Week two of our 2012 legislative session is in the bag. We had a slow start but it's rolling now. Over 600 bills have been drafted and we have 26 days left to sort through them. If you fear the thought of adding 600 additional laws take comfort in the fact that half of them won't see the light of day (typically) and some that are presently on the books we are seeking to rescind. For example this afternoon the Governor's department by department red tape review is bringing before us the opportunity to delete 52 pages of now obsolete South Dakota statutes - 16,000 words — HB 1012 passed the House - it repeals old Department of Environment and Natural Resources laws including some that relate to weather modification and cloud seeding.

Surprising some, a bill, HB1002, which would have repealed the sales tax exemption on coins, currency and bullion died in the tax committee, 11 to 2. Had it made it to the House floor, I'd have voted no. My father would have haunted me had I voted to tax money.

Most unfortunate this morning was the demise in committee of my friend Rep. Kopp's handgun or Constitutional Carry bill which would repeal the requirement to get a $10 Concealed Carry permit. I would have voted for it if I had the chance. Why? The Second Amendment is my "permit" to carry a hand gun. Perhaps he'll try to smoke the bill out of committee to get it directly to the House floor.

Please read David Montgomery's post giving the details of the fate of this bill. Several on the committee admitted to voting against it at least in part because it was being pushed by a dubious and fringe gun owners group whose renowned friendly-fire tactics have earned them the ire of many in the legislature. There is such a thing as you getting in the way of your cause. And in this case, it's a good cause… one that I wholeheartedly support. When we aren't winsome, we lose some and here a good gun bill was shot down.

YES we should just vote on a bill based on it's merits. But, politics is people too. It's too bad. Hopefully there will be a smoke out attempt Monday as it's justified because of the stated reasons committee members rejected it - not on it's merits but for other reasons.

Last week I subjected myself to a little fuss on Facebook because of my refusal to sign a "pledge to restore the rights of the people and the authority of the State Legislature by voting FOR measures that REPEAL ObamaCare (the Affordable Health Care Act) in total or in part."

Click the link above (pdf alert) and you'll see the short list of my colleagues who now HAVE TO vote yes on bills they've not yet seen, regardless of whether a so-called "Repeal Obamacare bill" is ill-conceived, hastily drafted, a distraction or even a bill that is detrimental to the overall cause. Pledging means you are voting for it, regardless. If you decide to vote against it later, you can give reasons otherwise all day long but there is no room for those on this groups next scorecard. Those who didn't sign, like myself, are dubbed "political pollution" in the party. Rubbish.

My conversation with these folks went nowhere. This was my statement to them:

Here's my pledge and you do with it what you want…

1) I oppose Obamacare and am delighted it's being challenged in court and I'll do whatever I can to support the repeal of it.

2) I will not pledge to blindly support any and every different legislative attempt to appeal it as some attempts just may be poorly conceived, hastily drafted, distracting and even worse, detrimental to our goal of repealing Obamacare.

3) I will never pledge blindly to vote for a bill I've not read, let alone these bills which haven't been written.

That's what Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi want their followers to do… just sign them, we'll read them later and see what they say. That's a disservice to the voters in my district. Let's say I signed, then saw the bill was a mess and vote against it. Of course that would mean I "broke the pledge."

Following that statement I informed my good Christian conservative friends they now had an ethical dilemma on their hands. Would they proceed as planned to report me, a non-pledger, as not supporting the repeal of Obamacare all the while knowing my clear position is to repeal it?

Yep, they did just that. These report cards mislead voters and are a great disservice to legislators.

There are better ways to advance our values. They've chosen to posture themselves in attack mode and it's unnecessary friendly-fire. Consider this post yet another plea from me that they work to figure out more winsome ways to influence public policy. If they can't win me over, how on earth will they win over the 90% of the people in our state who are to the left of them? (I'm guessing at the 90%. I don't remember what the percentage vote was in the 2010 SD Republican primary. It's probably not good to throw percentages at each other, forgive me.)

Having just come from the Janklow funeral which was, visibly, far more "South Dakota" than either Republican or Democrat I have hope there will be an emerging generation of leaders who "don't give a damn what a few (philosophical purists) think but just do the right thing."

Last week journalist Bob Mercer expressed slight frustration in a post titled; Is This Why We Have A Legislature?

