March 20, 2018 • Page 4 shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com State Treasurer To Attend Providing Obamacare Relief Sioux Empire Home Show For South Dakotans State Treasurer Rich Sattgast encourages attendees at this year’s Sioux Empire Home Show in Sioux Falls February 23-25, 2018 to visit his staff for possible lost money that may be owed to them. The State Treasurer will have a booth where the public can search the Unclaimed Property database. The database contains records of millions of dollars held by the State Treasurer and waiting to be reclaimed by their rightful owners. Unclaimed property refers to accounts in financial institutions and companies that have had no activity or contact with the owner for a year or longer and can include savings or checking accounts, uncashed payroll checks, refunds, security deposits, stocks and life insurance policies. The state holds the money in a custodial capacity until the money can be returned to the rightful owners. Currently, the Unclaimed Property Division is holding over $432 million in unclaimed funds. The State Treasurer has returned over $16 million to the rightful owners since the beginning of the current fiscal year in July. "The goal is to put money back into the hands of South Dakotans,” Treasurer Rich Sattgast said. “That money ultimately makes its way into our economy which is good for our state.” Specialists in the Unclaimed Property Division of the Treasurer’s Office will be available during the Sioux Empire Home Show. Residents who are unable to attend the event can search the database online at http://www.sdtreasurer.gov/ By Sen. Mike Rounds Already, nine states have applied for work Obamacare premiums rose 20 percent requirement waivers to implement these for South Dakotans this year, and I continue new flexibilities and two waivers have been to hear stories of fewer health care options approved, including South Dakota’s. and out-of-control health care costs as a President Lyndon B. Johnson created result of the ill-advised Affordable Care Act. Medicaid in 1965 as part of his War on While repealing Obamacare and replacing Poverty. The intent of the program was it with a consumer-driven, truly affordable to provide health services for low-income system remains a top priority for me, we children, seniors in need, individuals with continue to take meaningful steps to prodisabilities and pregnant mothers. It was vide Americans relief from this law. designed to be a pathway out of poverty. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act helped relieve As Americans, we take care of the most Americans from Obamacare, by including vulnerable in our society—the very young, provisions to delay the Medical Device Tax the very old and those who cannot take and the Cadillac Tax for two years and by care of themselves. The Affordable Care delaying the excise tax on health insurance Act opened up Medicaid to include healthy, plans for one year. Importantly, this legislaable-bodied, working-age men and women, tion also repealed Obamacare’s individual which has added to the high cost of the mandate, so that nobody will be forced program. In 2015, an estimated 70 million to pay a tax penalty if they don’t want to people were enrolled in Medicaid. That is 21 purchase health care coverage that they percent of our entire population! don’t want or need. The individual mandate Medicaid and other mandatory spending was an unpopular tax in an unpopular law programs like Medicare and Social Security that disproportionately hurt low-income are on an unsustainable path. In the longfamilies. We’re glad to see it go away. We term, Congress needs to reform the federal were also able to successfully repeal Obabudget process so that it can exercise macare’s Independent Payment Advisory greater control over the sustainability of hear firsthand about the tremendous Board, which is a special panel of unelected mandatory spending. In the short-term, givvalue of career and technical education in bureaucrats tasked with finding savings in ing states the flexibility to manage Medicaid our state.” Medicare by rationing health services for in new, innovative ways will help make Five CTSOs are active in South Daseniors. Medicaid more manageable. kota: DECA, an association of marketing The Trump administration has also These are important steps toward our students; Future Business Leaders of taken steps to give states more flexibility in goal of eliminating the unpopular aspects of America; Family, Career and Community administering federal mandatory spendObamacare, but the fact remains that premiLeaders of America; FFA; and SkillsUSA, ing programs. Most recently, the Centers ums are still too high, insurance companies an association of trade, technology and for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are leaving the marketplace and millions health occupation students. announced it will give states more flexibility of Americans have been forced off plans By participating in CTSOs, students can regarding work requirements for certain they liked. I will continue to work with my apply knowledge and skills learned in the Medicaid beneficiaries. This will allow colleagues to relieve hardworking families classroom through competitive events; governors and state government leaders from Obamacare’s perils as we seek to make develop leadership and employability to shape state Medicaid policies that work health care truly affordable and accessible skills; and serve their communities. best for their state rather than following for all Americans. Career and technical education seeks rules issued by Washington bureaucrats. to equip students with core academic skills and the ability to apply those skills for careers and life. CTE emphasizes employability skills like critical thinking, responsibility and technical skills related By Gov. Dennis Daugaard We’ve recently seen some hopeful results to specific career pathways. As a state, we grapple with many issues. from our treatment programs. In the last Some are very complex, with no easy fix or year, more than 2,000 offenders have resingle solution. These may require susceived treatment