"Status Quo"

“Status Quo”
If you look at the subtitle just below the banner for this article you will see a new addition to my articles. “Citizens for decency in government.” When I was talking to people about adding this to my column, they said it would make me look like a sore loser in the election. Of course it does, so what? Have you ever seen a good loser? I’m not sore about losing. However, I am truly disappointed by the fact that so many people were counting on me to win. I’m sorry I didn’t work harder to change people’s minds. I still think what I was doing was right. I had a plan for this county that would completely change the way they do business. Do you remember Senator Barry Goldwater? He said show me an honest politician and I’ll show you a loser. Nuff said.
One of the things that I thought was particularly interesting is the labels that were attached to me and the fact that I am so vocal about -
1) Hyperion, which I’m dead set against and am convince this will never happen, and
2) The county commissioners. What can I say here? They deserve it.
All I do according to Paul Buum of the Alcester-Hudson Union paper is complain about Hyperion and criticize the commissioners. That is exactly what this column is about. I might change your words though. I constantly point out the shortcomings of Hyperion and why they are lying and taking advantage of us. That isn’t complaining that is being responsible. It is nice to know that Paul reads my articles.
I have never made up a story or an article in this column. I’ve never lied about what I say; I just tell it like it is. Who could make up the stories I print about the commissioners? If I see something that is happening that is wrong should I just keep my mouth shut or should I let people know what is going on? I will tell you this much, because of this column, the people in Brule and Spink townships know what is going on. One does not make changes by keeping the status quo. The status quo is what got us into this mess in the first place. I want government to be given (taken) back to the people.
1) They raised the assessed value on all the acreages in Union county up as much as 20-25%.
2) They raised the valuation from 5% to 10% of all houses that are over 10 years old. Why?
3) They are going to opt out in July because they don’t have enough money to maintain the roads, and are falling behind in their master plan to maintain the infrastructure.
4) They spent $45,000 plus to build a parking lot across from the court house that I doubt seriously will get any use except for the folks that work at Thermo Bond. I’m sure the owners will thank the county for the new parking lot. Now they don’t have to build it. If you remember, the county commissioners sent the states attorney to the Elk Point city commissioners to complain about employees from Thermo Bond parking in the court house parking lot. So the county builds a parking lot for Thermo Bond? ? ?
Bear in mind folks, the county government does absolutely nothing to produce income. They spend what is raised from taxes and if they don’t have enough money they keep raising taxes until they do. That is why the State of South Dakota put a cap on the amount that taxes can be raised, hence the opt out. I hate to think what the taxes would be without the cap.
I think I reported last week that the highway department has a 20 year plan to redo 10 miles of road a year to maintain the paved roads so they don’t completely deteriorate. Last year they did 4 miles and the year before that was 5 miles. If we don’t do 15 miles we will keep falling behind on the master plan and never catch up. Are we just going to do a new master plan? This is like the Communist 5 year plan. They redo the 5 year plan every 5 years because they fall so far behind they can’t catch up so they just make a new plan.
At the budget meeting on the 10th, each department head came in to the commissioners with their proposed budget for 2011. My question is this – how in the hell can department heads do a budget when they don’t know the cost of supplies and especially don’t know what the salary for the employees is going to be? The salary base is going to change because they are doing away with the annual longevity bonus. It will be incorporated into the salary, but the commissioners haven’t figured out yet how they are going to do this. All they say is that it will be a step program but how much, they haven’t said. The commissioners did vote to raise the salary of the chairman $100 a month though.
You know it is probably a good thing for me that I didn’t get elected. I think someone was looking out for me and was saying to themselves that if Doug gets in there he is going to go stark raving mad because of the way the commissioners operate. They are a train wreck, and it is going to happen sooner than later.
Now you can see why I added the subtitle to this column. I am forming a coalition with the people who are tired of the “Status Quo” and to push for reform and put this government back in the hands of people who care, because I firmly believe the commissioners don’t care or they wouldn’t act like this. Don’t disrupt the “Status Quo” my foot!