The state House of Representatives this afternoon had only one item on its Friday calendar of business. That was a commemoration recognizing the Yellowboy rifle, a .44-caliber lever-action made by Winchester after the Civil War. The connection was the supposition that “nearly one-half of the people in South Dakota” carried the rifle in the years leading up to statehood. Like nearly all commemorations, the House didn’t bother to discuss it. The House spent 19 minutes in session before adjourning for the day. The Senate started late, allowing this scribe to hear two opening prayers and say the Pledge of Allegiance twice on the same afternoon. The Senate deferred all of its business calendar to Thursday, Jan. 19. The Senate spent 10 minutes in session before adjourning at 1 p.m.

Today the Watertown Public Opinion was singing the same tune: Should Legislative Sessions be Shortened?  This session was already abbreviated from 40 down to 35 days and with the Janklow funeral we are now down to 33. So, the Watertown Public Opinion is wondering…

Do we really need a 35-day session every year? Does the cost justify the return? We realize like in any business - and don't kid yourself, government is a business - there are busy days and down days. But every year it seems like there are more than a few days where the Legislature has little or nothing on its agenda to productively occupy its time. Maybe it's time to look at ways to modify the session. Instead of having 35-day sessions, why not look at lowering them to 25 or 30 days with an option of extending them by "x" number of days if warranted. Or perhaps we could take a cue from our neighbor Nebraska, where the Legislature meets every two years instead of every one.

Lots of chatter these days about how wonderful it would be if we had "part-time congresses" and legislatures that met every other year. We heard it again from Rick Perry in the South Carolina GOP debate last night: a part-time Congress. Would a "part-time congress" ensure that only the old, white and wealthy demographic could serve? South Dakota lawmakers are part-part-part time. I'm discovering only the retired can really fully meet the demands back in their districts and in Pierre. As it is, part-time legislators serve alongside full-time lobbyists, lawyers, department heads and all the rest have staff to help them. Yet the legislator is the one portrayed as inept as we are the ones who are public. Not complaining, just saying.

Here's the comment I left at the Watertown Public Opinion article.

No, [the SD legislative session] shouldn't be shortened. This article and Mercer's gives the impression we are just sitting on our hands these early days of session as there is nothing to debate on the floor the first week. Reality is, there was little idle time last week as we were getting bills ready, pitching them to colleagues seeking co-sponsors, meetings with lobbyists to understand what matters will be on the table, etc, etc. It takes a few days to get other legislators to sign on, and a few more to get the bills through a committee and that means not much is happening early on in terms of floor debates. I'd think most legislators were surprised we shut down for two entire days for the funeral and that those days weren't added on to the end of session. (Would Janklow have canceled session for two days? Maybe so. Or maybe he'd have made us go late into the night.) It'll be crunch time these remaining days as we wade through 500 or so bills in thirty days or less. There are enormous issues to sort out and though it sounds wonderful to talk about "part-time congresses" and legislatures that meet every other year, the public is better served with more time not less.

It's the calm before the storm in the SD Legislature right now. Surely you have a thought.  Share it with me.

Ecclesiastes teaches there is a time for everything and Gov. Bill Janklow's time was 1939-2012. Being here at the Capital yesterday was a memorable experience as many people who worked closely with him over the last forty years shared their Janklow stories. Most everyone acknowledged the contrast he was; resultant in leadership yet brash to a fault. The Rapid City Journal noted this morning he was tough and tender, both a grizzly bear and a teddy bear. In the words of a former DOC employee… "and the grizzly bear scared the h— out of me."

Twice I received a personal note from him, the first in 1995 was a brunt reply to my letter of dissatisfaction that the State of South Dakota was asking my wife to student teach again for a special education teaching certification in the Harrisburg district. My wife already taught five years of special ed in Kansas City and had a Masters in Special Ed from the University of Kansas. Since her focus was deaf ed, South Dakota didn't acknowledge her credentials. I complained to Janklow. He skipped any pleasantries and defended the state's position with great force. South Dakota lost a special ed teacher. The second letter he sent me was in the fall of 2010 where he also included a check to help me win this seat in the House of Representatives. I have several other good memories, including fishing with my kids at a bend in the river at his home near Brandon.

There will be much time in the days and years ahead to revisit his legacy but this is certainly not the time to spew things we may not have appreciated about him. If you have nothing good to say, Ecclesiastes (and your mother) would tell you it's a time to be silent. In the Argus Leader today Mark Meierhenry referred to Janklow as a "warrior for good." On many occasions when officiating funerals I've had to navigate the variety of goods and bads of a person to get to the place where we can celebrate the contribution they've made in our lives. Certainly we don't want to whitewash anything or ignore elephants in the room but there is a way to give honor where honor is due.

