Posted 6:23 PM by Douglas
COMMENT: SOUTH DAKOTA NEEDS IT'S OWN ARMY?


Just heard on a SD TV station news that some SD legislator is proposing that SD have its own army or some such nonsense in the attempt to generate support for the idea that Bushsub2 is a war president. But, with a peculiar SD slant of course. At one time, SD had so many Minute Men missiles that had the state ceceded from the US, it would have been something like the third most powerful nuclear power in the world. A dubious distinction of course, but I suppose some SD legislator is suffering from missile envy now and thinks having a SD army implies that such lunatic legislators are also more significant...or even relevant in the real world. Perhaps they will combine it with legislation to make blue sky with puffy cumulus clouds THE OFFICIAL SOUTH DAKOTA SKY. That would be almost as much a vote getter as was legislation to have a state topsoil or pastry delight. No limit on dumb with SD Republicans in control of the Governor's office and the legislature. ---------- Doug WIken.........Stay tuned for more on the upcoming legislative session. Janklow is gone from the legislative manipulation front, but the remains of his wonderful plans gone terribly awry are here with budget deficits and "money-making" ideas generating next to nothing..

Posted 12:44 PM by Douglas
NOTICE: The SD Legislative Session for this year has been over for several
weeks. Major legislative session will not be open again until next year. In the
meantime, I will probably not post regularly in this discussion. I will be posting
regularly in three other blog sites however:

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Citizen Cites with comments, links.on politics, science, computers

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SDPP-ORG with position papers and public propaganda related mostly
to South Dakota issues. Probably a bit more thoughtful than the others listed here..

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"Sympathy" for Dung Beetles information and comments on the GOP apologists, blathermouths,
Sabbath gasbags, pompous twits, hypocritical liars et al who move the same old same old
GOP propaganda and distortions around in the manner of dung beetles rolling, rolling......

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Please take a look at the above. Should be enough there to keep you reading for awhile.
Thanks for your patience.----------- Douglas Wiken.... March 29, 2002

LAT1=http:/citizencites.blogspot.com/
LAT2=http://sdpp-org.blogspot.com/
LAT3=http://beetlesympathy.blogspot.com/

Posted 3:34 PM by Douglas
COMMENT--- A ROOSTER CROWED and SD GOP LEGISLATORS WOKE UP??????

I noticed in the Sioux Falls ARGUS that some SD Republican legislators are getting concerned about a shift in power from the Legislative branch to the Executive Branch. To borrow a bit from dude-speak...well DUH. The Executive branch has been Wild BILL Janklow for too many years. Whenever Wild Bill would grasp for more power, the Democratic Party might object, but the GOP majority would roll over and play partisan Republicans at the expense of being conscientious legislators.

The problem has been obvious for years and has been a disgrace for years. To now blame it on term limitations (which are a stupid idea incidentally) is a bit disingenuous. Hypocrisy and general lack of responsibility to the sense of a state or federal constitution when push comes to shove or slander or abuse of power seems to be a recent trend in the GOP. Whatever works for today in the wingnut world is good enough. To hell with the consequences and the future of respect for government or legislators and legislatures in particular.

Republican legislators have needed a backbone for many years. The have been sniveling cowards in the face of Wild Bill's incursions into the separation and balance of power.--------- Douglas Wiken

Posted 3:22 PM by Douglas
COMMENT---- OOOPS...Time for me to eat about half a crow.

In a previous comment indicating Gov Wild Bill could not resist making a mediocre story less mediocre, I indicated that
Dell Computers did charge sales tax on computer sales to SD. Well, not quite correct. Maybe even less than half correct.
Their FAQ section indicates they do charge sales tax in several states, but SD is not one of them....except for that part
of a "computer sale" that includes an "at site service contract". Dell does charge sales tax on that part of the sale. But,
instead of paying around $100 sales tax on a computer sale, a buyer from SD might only pay 4% or 6% Sales Tax on
a $50 or $100 service contract. ..something between $2 and $6 perhaps. Dell does state that buyers from most states
would be subject to use taxes, but that they would not collect those..it was an obligation of the buyer.

So, on that one Wild Bill mostly escapes. But, this also indicates the complexity of any idea of applying state sales
tax via a consortiom of some variety. Huge invasive databases or sellers and buyers and sales would be required. Databases
which would require weekly or monthly updates to correct addresses and change city sales tax rates, etc.

A federal tax on remote sales of all kinds would eliminate the complexity. Refund it to states on the basis of population
and the point of sale and the buyer and seller's address are not required. They would not determine how much the
state or any other state got. Only the amount collected by the feds for the states and the established rate. It should
apply to stocks and bonds and many other things as well. It should also require that the legal fraud of "use" taxes be
eliminated as another means to collect sales taxes which would be unconsitutional violations of the "commerce clause".

