To the Editor:
Recently, this paper reported Rep. Josh Klumb's claim that he and Sen. Mike Vehle are "fiscal conservatives." Both supported massive tax increases last year. Most of that money is going to Pierre and is partly responsible for Gov. Dennis Daugaard's proposed general fund budget being $128 million higher than what was spent last year. Having not enough in the existing budget to send $56 million to public school teachers is a false claim.
Last week, Gov. Daugaard himself admitted to the Chamber of Commerce "that the state has had a budget surplus every year that he has been governor." He also made the promise there will continue to be enough surpluses to give sales tax breaks to crony capitalists. He is using teachers as political pawns to justify the tax-and-spend liberal agenda that takes money out of our pockets and puts it into the pockets of special interests.
Rep. Tona Rozum's latest column not only included the previously mentioned false claims, she also repeated the old lie that they cut the 2012 general fund budget by $127 million. History has proven the 2012 general fund spending was only $15 million less than 2011, while federal spending in South Dakota jumped by hundreds of millions thanks to Obama's stimulus program. Obama, with help from the South Dakota tax-and-spend liberals, grew our state government from $3.1 billion in 2008 to $4.8 billion based on Daugaard's latest budget proposal.
Rep. Lee Schoenbeck built a coalition of Republican and Democratic tax-and-spend politicians to pass a sales tax increase, despite the people of South Dakota voting not to increase sales tax during the 2012 election cycle. This will add another $100 million to the budget, with only about half going to teachers. The rest will largely be subsidies and tax cuts for crony capitalists.
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Rep. Klumb and Rep. Rozum joined Schoenbeck's party of tax-and-spend liberal crony capitalists who tax the needy and give to the greedy. Don't be deceived by the talking points our District 20 representatives bring back from Pierre to justify their liberal votes.
Steve Sibson
Mitchell
