Those baby blues

I have never been prone to road rage, but boy, am I irritated when I make plans to be on the road and I get waylaid. Every year, I look forward to a Valentine’s brunch at Minerva’s in Sioux Falls. Our group catches up on everyone’s lives, reminisces and enjoys superb food and risqué conversation. This year the plan went completely awry.
Thursday morning I started with my normal routine of grinding coffee beans and the anticipation of that first hit of caffeine. After just half a cup, I began to think maybe I should head to the bathroom because I felt there could be some impending intestinal distress. After a few steps my body’s distress signals went off! How fast was my dash to the bathroom? Let’s put it this way, I would have qualified to do the running of the bulls in Spain. When I reached that bathroom, I was a runaway locomotive crashing into the roundhouse.
Unfortunately for me, I had eaten Chinese food the night before and it proceeded to explode from every orifice of my body—except my ears, of course. Did I mention the terrible sounds that accompany this type of misery—“calling the dinosaurs?” Upstairs Gay was completely oblivious that her sister was having a near death experience and thought I had gone to work. There I lay for hours clinging to that porcelain god like a survivor of the Titanic with a life preserver. (No dignity remains.)
Friday, I delivered the news that I wouldn’t make the Saturday lunch date. Georgia was relieved ‘cuz she came down with a terrible cold during the night. At least I had a buddy to commiserate with.
Saturday morning, I was settled in the recliner when Georgia called and asked if I would do a big favor for her. I was entirely clueless. She said, “I know you don’t feel good, but will you ride to Brookings with me to pick up Judd?”(her grandson). I agreed and we met up with daddy Paul at Perkins. Judd was totally into his chocolate milk and chicken strips.
We departed and were about to Volga and I was hanging over the seat doing “this is the church, this is the steeple” with my fingers, when Judd opened his big blue eyes and opened his mouth and a torrent of vomit shot out at me. Every mother’s nightmare while on the road had just become mine to deal with. Three times the geyser erupted and Judd never uttered a cry. He just sat there with a startled look on his face. Georgia was screaming, “Do you want me to pull over?” I yelled, “Drive, Grandma, drive!” The only thing I had to try to mop up with was a box of Kleenex. Poor Judd sat in a pool of yuck. I was doing everything in my power not to upchuck on him too. The smell!! The smell!! Georgia cracked a window and we sped down the road safe in the knowledge that if a trooper stopped us, all we would have to do was show him Judd’s situation. Judd slept blissfully through the whole wretched ride home.
Sunday morning, Craig Godfrey notified us that Ken got the flu on Saturday too! I guess some dates are meant to be cancelled.
Happy Valentine’s
Dee Baby
P.S. Thanks “Lovy” Kahle and Milt and Betty Lou Authier for my cards! I love snail mail.

Week four was just completed, and I attended the first cracker barrel in Flandreau to gather your feedback. It was good to see so many of you interested and engaged in the process, as I like to call it. We had discussions on a wide variety of topics, but, certainly, at the center was education. There were some good questions, but, as most of you know or have come to realize, more questions have developed over the course of the last four days.
The Governor “dropped” his four bills, not three as is reported in the news. If you look on the website, Senate bills 131, 132, 133 and House bill 1182 all contain significant rewrites of our education code. In addition to the proposed funding mechanism in the House bill, the other three Senate bills seek to move to a funding formula that is based on the teacher to student ratio, as well as impose new caps on school general reserve funds. It also removes the financial incentives built in to consolidation, as I suppose, the student/teacher ratio formula will address that, as well as clean up some language on special education, leaving that funding pretty much the same as before. Finally, it includes a number of proposals to recruit and retain more teachers. A lot to digest! You will be hearing more about the specifics in the future.
The House will take up SB 2, a bill I sponsored from our County Task Force, after it passed in Senate 28-5 and 13-0 in the Local Government this week. One of our own county commissioners came out and did an outstanding job presenting the county’s position as to why counties should share in the alcoholic beverage fund. We are trying to get some funds to help the counties out with the increasing costs of law enforcement and court costs.
SB 28 would require meningococcal vaccinations to 11-12 year olds. I voted against this proposal after hearing all the testimony, but it passed in committee 7-6. I have heard from some of you, but we will take a vote on the House floor sometime soon, so let me know any further thoughts you may have. The evidence in support of the required vaccine is just developing, and the incidence is very small, but the devastation the disease can cause is quite extensive, including death. Please read up on it and let me know how you feel about this. I generally support our vaccine program, but this vaccine is fairly new and does not contain one of the five serogroups, B, so I still question the efficacy of what would be a mandate. It is available for those of you that choose to include it in your child’s healthcare.
As we approach the halfway point, we will be dealing with a variety of issues this coming week. It is impossible to cover them all, but it is important to mention a few to the citizens of District 8. Repealing the death penalty, selling alcohol on college campuses, imposing a corporate income tax, overturning the result of last year’s Initiated Measure 17, are just a few of the topics that various committees, and the two chambers as a whole, will take up this week. I encourage you to look into those issues that peak your interest, and to contact me rep.heinemann@state.sd.us, or you can call and leave a message at 605-997-2654.

Week four saw the end of bill introduction with 418 bills introduced, a smaller number than in recent years. The bills introduced included the long awaited education bills.
There are four Governor’s bills related to expanding funding for education: SB 131, 132 and 133 and HB 1182. Following is an overview of each of these bills.
SB 131 deals with establishing a new formula based on student/teacher ratios, and it repeals the current formula based on the number of students enrolled. The bill also changes the way the pension fund is accounted for and how “other funds” will be treated in the future. The bill also outlines the level of cash balances that the schools may carry, the changes in capital outlay taxes, and finally, it requires that at least 90 percent of the state aid to education must go to teachers’ salaries.
SB 132 repeals incentives for school consolidation and adds English Language Learner funding to the Department of Education’s budget.
SB 133 establishes policies on shared services between schools, re-establishes an educator’s mentoring,  provides certification reciprocity for teachers coming to South Dakota from other states, and adds dollars to enhance E-Learning programs.
Finally, HB 1182 revises the level of state sales tax from four percent to four and a half percent.
The Governor’s plan would provide approximately $62 million in new money and shift another $19 million from outside the school general fund to the school general fund relating to schools pension funding. The Governor’s plan calls for $40 million of the one-half cent increase to be used for property tax reductions.
The Democrats introduced their education funding bill. SB 151 calls for a one cent sales tax increase and would forgive sales tax on all food sales. The plan will increase the state’s average teacher salary to $50,000.   The Democrat plan would provide approximately $100 million in new revenue for education.
These bills will begin to make their way through the committee process this week, and by next week we should have a better understanding of where there is support for increasing teachers’ salaries.
I am troubled by the introduction of a number of bills this week that, in my opinion, would discriminate against certain groups of people whose life style may differ from mine. These bills seem to be directed at singling out individuals and allowing society to exclude them. This seems very unfair and discriminatory to me. I will share more on these issues as they move through the system.
As always, please contact me with any issues or questions you may have. You can reach me at svpar@hotmail.com.