Sen. Hunhoff: institute corporate income tax to fund education

Saturday marked the year’s second Yankton Area Chamber of Commerce legislative cracker barrel at the Avera Pavilion. District 18 state representatives Mike Stevens and Jean Hunhoff and Sen. Bernie Hunhoff used the event as an opportunity to update the public on the session’s efforts in dealing with education and Medicaid expansion. Sen. Bernie Hunhoff said much more work needs to be done on funding education in South Dakota. He suggested that South Dakota institute a corporate income tax in order to raise the funds for education. Sen. Hunhoff said the state’s expansion may not take on as many people as previously thought. “We’ve been working out numbers that indicates there are about 48,000 people who would access Medicaid services if they were able to,” he said. “North Dakota has already done this and they’ve only got 12-16,000, so it looks like the numbers might be quite a bit lower than we’ve been talking about, thus making the program much more affordable.” The final District 18 forum of the 2015 session is set for March 7 at 10 a.m. at the Avera Professional Pavilion in Yankton. [Rob Nielsen, Yankton Press and Dakotan]

Enjoyed seeing and visiting with many good folks in Britton. Thank you @SusanWismer for hosting the crackerbarrel this morning. #legcoffee
— Jason Frerichs (@jasonfrerichs) February 21, 2015

Rep. Feickert: @ViewpointU "Gov's education panel should be called "red-ribbon panel, not blue...for the GOP in charge of it."
— Susan Wismer (@SusanWismer) February 20, 2015

My Rep. Feickert speaking up for counties on @ViewpointU right now. "Kicking the can down the road..train wreck waiting to happen."
— Susan Wismer (@SusanWismer) February 20, 2015