Writing anything critical of the largest company in SD, employing the most people of any company in the state -over 50,000 in the Midwest- is going to be tricky at best. No one in their right mind would publicly call out such a powerful entity, such an important jobs provider and money donator.
In their right mind, that is.
I, however, have embarked on a mission, with some friends, to examine parts of our society that we have always taken for granted as being purely “good things”, what otherwise may be considered the Status Quo. What we are attempting to do with the DOGESD.org project is to ask questions in the interests of attaining a much greater standard TRANSPARENCY in all aspects of South Dakota that involves institutions, companies and individuals that use taxpayer money to conduct their business. No one and no group shall be off limits. No one is above scrutiny. That’s our promise.
Our working motto is “Transparency in South Dakota Government”, and what we hope to accomplish is a deeper understanding of how companies, NGO’s & organizations use their fellow citizens’ tax dollars – or a better way to put it is “The People’s confiscated income” – to pursue & achieve their stated purposes.
So in the interest of expediency, we shall be focusing our initial investigations in areas that involve the largest amounts of money. This will mean that yes, we will be looking at the Sanford System in all of its hydra forms. We will also be looking into our state colleges, city and county governments, E.D. projects of every stripe, GOED (obviously) and basically every nook and cranny where money is allocated by a government functionary to any NGO or private corporation.
What I very much hope for is that none of my fellow citizens take our efforts as an attack on their livelihood or career. Our goal is Transparency, & ensuring responsible allocation of The People’s confiscated capital.
What is troubling is the mindset that most Americans have been lulled into adopting our entire lives that when our governments – be it at city, county, state or federal level – propose to spend money, we think of it as their money that they are spending. As if they have a legitimate right to it. As if it was their money all along, until we dutifully turned it back into them. It’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly on our American timeline that we allowed this to happen, but we do know that it wasn’t always this way.
We also know WHY it is this way. Simply put, politicians can only manifest their power by spending money. This is obvious to anyone who closely watches the attitudes, behaviors & votes of all legislators at any level of government. The most difficult thing for them to do is cut spending, & correspondingly the easiest way for opposing parties to come together is to adopt a new spending proposal.
In the US congress, the most unpopular legislator by far is one Thomas Massie; who along with Rand Paul possesses an extraordinary talent for being fundamentally against frivolous government spending bills.
(Massie gets it)
It’s not very popular to say this, but most government spending is not only unnecessary, but it’s immoral. Why? Because it’s immoral to steal from Person A to then give it to Person B.
(Thomas Sowell gets it)
But what about “community services”?
Ah yes, mayors & city council members love these types of programs because they make for fantastic photo opportunities & ego boosters. Now, I don’t like to assume people’s motives, but I do think it is reasonable to note without prejudice that virtue obtained by “donating” other people’s money is as fleeting as an Instagram like.
HISTORY OF SANFORD
Sanford hospital used to be named Sioux Valley Hospital, until a man named T. Denny Sanford, a “banker” who became a billionaire due to locating his credit card company in one of the few states – our beloved SD- that allows rapacious predatory banks to charge up to 75% interest on consumers who lack any degree of impulse control or money management ability. Mr. Sanford magically transformed himself into a “philanthropist” overnight by deciding to “donate” $400 million (strings firmly attached) to the local hospital system, with the grandiose promise of becoming the “Mayo clinic for children”.
Soon after, Sioux Valley changed their name to Sanford which precipitated a massive explosion of expansion that doesn’t appear to be slowing.
And of course, the bronze staute statue business is BOOMING!
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”.
– Exodus 20:4
( yeah this isn’t creepy at all )
See, T. Denny likes to spend millions of dollars on bronze statues of himself, because he loves making people more healthy. Get it?
Why do we care what Sanford hospitals are up to, financially?
- This hospital system receives tens of million$$ in federal grants – other people’s confiscated money – to operate its business.
- Sanford pays ZERO $ in property taxes .The reason for this is their federal tax status as “tax exempt”. For some reason, hospitals have convinced the IRS that they should be classified on the same level as charities. Maybe that made sense at some point in history, but it certainly doesn’t apply now. If they were actually charities, then everyone below the poverty line would get free treatment. That’s what charities do. But that’s not what hospitals do. If all medical companies were required to contribute their fair share of property taxes in the communities where they operate, every single homeowner in SD would enjoy a sizable reduction in their tax burden.
- Sanford (and Avera) spend enormous amounts of money on advertising. Nonprofits should not need to spend money on advertising. Period. One negative consequence of two huge companies buying up significant portions of the finite marketing options in a relatively small market like Sioux Falls is that it raises the cost of advertising beyond affordability for the entire small business class in the community. This has become the reality in South Dakota today. Most small companies simply can’t afford to buy a 30 second spot in the local tv news, even though there are less viewers than ever before.
While it is very difficult to determine an exact current value of Sanford and Avera’s many properties in South Dakota, it is not a stretch to put that number in the 10’s of billions of dollars. Is it fair that nearly every other business entity in SD is paying property taxes, but health businesses don’t?
Is it fair that nearly all other businesses are forced to be unpaid tax collectors for the state, in the form of Sales tax, while health businesses are exempt? Could this be why entities such as the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, which boasts the CEO of Sanford as a board member, regularly promotes the idea of increasing sales taxes on an already overtaxed population? Could it be that the government subsidized health businesses have little sympathy for the average American worker who is being crushed by inflation and record high property taxes?
Is it fair that health businesses routinely hide their pricing structure from their customers, and shamelessly charge higher prices to insurance companies than what they charge cash-paying customers? Shouldn’t they advertise their pricing for consumers to see, so that we can compare and make informed decisions?
Does it make sense to have our own federally-confiscated tax dollars, taken from our hard-earned paychecks, going to health businesses run by mega billionaires like Denny Sanford for the purposes of erecting obscenely expensive bronze statues in the image of the “philanthropist” and millions in advertising dollars?
If you think that asking these kinds of questions is out of line, please leave a comment.
In conclusion, too many people have been trained to think in strictly binary terms, as if by asking these thought-provoking questions I am somehow trying to demonize the thousands of good people who work there, or that I am making the case that health businesses are not necessary. Both of these assumptions would be ludicrous. Two things can be true at the same time:
- Health businesses of all stripes are a necessary part of our community.
- Health businesses should not be considered sacrosanct, and above our (the taxpayers) scrutiny.
Our goals with the DOGESD.org project will be to examine any and all government (taxpayer) subsidized entities in South Dakota; ensuring that the average taxpayer is being served by these organizations in a responsible way; exposing any waste, fraud and abuse; and pursue full transparency throughout all systems that purport to serve the public. Our health businesses are just one area we will be focusing on. We will also be looking at NGO’s, charities, state universities and of course, all government agencies.
We do understand that there will be some resistance on the part of some of these organizations to share their financials with us, but we hope to be able to work in a spirit of community cooperation that serves the general public best, particularly for those of us who are footing the tax bills.
We are not a government organization with the power to make anything more “efficient”, downsize or otherwise make any substantial changes to any of the organizations that we will be looking into, but we are hopeful that there will be an effort soon by people who currently hold influence in our SD government to enact significant changes to the “Staus Quo”. We are not motivated by a desire to have anyone lose their job, necessarily. We want the same thing that everyone should want: Transparency & Accountability.
Remember, there is no magical money machine. All federal dollars were confiscated from you and/or your fellow citizen.
If you have any data you’d like to share, please send an email to: [email protected]