Moses was a governor and God once said he'd take the spirit that was on Moses and put it on others. The Bible also speaks of "mantles" that rest on people and transfer to others when they depart. A mantle or cloak could be a prophetic mantle or a leadership mantle, it's the gift or supernatural grace or ability God gives a person to do an assigned good in the world. Elijah's mantle fell on Elisha and he got a double portion of Elijah's spirit. Janklow's strong mantle is up for grabs and I'll certainly latch on to the cloak of warrior for good. If that cloak is too big for me, rather than trim it to size, I'll seek to grow into it. And with regard to that which isn't so good, I'll let that just lie.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting has a great video available to watch which is an hour of Janklow: In His Own Words.

We are off and running here in Pierre for the 87th Legislative Session and there is much to talk about after the Governor's State of the State yesterday. Not sure if my friends at Dakota War College have a correspondent out here yet so I'll provide the venue here. Because your input is very welcome, I decided to post on the start of the session and couch it, all in fun, this way:

What would we being talking about over on DWC if they had gotten the memo that the Legislature is now in session??

1) For starters, perhaps we'd talk about Bill Janklow who is in his very last days. (There are times to be critical and this is not that time so keep it kind or I'll delete your comment.) This is a time to honor.

2) Or, perhaps we'd talk about the Investing in Education initiatives proposed by the Governor yesterday. The Governor made the case how over the last forty years a sizable investment in money has not given us better scores. We have 49,377 less students than we did in 1971 but we have 869 more teachers and 3569 more support staff. The Governor proposes the largest investment in teaching in the history of our state. Is it a war on mediocrity? Not really. It's the free-market applied to education - we will pay more for more.

3) Certainly the SD WINS workplace initiatives are bold and fresh. One person told me yesterday he's been to a zillion State of the State addresses and he's never heard one so full of innovation. Frankly, I love it…. re-pioneering South Dakota. Our Department of Tourism spends millions getting out-of-state people to visit here for a week or ten day vacation to see our great faces and great places. The Governor proposes spending four million in one-time dollars to go after skilled workers who will come here, not for a week or ten days, but to come and stay for good. One thousand workers means 120 million to our gross state product.

4) We have some interesting bills already, a Constitutional Carry handgun bill. No need for a Concealed Carry permit as the Second Amendment is your permit. Fire away on that topic. I'll be voting yes.

5) Should legislators blog and interact on social media? Some say no. I say yes, carefully. I'm a quite a bit more open on my Facebook page - multiple daily updates. Anonymity is not possible on Facebook which I like. The blogs get ugly and personal real quick and can be a no-win place for dialog for an elected official. I block people here and require real emails to comment. Civility is good and I'm not proud of the moments when I've lacked it.

Bonus topic: Should I propose a bill to increase legislator pay to $10,000 a day ((because that's the starting point of what it is worth to me to be away from my beautiful wife for one day))?

Let the townhall meeting begin…

The title of this post was lifted from from KSFY's report on the bill I've prepared that would put speeding back on the point system. The Rapid City Journal gave this good coverage yesterday. In my ten minute conversation with RCJ's David Montgomery I knew as soon as I said it this would be the quote he'd use:

"It is an obvious exclusion in the law that makes no sense," said Hickey. "You can lose your driver's license for running a stop sign, but you can go and drive like a bat out of hell, and if you can pay the fines, you're good to go in South Dakota."

My New Year resolution: don't swear, especially when talking to a newspaper reporter. This morning, Cory at Madville Times had some additional commentary on the bill proposal:

Rep. Hickey also tells RCJ that his speeding-points bill has nothing to do with famous South Dakota speeders Bill Janklow and Kristi Noem. Indeed, under Hickey’s proposal, neither Janklow nor Noem would have yet accumulated enough points within any one- or two-year period to be forced to ride horse to work. But Rep. Hickey’s bill does have just a little something to do with Janklow: it would repeal the law Janklow signed in 1986 that removed speeding from the points system. Hmm… repealing something Bill Janklow did… could this be the first legislative signal that the Janklow era is over?

My reply is as follows which includes some background as it relates to me bringing this forth:

The Janklow era will be over when our usury laws are reined back in. Even so, you make an interesting observation though none of that motivates me. We are praying for Bill. He contributed to my campaign. Kristi Noem is a good friend.

In November 2002 my dad was standing in the roadway at dusk in Hutchinson County talking to a guy in a grain truck parked on the road without tail lights – a local lead foot didn’t see him until it was too late – they calculated he was going 67 mph, 12 over at point of impact. The road looked like a deer was gutted and bled out. The next day it took a fire department and a road sweeper to remove the blood from the road. I couldn’t drive at night for 3 months because I kept seeing people standing in the road. It was a horrible way to lose my dad. (The pic is from the sign that marks the spot, a few miles west of Freeman, SD)

Not fishing here for you or anyone to feel bad for me just want to make the point that, to my family’s chagrin, the guy didn’t slow down in the years since – speeding tickets — he did lose his license last year due to a DUI.

