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(2/3/2007)

Taxes, Sutton Headline Rapid City Cracker Barrel

Preschool and abortion were also frequent topics

BY BOB ELLIS

DAKOTA VOICE

The second of this legislative sessions Rapid City cracker-barrels was held at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology today from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.

Present were Rep. Ed McLaughlin, Rep Brian Dreyer, Rep. David Lust, Senator Dennis Schmidt, Rep. Mark Kirkeby, Senator Tom Katus, Rep. Mike Buckingham, Senator Jim Lintz, Senator Bill Napoli, Rep. Jeff Haverly, Rep. Alan Hanks, Rep. Gordon Howie, Rep. Don Van Etten, and Senator Mac McCracken. Rep. Gordon Pederson was scheduled to attend but was not present due to non-life-threatening injury he sustained at the capitol yesterday.

Senator Bill Napoli (R-Rapid City) said he talked to Governor Mike Rounds about disappointing tourism numbers. They also talked about drug and alcohol problems and the need to find the money to address these problems. Napoli said debate would start in earnest this week on the many issues the legislature will be dealing with.

Senator Jim Lintz (R-Hermosa) addressed the investigation of Senator Dan Sutton (D-Flandreau) and said he wanted to make it clear that he had voted to expel Sutton. He said the only reason he voted for censure was so that Sutton wasn't completely exonerated. Sutton was accused by a young male page of inappropriate sexual contact while the two stayed overnight at a Pierre hotel last year.

Rep. Mike Buckingham (R-Rapid City) mentioned that he had upset many people from the Rapid City school board last week. He said that he used to wonder why decisions in Pierre were made as they were, but now that he is in the legislature and has access to information and perspective that he didn't have before, he recognizes different priorities across the state. He indicated that one of the key challenges to fairness is the different dynamics between small rural schools and larger urban ones.

From the audience, Curtis Price said he saw the food tax as a moral issue, and asked why it wasn't repealed or reduced by the legislature on a moral basis, since it affects families and children. Lintz responded that there aren't many people even applying for the existing tax refund that is available. "If it was that big of a problem," said Lintz, "We would run out of money in that fund."

Senator Tom Katus (R-Rapid City) also addressed the question and said the poorest counties in the state were the only ones who opposed the food tax when it was implemented, and said it was "atrocious."

A lady who said she operates a preschool for the past 16 years asked about SB 115, which adds "pre-kindergarten" to the standards for classification and accreditation for schools. She was concerned it might be the precursor to mandatory preschool and expressed concern that K-12 was already under funded without adding the additional burden of preschool. Rep. Jeff Haverly (R-Rapid City) said he would be voting "no" on this, and that he believes this is just to replace declining enrollment numbers with preschoolers.

Senator Dennis Schmidt (R-Rapid City) also said he would be voting against it, and Lintz expressed concern that young children might not be able to get the extra attention they need in a public preschool environment.

Another set of questions from the audience came from Bob Fischer.  He said he appreciated the senators who voted to expel Sutton from the state senate, and asked Katus why he couldn’t bring himself to vote to expel a man (meaning Sutton) who had molested a page, also why he wanted to remove the death penalty for "brutal murderers," and if he would support protecting innocent human life in the womb.

Katus said he sat through all the discussions concerning Sutton, and it was a "very complex issue." Katus pointed out that even though this issue came out before the election, Sutton was re-elected by a 59% margin. He said "Yes indeed, a senator should not be sharing a bed with a young man. But Mr. Fischer, I would posit, I'm not God. I don't judge people."

Katus said he believed the issue came down to a "he said, he said" debate, and finding the truth was difficult due to the complexity and the pre-existing friendly relationship between Sutton and the accuser. Katus said he didn't believe "we should have even been there [having the hearings]." He also cited the fact that the father of the accuser had continued an amicable relationship with the accused even after this happened, and the father had asked for Sutton's political support at one point in his bid for governor.

"I just don't believe it was nearly as clear cut as you seem to think it was," Katus said. He told the crowd that he voted for censure because it was inappropriate for them to be in the same bed together.

Regarding the death penalty, Katus said he'd been opposed to it his whole life. He mentioned overseas experiences and experiences on the Reservations, and how this had exposed him to different value systems. One of those, he said, was "restorative justice," which seeks to reconcile the perpetrator with those who have been wronged. Katus said that in Africa, "If you kill a member of a family, you're personally responsible for the lives in that family for the rest of your life. That's my sense of justice. If you're Lakota, you're entire family is shunned. That's my sense of justice. I just do not believe that taking another life helps out at all, and you, Mr. Fischer I understand are a devout Christian, I appreciate that. I believe someone died on the cross for all of us."

Regarding the abortion issue, Katus said, "In terms of the so-called abortion bills, I support adopting children. I believe in preschool education. I believe in public and private K-12 education. I believe in the minimum wage. I believe in pensions. And I do not believe in the death penalty. So I like to think I practice life, I don't preach about it, I don't tell others, I don't judge them."

Napoli then took the podium regarding his vote on the Sutton issue, and said it was an issue they all had to decide on their own. He said Sutton was a friend and he had known him for ten years, and he gave Sutton every benefit of the doubt. He said Sutton crawled into bed with a page, and there was a hide-a-bed available in the hotel room so they didn't have to sleep in the same bed, but the page wasn't told this. Napoli said pages often stay with legislators during session in Pierre, but in separate bedrooms. The fact that Sutton didn't use the hide-a-bed was wrong, Napoli said. "The total integrity of the senate was riding on this issue."

McCracken said the Sutton decision had been reached and it's time to move on.

The cracker-barrel in Rapid City is sponsored by the Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce.