Sioux Falls Business Journal

I ventured to Pierre recently with about 70 Sioux Fallsians to take the pulse of the business community. Sioux Falls Day at the Legislature seemed like the ideal opportunity.

My goal: Find out what’s in the hearts and minds of small-business owners, company executives and rank-and-file folks as our state representatives and senators continue wrestling over thorny issues such as education funding, property taxes and liquor licenses.

And it seems that many local people, indeed, are watching closely how those issues will fare when the 2008 Legislature wraps up March 17.

Here’s a sampling:
• Denny Pierson is a former state representative and senator. He’s also an American Family Insurance agent. Pierson wasn’t focused on any particular bill this year. As a former legislator, he just likes to follow the legislative process.
Pierson is keeping his eye on a term-limit ballot issue that’s likely to go before voters in November.
“I’m still for it (term limits), and so are 65 percent of the people of South Dakota,” Pierson says.

• Evan Nolte, president and chief executive officer of the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, says the two biggest issues he’s still watching involve education funding. The chamber sponsored the bus trip.
“As an organization, we’re very supporting of SB 187.” That’s a Senate bill to increase teacher salaries.
Nolte knows there’s going to be some give and take with Gov. Mike Rounds in order to raise teacher salaries. “It gets to be the art of the possible,” he says.

However, the chamber seems pleased that there’s more support for education funding than in previous years.
The chamber also is watching funding bills for the state’s technical institutes, and it’s “tracking all the time property taxes,” Nolte says.

• Tom Simmons, senior vice president for public policy at Midcontinent Communications, also was fixated on education funding.
“This really was one of the lightest sessions concerning our industry in a long time,” he says.
Simmons says he’s following education primarily for personal reasons and secondarily for its impact on his company.
Then he added: “We always follow tax issues in this state.” With no state income tax, “we’re always watching to see who’s going to get hit with what.”

• Craig Lloyd, chief executive officer of Lloyd Cos., offered a two-word reply when asked what he’s watching most this session: “Liquor licenses.”
A House move to possibly make  more liquor licenses available to restaurants that ban smoking and video lottery is a moot point for Lloyd’s clientele.
“The people we’re trying to attract are family restaurants ... and they can’t come without a liquor license,” he says.
Lloyd is hopeful that a resolution will materialize, but he’s also cautious.
“I’m not counting any chickens,” he says.

• The funniest quip of the day goes to the state’s chief executive himself. As part of a luncheon, Rounds took questions from members of the Sioux Falls delegation. At one point, he called upon a Sanford Health executive who was sitting at a table across from mine.
“Mr. Johnston, is it?” Rounds asked.
“Yes,” Mark Johnston, the governor’s former press secretary, replied with a slight grin and a nod.