new fleet of state cars that can use E-85, that actually ends up costing more than using E-10, require bio-fuel usage in all state vehicles), The wind energy handouts, increase State Fair spending, increased health care spending, etc...
Maybe he really knows how to stretch a few million dollars...
I'd love trim down the state budget, but I'm having a hard time doing the Heidepriem math.
Does this seem like tea party tactics to anybody else? All that's missing are the little Theory of Government 101 lectures...
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