If legislators want a pay raise,
call it a pay raise, and other tidbits
By Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: The South Dakota
Legislative Executive Board has put its stamp of approval on what is
being called a communications stipend of $200 per month for all
legislators for the 10 months out of the year they are not in
session. The qualifications for this stipend, the board used in the
news release, was to cover the costs for such things as telephone,
cell phone, and email expenses, and my guess it would also be for a
lot of etc. But before our legislators get this bump in their pay,
they are going to have to approve the Executive Board's proposal.
SOUTH DAKOTA'S legislators are, I
believe, underpaid, but to get a raise in their annual salaries by
calling it a "communications stipend" leans pretty close to
ridiculousness. If they want a pay raise, call it just that. But to
beat around the bush and title it something else is pure,
unadulterated cow crappy.
Will those guys and gals who go to
Pierre next month for the 83rd legislative session call it what it
really is? I don't think so because in the minds of many of those
legislators voting for a pay raise, especially in an election year,
would be nothing short of performing political hara-kiri.
That $200-per month stipend adds up to a
$2,000 annual raise. Not a bad raise here in South Dakota. Our
legislators already have a state credit card for their long distance
phone calls. It is unclear if the $2,000 stipend would replace that
credit card. This also needs clarification. Nor should we forget
that in addition to their $6,000 annual salary, each of them
receives a $110 per diem (living allowances) for each day they are
in session in Pierre. Plus, they get reimbursed for mileage.
DOES THIS SOUND like a lot? To
some it probably does. But according to the Council of State
Governments, our legislators are 45th on the pay scale for state
legislators from across the nation, almost as bad as our teachers.
Another way to look at this is they are making 35 percent less than
they were in 1975 when you figure in the inflation factor.
No. Iım not opposed to the pay raise,
but call it what it actually is....
South Dakota bank headed overseas
IT IS ONE THING that gigits and
gadgets formerly made in South Dakota went overseas for manufacture,
but now it is one of our banks.
In a rather glowing report in that
newspaper in that town near Harrisburg, the announced sale of the
Great Western Bank, headquartered in that town, has been sold for
$800 million to the National Australia Bank Ltd. and while the
ownership moves to that land down under, it was noted there would be
no change of employees in the banks in South Dakota and elsewhere.
While I'm sure every thing in the deal
is legal and above board, doing business with a locally-owned bank
just seems more South Dakotan....
Northeast SD town about to disappear
THE TINY TOWN of White Rock in
the farthest northeastern corner of South Dakota has again made the
news. I should say the local church did as it was recently moved to
Rosholt. According to the story, this community has a population of
1.5 people.
The half-person claims to be the town's
dog catcher, garbage man, light man, bill payer, mayor and town
board member. Actually, he only lives in White Rock half the time
and the other half in Wheaton, Minn.
There hasn't been much news out of that
community for some time. Actually, the last time might have been
several years ago when a gory story broke about a skull being
removed from a body in the White Rock cemetery.
It turned out the culprit of the
dastardly deed was a stripper from, I believe, Fargo, who said she
needed it for her act. Yuck....
First of election initiatives surfaces
AS PER USUAL about this time of
year the first of an unknown number of proposed initiatives has
surfaced to be voted on in next Novemberıs General Election.
According to state Rep Hal Wick of Sioux
Falls, what it would do would ban so-called naked short selling,
which is apparently a stock-sale practice that is already against
federal law.
Whatever it is, both the South Dakota
Department of Revenue's securities division and Governor Mike Rounds
are opposed to the initiative and it is so hard to understand that
I'm opposed to it as well....
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and
recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a
lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the
U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.
Leave a comment about this article
