“District 19 House: Kyle Schoenfish” |
| District 19 House: Kyle Schoenfish Posted: 22 Oct 2010 03:06 PM PDT 1. Tell us about your background and why you should be elected to the Legislature. I have a degree in Accounting and Political Science from DWU in Mitchell. I currently work full time as an accountant and am involved with auditing government entities such as cities, school districts and educational cooperatives. A few specific areas I have worked on include utility billings for cities, verifying budget numbers on financial statements, checking assets and verifying food service numbers for schools. I'm still involved with the family farm and raise a small herd of dairy goats. I graduated from Scotland High School. I was a House page for Representative Gary Jerke while I was in high school. I was a 4-H, FFA, and FCCLA member. I served on the student senate in college as secretary and treasurer. 2. The budget has come down to the final day in each legislative session. What are your major budget concerns? Would you raise taxes and/or fees? What programs would you cut? I don't support raising taxes in a recession. We need to eliminate the $200,000 Federal lobbyist, eliminate bonuses to top state executives which were over $500,000, sell most if not all of 10 state airplanes, $225,000 was spent on a private summer home for the governor, reduce the 1,500 state employees who were added since 2002, save millions by eliminating no bid contracts, reduce state employees' salaries in excess of $80,000 by five percent as was recently proposed, eliminate out of state legislative travel. Follow other states' examples for Medicaid delivery which have reduced expenses. Eliminate tax breaks to big corporations which were approximately $50 million the past four years. Use a small portion of the state's $700 million in reserve funds if needed. 3. Education remains a hot topic in the Legislature. Do you favor changing the method, or at least the level, of education funding in South Dakota? Do you favor state-mandated consolidation? What should be other priorities for education?In the last session education received a zero percent increase while the rest of state spending continued to increase. The Federal government made $26 million available for education funding, and $20 million for Medicaid, but instead of being used to provide a boost to the economy by saving and creating jobs it went towards the next general budget, allowing state government to continue its spending spree. By cutting education funding the burden was passed on to taxpayers at the local level through property taxes and opt outs. I do not favor state mandated consolidation. That decision should be made at the local level. Education needs to have adequate funding and teachers should be paid competitive salaries. 4. The state continues to feel the effects of the recession. What steps, if any, should the Legislature take to boost the state economy? Using the Federal Education and Medicaid funds as intended would boost the economy. Give a pay raise to the almost 1,000 state employees living below the poverty level instead of giving bonuses to the highest-paid states executives. Eliminate the tax on food to give all South Dakotans more money to spend. Promote renewable energy, such as ethanol, bio fuels and especially wind. The wind energy system used by Howard, S.D., has greatly benefited the city and its residents pay lower utility rates. We should also establish a system of net metering to ensure consumers get the full value for their wind energy usage. We also need to do a better job of fixing our roads. They cost more to repair the longer we wait. 5. What steps can the state take to benefit agriculture and rural communities? We can help small farmers by allowing local control for zoning regulations and keeping property taxes low. State vehicles should run on ethanol and bio fuels, and we need a strong blender pump program. We need to support country of origin labeling, the South Dakota Certified Beef Program and sound conservation policies. Helping small farmers helps rural communities. Expand the use of the REDI Fund, which provides loans to firms for expanding and relocating businesses, and local economic development corporations, by partnering with banks and offering a portion of the loan instead of the whole amount, a concept that's worked for the Small Business Administration. Students willing to stay in South Dakota and do underserved jobs in rural areas should be given decreased tuition rates. 6. Do you have any closing comments? Spending has increased 53 percent since 2003. The state depended on federal funds from Washington to provide cover for its excess spending. We gave over $10 million to a foreign oil company while cutting education. Here are a few examples of recent tax increases or proposed increases from the current government officials in Pierre: the gas tax, the general sales tax, applying a sales tax or raising it on sports referees, rodeo clowns, amateur baseball umpires, newspaper delivery carriers, coin operated laundromats, emu farms, even VFW membership fees for our veterans. We need to reduce spending before continuing to raise taxes. We need new representation in Pierre, and that's why I ask for your vote November 2nd. It's time for change. We encourage your feedback and dialog, all comments will be reviewed by our Web staff before appearing on the Web site. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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