Topics we'd be discussing had Dakota War College sent a correspondent to Pierre

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…