State of South Dakota Archives: on Corporations

Tim Johnson: Don't subsidize bloated compensation of failing firms' CEOs

"Folks in South Dakota work hard and their earnings should not subsidize the bloated compensation of a CEO of a failing firm," he said. The $700 billion bailout "package may be a necessary evil, but we cannot allow it to be a gift to those on Wall Street at the expense of those on Main Street."

Dykstra said the establishment in Washington, D.C., both Democrat and Republican, must accept th responsibility for the nation's current crisis. And as the nation moves forward in trying to fix the problems in the mortgage business and on Wall Street, it's important to figure out where the system failed in order to prevent a repeat, he said.

Jon Hansen: No more corporate welfare; let's get back to free market

Hansen cited the Tru Shrimp deal as an example of "corporate welfare." State and local officials committed $6.5 million in taxpayer money for a low-interest loan 6 years ago for Tru Shrimp to build a facility in Madison. The company has not built the facility, even though it was expected to break ground in 2024. The company, which has since changed its name to Iterro, announced it's "more than halfway" to its fundraising goal to begin the Madison project earlier this year.

"I think it's just unnecessary government mingling. It's risky business, & they're wasting our taxpayer dollars to do it," Hansen said of the deal. "It's that sort of stuff that we want to say 'no more' to. Let's just get back to the free market, low tax & low regulation."