Pierre is "where freedom goes to die"

Today in red state failure: Republicans spend their time during the South Dakota legislative session enriching themselves with taxpayer money and hiding it from voters.

The Senate agreed Tuesday evening with the House of Representatives that members of the Legislature should receive nearly $4,500 more when lawmakers start their new terms in 2019. Fighting against it was Sen. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton. Employees of state government, providers of Medicaid health care providers and employees of public schools don’t know yet whether they will see any raises this year from the Legislature, he said.

Read more here.

Which brings us back to Pierre, where freedom goes to die. South Dakota is a closed society. There are a multitude of examples in state and local government when your elected representatives or the career bureaucrats in Pierre spend your money without any accountability. Consider that professional contracts with the state – lawyers, engineers – are closed other than the maximum amount approved. The details of what we paid for are not open to the public. That’s your money.

Read that here.

This piece discusses the long slow death of property rights in the state. Do property rights in the current environment of lawmaking and with political leader’s priorities now play second fiddle to the almighty dollar? One bill this 2018 session proposed private animal waste pipelines so that CAFO wastes could be transported by pipeline over other property owner’s property without compensation.

Read the rest here.

Amen.

Your thoughts?