Education to be big test of Rounds' second term Lawsuit brought by school districts, funding issues on rough road ahead By Bob Mercer American News ..
Education to be big test of Rounds' second term
Lawsuit brought by school districts, funding issues on rough road ahead
By Bob Mercer
American News Correspondent
The "working together" theme and the friendly smile that Gov. Mike Rounds rode to victory again with voters in Tuesday's election will immediately face a stern test.
The Republican governor's second term in office will be dominated by the issue of state funding for public schools - not only the raw total amount of dollars, but whether more money should be targeted to specific purposes and performance.
All of South Dakota's major education groups are aligned together in pushing for much more money than he and the Legislature's Republican majorities have been willing to support.
Rounds and many top Republican lawmakers want extra money linked to particular goals and initiatives, something the school groups wouldn't embrace in the 2006 session.
The school groups want at least $134 million more a year. The most that the state budget can likely afford is another $30 million to $40 million annually, and most of that money depended on the voters' approval of a tobacco tax increase that was on the ballot Tuesday.
Just like the voters' support for the tobacco tax, Rounds' victory over Democratic challenger Jack Billion and two small-party candidates (Libertarian Tom Gerber of Aberdeen and Steve Willis of the Constitution Party) was no surprise Tuesday. With 351 of 818 precincts reporting, Rounds had received 63 percent of the votes cast, while Billion got 35 percent. Four years ago, Rounds won with 56.8 percent to Democrat Jim Abbott's 41.9 percent.
Billion conceded shortly before 10 p.m. In a speech timed for the Sioux Falls newscasts, the governor then addressed a crowd of well-wishers at a victory party Tuesday night in his hometown of Pierre. Rounds, 52, appeared with his wife, Jean, along with their four children and their extended family.
"Well," he began, "it's time to say thank you." He described the conversation with Billion, saying they talked about their mutual goal of making South Dakota better. Rounds said they began the campaign as friends who had come to know each other during their time together in the Legislature a decade ago. "I said I thought we were friends yet today, and he agreed," Rounds said.
The governor highlighted accomplishments from the first four years of his administration and mentioned the Homestake underground laboratory project and the South Dakota Certified beef program as two initiatives that are yet to be finished.
He also referred to his 2010 economic development plan and the 2010-E plan for education, but he outlined no new initiatives for the next four years in his approximately 14 minutes of remarks.
Shake-up ahead: One of the first duties facing Rounds is reshaping his Cabinet. Three veteran members have either already given their notices they're leaving or planning to do so in the near future.
Revenue Secretary Gary Viken is departing in late December. Game, Fish and Parks Secretary John Cooper is retiring at year's end but will do some select duties on a contract basis. Agriculture Secretary Larry Gabriel is also ready to retire as soon as the governor names a successor.
Big battles: Rounds faces a test with South Dakota's business community over his plans to push in the 2007 legislative session for an increase in the state minimum wage. His effort failed at the hands of his fellow Republicans last winter.
The governor, who was majority leader for six of the 10 years he spent in the state Senate, has had a rocky relationship at times with Republican legislators, especially in the Senate. He headed into Tuesday's elections with super-majorities of 25-10 in the Senate and 51-19 in the House.
Rounds begins his fifth year as governor facing a lawsuit brought by about 60 school districts claiming the state's system for funding K-12 education in inadequate and unconstitutional.
The governor made clear in remarks at a teacher leadership conference recently that he will find it difficult to work through education funding issues with a lawsuit pending.
"I think it's a mistake," he told the group. He also denied having "a secret plan" to consolidate school districts with small enrollments. "It doesn't exist," he said.
An official state task force on school finance delivers its report to the governor and the Legislature on Nov. 15. Two days later, the Associated School Boards of South Dakota - part of the alliance pushing for more money - holds its delegates assembly to develop the organization's platform for the 2007 legislative session.
The political arm of the South Dakota Education Association, a labor organization for teachers and other school employees, endorsed Billion during the campaign.
Fund-raising gap: Billion, 67, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Sioux Falls and two-term member of the state House of Representatives during the 1990s, didn't come close to Rounds in raising funds or advertising.
Rounds began the year with more than $1.4 million in the bank and raised another $1.4 million through late October. He reported spending just more than $2 million on his re-election campaign this year, including nearly $1.4 million on advertising.
By comparison, Billion had to run a primary campaign against Dennis Wiese, then re-focused on Rounds after winning the Democratic nomination in June. Billion reported raising $508,740 since then and spent $556,108, including $199,765 on advertising.
Billion said he also still had $246,661 in unpaid obligations - including a personal loan to the campaign of $113,846 and a $45,000 line of credit at the State Bank of Alcester - and just $9,027 cash on hand.
Rounds reported $838,113 cash on hand and about $62,900 in outstanding obligations.
Billion spent a big share of his final day before the election campaigning on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with South Dakota's two Democratic members of Congress, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth and U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson.
Some tribal organizations used the campaign season to press Rounds, without success, for more slot machines at their reservation casinos, including at the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe's proposed expansion outside Watertown.