States attempting to tax internet sales made across borders are not "loosing" tax because those sales can not generally
be charged, but they are attempting to extend a sales tax to a sale they have no right to tax. Border taxes were one
reason the Articles of Confederation were unsatisfactory. ----------- Doug Wiken

Posted 12:36 AM by Douglas
COMMENT--- SD Governor Janklow Just Can't Ever Seem To Tell Quite The Whole Truth

On Friday Feb 09, 2002, Gov. Janklow was blathering away in his usual non-stop rattle. He had been asked to comment on a state internet tax. At this stage that is an attempt to simplify and coordinatie the multiple sales taxes, use taxes, etc from small podunks to large metropolitian to completely rural areas in some 30 states involved in a consortium. Anyway. Wild Bill was trying to make the case that having SD companies being required to charge sales taxes to SD residents while out-of-state companies do not charge SD sales tax. He gave the convenient example of Gateway Computers here in SD and Dell in Texas.
Why, if somebody in SD bought a $1000 computer from Gateway, they would have to pay $40 to $60 of SD sales tax; but....horror of horrors, if Joe Tightwad in SD decided to buy from Dell via internet to Texas, he would not have to pay that egregious tax. Well, he did not say it was egregious, but it is...anyway. All you have to do to test this is log onto Gateway and Dell and then go through the ordering process and plug in a SD zip Code. Ka, Plink, Ka Thunk...you will find that Gateway Charges the SD sales tax and so does Dell but Dell not only does that, but has a database sophisticated enough to determine if you have a ZIP code with multiple tax rates and asks if you are in a city or in a rural area not subject to the city sales tax.

Wild Bill just can't resist making one of his mediocre stories a little less mediocre.

In any case, the complexity and privacy intrusions of any state internet sales taxes strongly suggests that if internet sales are going to be taxed, they should be taxed by the federal government for the states with the collected taxes on remote transactions returned to the states on the basis of population. That removes the
requirment for huge databases of Zip codes and exact addressses tied to local and state sales taxes. The federal tax collected for the states would be the same all across the country on any remote sale whether it was internet, mailorder or whatever. End the State legal fraud of collecting "use" taxes, etc. I suggest
using some kind of a weighted average of the state's sales taxes. That rate would apply no matter where the sale originated, who was the seller, or who was the buyer. Returning the taxes on the basis of population eliminates need for huge databases.

No more need for states to invent some kind of legal mousetrap to make an end run around the commerce clause, no court cases trying to prove the state's tax mulcting is not an onerous burden on interstate commerce, etc.

But, states and state revenue agencies are so interested in enlarging their revenue agencies and preserving their assumed right to be the only agency collecting sales taxes that they do not care how much complexity they generate for consumers and all businesses. While they talk about being "progressive" and desirous of nothing more than some fantasy of a level playing field for business, they are overlooking the best and simplest way to do it.

Internet libertarians automatically go into "no internet tax" mode and the standard antitax litany characteristic of libertarians who hate all govenrment except that which bails out their corporations. I assume some kind of tax on internet sales is inevitable. Rather than have states make a godawful mess of it, they should "hire" the federal government to do it consistently across the US. They should not limit it to books, computers, software, sexy lingerie, or Bibles or whatever.. it should cover all remote transactions including sales of stocks and bonds, insurance policies etc. via internet, mail, across state lines or even across a state if via mail or internet.

Real simplicity and fairness will not come from states cobbling together a tax consortium and rules but by utilizing the national authority of the federal goverment.

And, that is why state internet and all state remote taxes should be fought. But, the primary reason is even more fundamental-- It is not a tax that as claim they are "loosing", it is a tax they should never be collecting. But, the real world fiancing problems of state and local governments means they will try to hop, skip, and jump over that argument with enough smoke and mirrors to bafffle firemen and magicians -------- Douglas Wiken

Posted 8:56 PM by Douglas
Westlaw Provides Complete Nationwide Coverage of Administrative Codes Not having enough money to buy into westlaw is not and excuse---DW

Posted 9:43 AM by Douglas
CHECK OUR OTHER SITE FOR GENERAL POLITICS AND A LOT MORE

Click here to get to Citizen Cites and Comments

Anybody checking this looking for information related to Daschle in South Dakota and rightwing-smear attacks
on him should check the link above. I will also ad it here on static links to left. This note is here because I posted
the wrong link in a SD Forum. Sorry for the inconvenience.--- DW.
LAT= http://citizencites.blogspot.com/