The Greatest Return on Investment – By: Representative Bethany Soye

The Greatest Return on Investment

As a legislator I feel compelled to respond to Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken’s recent comment asking the state legislature to “stay out of culture war issues and focus on the core needs of delivering services.” One wonders what Mayor TenHaken means by a “culture war.” I think it can be defined by stating what he clearly thinks does not fall under that category: spending. The Mayor believes that government exists in order to tax its residents for the purpose of providing goods and services. This is a sad departure from what the founders of our country and state believed the purpose of government was: to protect the rights of the people. Our founders would never have dreamed of government bodies building houses, providing healthcare, or paying for childcare. They would have anticipated government officials standing up for the rights of parents and protecting the vulnerable.

One of the areas specifically given to the state legislature under the South Dakota Constitution is public education. The whole reason for the creation of our public school system is set out in our South Dakota Constitution in Article 8 Section 1: “The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people…”  This leads me to the specific policy called out by the Mayor in his complaint against “culture wars.” The bill in question is HB1197 from the 2024 session. This bill required public schools and libraries to create and publish a policy that explains how the institution attempts to keep children from accessing obscene materials. This bill passed UNANIMOUSLY through both the House and Senate. That means that every Representative and Senator from the Sioux Falls area, including the Democrats, supported the bill. How is that an evil culture war?? It seems the only one fighting this “war” is the Sioux Falls Public Library. There was absolutely no need to cancel the Student Success Card program in order to implement a materials review policy. For an example we can look at the Brookings Public Library which adopted a policy that states who is in charge of reviewing library materials and what criteria are used to ensure age-appropriateness. Easy as that. HB1197 was a simple transparency measure unanimously supported by the legislature. In response, the Sioux Falls Library has chosen to harm underprivileged children in order to make a political statement that no one can tell them what to do. If I were you Mr. Mayor, I would take a hard look at who is running your library system and what his or her agenda is. It does not appear to be to serve the public and educate our children.

If the Mayor doesn’t think library policy transparency is a worthwhile issue, then what is?   Would he also scoff at protections to keep children from being preyed upon and groomed by the predatory pornography industry? I assume those protections would not provide the ROI that the Mayor is looking for: more revenue to build new public pools. I ask the Mayor and you the public: what is the point of having a city full of gleaming new public facilities if our children’s innocence is stolen and our families are falling apart? If we are truly concerned with addressing the rising crime rate we will care about strengthening the family. For those living in Sioux Falls, the next time you pay your outrageous property tax bill remember that a significant portion of that amount goes to fund the Sioux Falls City Government. It goes to fund an administration that doesn’t care what your kids are exposed to but merely sees people as economic development numbers.

Strong families and healthy, confident children provide a city with the greatest ROI possible. It’s time for the people to remind the Mayor that social issues are worth fighting for. What truly divides and angers people is telling them that their concerns don’t matter and that they should simply be happy with efficient traffic flow.   We face a choice: the City of Sioux Falls can continue down its current path and become like Minneapolis or Denver with great infrastructure and a society in chaos and moral collapse. Or we can take a different direction towards building up and strengthening our greatest asset: the morality and intelligence of our people. I sincerely hope we will choose the latter.

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You can reach Rep Soye at [email protected]

Ref: Culture war comes to City Hall after challenge from Mayor | KELO-AM