What’s In a Name

On Tuesday the Senate decided to reinvent the definition of state employees. For years we have used “FTEs” which stands for : “full time equivalent”, or one full time employee. The Republicans are very sensitive about how they have grown government over the last seven years. They have increased FTEs by 1,500, going from 12,900 to 14,400 , which equals one every 48 hours. So they introduced HB 1052, which redefines FTEs so that if you are also a student, meaning taking even one class, and working 40 hours for the state, you are no longer an employee!

This is exactly why people are turned off by politics and politicians…they resort to gimmicks instead of simply acknowledging the growth they have overseen in government. As I have said to my caucus on many occasions, let’s make sure that when our hand is on the lever of power, that we don’t simply repeat the mistakes we have witnessed, but instead actually work to improve the lives of SOuth Dakotans wherever we can. That starts with fixing the budgtet mess in Pierre. And as of the 31st legislative day out of 38, we are still waiting for the GOP to come to the table with their cuts, while ours have been public since Day 1.

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Posted on Wed., Mar. 03rd at 3:17 pm. In category: Blog.
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