for substance abuse under tained effort over long periods, through difthe Public Safety Improvement Act. In 2017 ferent administrations and legislatures and over 69 percent of individuals entering generations of South Dakotans. Drug abuse treatment for substance abuse completed is one such issue. successfully, 25 percent higher than the naWe continue to wrestle with methamtional average. Ninety-eight percent of those phetamine use in our state. On the preventhat completed treatment in 2017 reported tion front, the Department of Social Services an ability to control alcohol, 94 percent has funded more than 245 presentations, reported the ability to control drug use, and to thousands in communities and schools, over 85 percent reported employment at urging against methamphetamine use. The discharge. are still finding a way to get back to the We’re seeing a promising trend in smokfamily farm. I recently heard a story about Attorney General’s office has also undering as well. The smoking rate among young a young man named Greg who found a way taken a preventive education campaign. adults in South Dakota went from 34 percent to come back home to Hutchinson County This month Prevention Resource Centers will complete a meth prevention toolkit for in 2011 to 13 percent in 2017. High school and work with his dad on the farm. Greg communities. smoking rates went from 23 percent to 10 knew he would need to supplement his For the most part, we are seeing less percent in that same period, putting us beincome, so he built a hog finishing facility. meth manufactured in home-grown laboralow the national average for the first time. The facility provides a guaranteed revWe can celebrate that we are turning the enue stream and the manure has benefited tories. It is more often manufactured on a larger scale and trafficked into the Midwest. tide on smoking and seeing success among the soil health and fertility of their land those who seek drug treatment. These facts – which means increased yields and profit The drug interdiction task force, made up of Division of Criminal Investigation agents make me hopeful that South Dakota can for the farm. Greg says he doesn’t always and Highway Patrol officers, has been hard meet the addiction challenges ahead. accept things as they are . He challenges at work over the last year to stop meth from We cannot mandate away addiction; the norm, but also knows his costs and coming into our state and we need to conno legislative fix will completely solve the where the biggest risks are. tinue to do more to choke off these distribu- meth problem. Some answers simply extend We can be encouraged by Greg’s story beyond government’s capabilities. But we and the stories of others like him. They’re tion channels. For those who are severely addicted, the must do all we can, and we need all hands a testament of the adaptiveness and Department of Social Services is working to on deck. Private organizations, law enforcedetermination of South Dakota’s farmers expand and increase access to treatment, ment, communities and individuals all have and ranchers, and a sign of the industry’s ensuring treatment is evidence-based and a role to play. Progress may be incremental promising future. but it will come so long as South Dakotans Agriculture is our largest industry and that providers are equipped and trained to provide intensive treatment models. are persistent. it’s been that way since statehood. It’s an industry peopled with generations of resilient individuals who gave their all working the land – combining until dark, checking for calves at two in the morning, Offer Expires getting up before dawn to milk the cows April 15th or feed the hogs, and moving livestock Receive A Bass ProShops/Cabelas Gift Card With Purchase of Selected Boats Only During This Event! in subzero temperatures. Through hard 2018 TAHOE 2018 SUNTRACKER 2018 TRACKER work and determination, agriculture grew 1950 PARTY BARGE 22 XP3 TARGA V-18 WT to what it is today. And that’s how we’ll make it through the next year and the years to come. Students Visit Pierre For CTSO Legislative Shadow Day PIERRE, S.D. – February is National Career and Technical Education Month. As part of the celebration, 30 student leaders came to Pierre Feb. 6-7, for the South Dakota Career and Technical Student Organizations’ Legislative Shadow Day. Activities began with an evening social Feb. 6 for students, legislators, cabinet members and state agency staff. Throughout the day on Feb. 7, students shadowed legislators at committee meetings and then observed House and Senate floor sessions. “CTSO Legislative Shadow Day is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved,” said Laura Scheibe, director of career and technical education for the South Dakota Department of Education. “Our state’s student leaders learn valuable civics lessons by observing the legislative process. And by interacting with these ambitious students, our state legislators The Complex Issue Of Addiction The Perseverance Of Our Largest Industry By Gov. Dennis Daugaard Last year was another tough year for agriculture. After seeing a lack of moisture in the spring, we declared a statewide emergency in June. The drought persisted throughout the summer, and even today, as I write this, over 90 percent of the ground in the state is abnormally dry with almost 60 percent of the state in moderate to severe drought. The drought conditions have exacerbated the impact farmers and ranchers were already feeling from low prices over the last few years, making 2017 a near low in terms of farm income. Our economists anticipate some marginal improvement this year if normal production levels return, but this will depend on the weather and federal trade policy. Even though we don’t know what this year will bring, there is still reason to be hopeful. During the good times our farmers and ranchers invested in themselves. Farmers adopted new technologies and upgraded their equipment, added grain storage, and other new facilities while our ranchers also invested in new equipment, fencing and corrals, along with better genetics. 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