One guy wrote me and said this will cost people their jobs as they can’t get to work. On one level I pick a life over a job but really, there will be very few people lose their license as they’d have to get 5 max violations in one year to lose their license. If they want to keep their job, slow down. This bill is not retroactive. If they continue to speed, they will reap what they sow and I’m sorry if that means they can’t get to work. I’d rather my kids have a grandpa then some guy keep his job. Honestly, it is bizarre that speeding is excluded as you can lose points for going to slow, running a stop sign, etc, etc. There is no reason to exclude it.

So far it seems law enforcement is neutral on this change. This isn’t nanny state stuff – laws that save lives are important. No one I talk to can really figure out why speeding was excluded in 1985-6 except people just grin and say “Bill Janklow wanted it.” Typically one can follow the money but in seeking a fiscal impact, so far all I get is it’s pretty unknown, probably negligible. In any case, I’m dead set against taxation by citation so if we are letting people speed because the state needs money, I don’t know, God help us.

Fun facts: When I was sixteen my license was suspended for too many speeding tickets within a six month period. Though it hit my pride, riding the school bus again was good for me, and my girlfriend didn’t seem to mind hauling me around. The lesson was learned as I slowed down and have had three citations in the twenty-nine years since; one in SD, two in Minnesota (on the same stinking day).

Now we have yet another subjective SD GOP purity scorecard (pdf alert) and this time I'm apparently only 50% committed to the principles of life and liberty (that's down from 60% on the earlier mid-wifery equals "republican orthodoxy" scorecard they put out last month). It's foolishness and false representation to broadcast these ratings. Since those behind the recent scorecard are the self-appointed "Christian party" leaders in our state someone needs to call them out and I don't know, who better to do it than me?

Isn't there a commandment forbidding we bear false witness against another?? Why yes there is, I've preached on it many times. These philosophical purity scorecards hand pick 10 to 20 bills out of 400-500 and these 10 to 20 are hardly cut and dry,, they are inherently subjective selections, and, in some cases, they aren't even remotely connected to party platform tenets…. all with the intended purpose of casting certain legislators in a certain light. Well, it's plain and simple bearing false witness, misrepresenting someone to others. Let's say I'm FOR an issue, but I vote AGAINST a pathetically written bill or one that has a fundamental flaw - somehow that's bad or any sort of true or accurate representation of my political DNA?? These scorecards mislead voters and malign good legislators.

And, as another State Rep reminded me this morning, it feels a bit hypocritical as the former SD State Senator behind this latest scorecard was the prime sponsor of a 2009 2% sales tax hike bill which was quickly struck down by some of these same legislators he's now calling RINO's— folks, that would have been the largest tax hike in state history - 4% to 6%. Yet I'M rated low because I voted to raise vehicle registration fees for the first time in decades?? But wait you say, I'm leaving out the context and rationale behind that proposed 2% sales tax hike by the "Tea Party Candidate." Precisely my point. Scorecards mislead and don't tell the true story.

My track record on faith, family and freedom issues ought to make me their poster child but I won't be nailed to the wall. Time to start putting forth ideas and promoting solutions and quit wasting time trying to cleanse the party gene pool or grade one another. There are a lot of good people in Pierre and this is the time to work with them to craft good public policy. These tactics only polarize and demonize and wow were they quick to tie all this to their fundraising efforts.

After the first scorecard came out I tweeted the following:

Apparently I'm only 60% Republican. I bet those who put this together would probably only rank 60% Christian if I laid out the Biblical "platform" for what constitutes a Christian. I vote a different platform. Go ahead, throw me out of office.

I'm busy getting my act together for this upcoming legislative session. This is all a distraction, it's dishonest and it does nothing to further matters related to life and liberty. I hear only 12 attended their big open/widely-publicized meeting last night and I'd ignore it all if these scorecards weren't being sent to good people who trust what they are being sent. I'm saying: it's bearing false witness to pick certain bills and drop a percentage point which is all people look at to form a conclusion. That percentage point represents nothing, at all, and there is nothing Christian about it. Let's leave the misinterpretation and manipulation of data to Al Gore.

Don't expect it to stop though. I spotted this gem on the website of one who is near the center of it all. It came out a day after my post on Reagan's 11th commandment about not speaking ill of other Republicans and so I interpret it as an indirect response to my plea. This particular section from the link above is downright disturbing and unchristian:

Immunity from in-party scrutiny and scrimshaw will only be extended to candidates whose game lives up to their name. Honor the platform and the platform, the party, and Reagan's pithy directorates will honor you, in return. Until then, consider yourselves warned. Be sure and wear your asbestos. Even Rhinoceros hide isn't impervious to open flame.

