What this legislative session needs
are a few Alexander the Greats
By Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: Five major issues have
now been identified by South Dakotašs legislators. Will these issues
be resolved by March 17, the final day of this session? A couple of
weeks ago I mentioned there were a number of "maintainers" in the
Legislature, but what was needed were more "enablers."
The major issues have been recognized by these five legislators. We
will have to wait until March 18, to find out whether they or others
are "enablers."
THERE WAS A KNOT in the little
town of Gordian, in Asia Minor, many, many, years ago that had a
prophecy that the person who undid the knot would become ruler of
the world. Hundreds, maybe thousands, tried, but to no avail until
Alexander the Great came along. He supposedly undid the knot.
Whether he untied it or slashed it with his saber is a question
debated by some historians. Needless to say the rest is history. For
untold centuries people the world over, the Gordian Knot represented
the difficult, the intractable and often an insolvable problem.
There may be some of these knots in Pierre.
It has been a couple of weeks since I
said our Legislature needed more "enablers," those people who get
things done. And it has been almost two weeks since the Argus Leader
identified five legislators who have a special interest in the five
major issues facing the 83rd session of the South Dakota
Legislature. They could very well become the "enablers" I have been
talking about. Time will tell--as it usually does.
These legislators zeroed in on what they
felt were the major issues for this session, however, there are a
number of other issues that I wouldn't call secondary. These run the
gamut of a state liquor tax to help counties, to cities getting more
liquor licenses. Perhaps these five major legislative issues are
looking for an Alexander the Great.
TWO OF THE FIVE legislators
speaking on their special issues were fairly positive that there
will be some of resolution to them by the time the session is over.
They were Sen. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, who is confident about
putting back in the Highway Patrol's next year's budget $2 million
cut by Governor Mike Rounds during his budget address a few weeks
ago, and Sen. Tom Dempster, R-Sioux Falls, says he is "very
positive" the state is headed in the right direction in finding
answers to a recent study on health care in South Dakota.
That means there are three of the five
who aren't so positive on their special issues during this session.
Sen. Nancy Turbak Berry, D-Watertown, wants a law saying all state
records are presumed open unless they are otherwise closed. "The
odds are poor" of getting the solution it deserves, she said.
As a man who spent the greater part of
his life in the newsroom, I fully support her comment, "Access to
government is the most fundamental principle of a democratic
government." It is too bad more of our legislators don't feel that
way. Wešll see what comes out.
SEN. ED OLSON, R-Mitchell, is
pushing for more money for our school districts to pay more to the
teachers we have. Contrarily there are too many South Dakotans who
say our teachers are getting paid enough for just nine months' work.
As the husband of a retired teacher I can say the nights and
weekends our teachers spend correcting papers or supervising one
after-school event or another, those nine months look more like a
12- month job.
While getting more money for K-12
education is a noble stance, "Olson thinks that fundamental change
is probably beyond reach this year," Ho hum... And that ho hum isn't
a criticism to Olson, but to those who disagree with him.
The last of the legislators pushing one
of the five special issues is Rep. Dale Hagens, D-Miller, who is
supporting more renewable energy. He endorses the governor's plan to
cut by two cents per gallon on the tax on biodiesel fuels. He also
wants to see more state incentives to private business to build
transmission lines for the wind power South Dakota can produce.
THE TAX CUT FOR biodiesel is
probably going to pass both houses and the governor is bound to put
his name on the bill, giving biodiesel a new life in South Dakota.
However, regarding the other proposed energy projects, Hagens told
the Argus, nobody's going to want to start a new program that's
going to cost a lot of money. "The governor probably is going to
veto stuff that doesn't have a funding source to start out with."
There you have it, the five major issues
as of the first part of this legislative session. Will they continue
to be remains to be seen. In the meantime, the "enablers" we have
mentioned a few times in other columns have to have that unique
quality of being able to think "outside the box." We don't mean to
sound trite on this thinking outside-of-the-box business, but
staying inside that proverbial box isn't doing much for South Dakota
either....
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.
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