Wear asbestos? No leader who wants to get people anywhere, or get anywhere with people, forges ahead with a flamethrower.

This is precisely the kind of polarizing partisanship that South Dakotan’s detest. This is the spirit of DC right here in SD. The Pharisees operated in a religious spirit, the Sadducees operated in a political spirit. This is the spirit of the Sadducees. I'm talking in religious terms right now because I'm addressing the "religious wing" of our party. I represent a district in our state that has 1500 more registered Democrats than Republicans. But here’s what I’m not doing… I’m not looking at people as D or R and you shouldn't be either,,, the Republican Party platform is not my Bible. For sure there are things far more important than some political party platform.

In years past I'd take out the flamethrower on occasion but I've sought to tone down my rhetoric because there is a better Way. Reminds me of that old book… "Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God."

I'm a bit stumped on a Christmas card to all my friends in the SD GOP. Of course I first looked for something more Jesus-related but figured you'd expect something preachy from me. So, I thought maybe second only to Jesus you'd appreciate this olive branch. Consider this your ghost from Christmas past.

Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward Men.

HT Troy Jones

All these Occupy signboards I'm seeing got me thinking. So, I made this little sign tonight for Halloween.

Last July Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether hosted a special briefing for community and business leaders to fill us in on the proposed $115 million dollar Events Center which we get to vote on in a couple weeks. Unless you've been in a cave somewhere you are aware this has been a major matter of conversation and controversy in our community for a few years and so I won't rehash the particulars here. I will say I very much appreciated the briefing and got excited about the potential. Even so, I was the only one in the room of 100 or so who stood up during the Q&A to voice my concerns.

Basically I referenced Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn who hammered Obama just a day or so before. In no uncertain terms he said he's not building anything right now, nor is he hiring anyone….

“the business community in this country is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States…. I’m afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States…. And I’m saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I could prove it and I could spend the next three hours giving you examples of all of us in this marketplace that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right, a President that seems — that keeps using that word redistribution. …And until he is gone, everybody is going to be sitting on their thumbs."

You get the idea.

And so I agreed with the Mayor that so far Sioux Falls and South Dakota have been pretty sheltered from the economic shaking out there but my point was that if a guy like Wynn — who knows a lot more than we do about building Event Centers - - if a guy like Steve Wynn is sitting on his hands right now, maybe this ought to give us some serious pause.  And then I shared my firm conviction that there is big economic storm coming and it's like everyone else in the nation is boarding up their windows to get ready and here we are talking about heading out in a new gazillion dollar sailboat (I wanted to say Love Boat). I agree with Joel Rosenthal, this is not the right time. No doubt there would be jobs created to build it, but taxpayers are being asked to pay for it and the full story there is being minimized - the jobs last two years, paying for it takes twenty. No thanks, not in this economy.

After the Q&A, former District 9 Senator Tom Dempster reminded me the Events Center sits right in the heart of my legislative district - District 9! Of course I'm well aware of that and you'd think I'd be all for a big project like this right in the middle of my legislative district. However for two simple reasons I'm not. First, the cost to taxpayers is not $115 million, it's $172 million. Second, I'm not as optimistic that there is a demand for such a facility here. We've heard all the promises before of how this will pay for itself and be an incredible boost to the local economy,,, hotels, etc.  Frankly, I can picture it half full of people and I'm not hearing the public asking for it.

Here's what I do hear… I get constituent emails with questions like this: "Have any projections been put together on what the “average” homeowner will pay in additional real estate taxes to retire the bonds on the proposed Events Center?"

The most interesting email came from a Sioux Falls attorney who compared this whole thing to the Berlin Sportpalast where Josef Goebbels delivered his “Total War” speech in 1943. I thought you'd enjoy chewing on it as much as I did:

If the Sportpalast would have been built in a Nazi Germany in the present era, it would feature the “naming rights” of Krupps, I.G. Farben, Bayer, etc. No question about that. Corporatism leads to fascism (“it’s all about jobs and the economy stupid”). They have this blinding attachment to the “god-given right to make a profit” at the expense of others and externalize their costs of doing business onto the public and the poor.

Obviously he's voting no to a Sioux Falls Sportpalast. Me too.

Far better for a local company right now to sponsor special programs and staff in our underfunded schools than to drop five or six digits just to get their name on a scoreboard. That would be a real win for our community and future.