A little trouble with the Register of Deeds office [Archive] - Marine Corps

wrbones

08-06-02, 01:26 PM

It started out rather simply. I wanted a copy of a record, and didn't have the ten bucks. So I tried to get a copy of it by invoking a South Dakota law about Veterans bebifits. Free copies of records for Combat Vets and service connected disabled Vets. The folks at the register of deeds office told me that such copies were only for governemnet agencies to get. Well I had by accident one day prior been cruising through the South Dakota Homepage and had read the law there SDCL 34-25-54. That wasn't the way it read to me. I thought by getting a copy of that record it might expedite a claim I'm filing tomorrow with the SSA. When the lady made that earlier statement to me, I became a little irritated and then began an email campaign. Daschle, Johnson , Thune and the Governor all got emails. Thune's office called me and a kid made an effort to help me, but I could tell he had no experience with much of anything, though he did agree with me. At one point in this process I recieved an email from the Governor himself! Bill Janklow! Said he'd assigned the issue to a staff member. After a bit, it had become not an issue for me, but for helping other Vets bypass some uneccessary red tape not mandated by law. Well, the short version is that today I recieved a phone call from the State Vital Regisrar's office and that they would be sending me a copy of the record prioity mail and that education efforts are being initiated to inform county offices all over the state of state laws concerning their offices and the dissemination of information! I recieved an email from Bill Janklow himself today apologising for the delay and promising to "give them notice." Note: I have been signing my emails : Sgt USMC 1976-1983. The Governor's last email was signed" Semper Fi. Bill Janklow. " Being rather surprised at this, I looked up his Bio. Was gonna email him about the proper use of the motto if he wasn't a Marine! His bio is on the following post

wrbones

08-06-02, 01:27 PM

Biography

William J. Janklow was born in Chicago. His father was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg war criminal trials, but when his father died, the Janklow family returned to mother LouElla's hometown, Flandreau, South Dakota. At 16, Bill Janklow became a high school dropout and joined the Marines. After serving in Asia during the Quemoy-Matsu crisis, he returned home to South Dakota in 1960, married Mary Dean Thom, and enrolled for the fall semester at the University of South Dakota. When college officials discovered he didn't have a high school diploma, they wanted him to leave, but he talked them into letting the first semester be a test. His grades were good and they let him stay.

After earning his law degree in 1966, Janklow started working in the legal aid program on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Soon he was the director of all legal aid for South Dakota, winning court cases and national awards. He has argued and won more cases in the United States Supreme Court than any lawyer in South Dakota's history. He also lectured at Harvard, UCLA and other universities on Indian law and criminal law.

Republicans drafted Janklow as their 1974 Attorney General candidate and he won with 66.7 percent, the highest percentage for any South Dakota Attorney General's race.

During his one term as Attorney General (1974-1978), Governor Janklow:

Kept his campaign promise "to be a trial lawyer, not a politician,"
Stopped the atmosphere of violence that began with the 1973 Custer riots,
Won landmark decisions before the U.S. Supreme Court on Indian law and criminal law,
Cracked down on welfare fraud, drug abuse and white collar crime,
Upgraded the state crime lab,
Improved the state's criminal investigation agency, and
Had the best criminal conviction record of any previous SD Attorney General

His achievements as Attorney General caused many Republicans to urge him to run for Governor in 1978. He won with over 56 percent of the vote. In 1982, he was re-elected with 71 percent of the vote, the highest margin of victory in the history of South Dakota gubernatorial campaigns.

During his first two terms as Governor (1979-1987), Bill Janklow:

Kept his campaign promise of "Putting Taxpayers First,"
Reduced the state government bureaucracy by almost ten percent,
Managed state agencies so efficiently that over $50 million was returned to the state treasury,
Caused enough savings that he was able to fully fund a $40 million personal property tax repeal for the taxpayers with only $12 million in state sales tax broadening,
Saved SD's railroad system so farmers could have better access to Asian/European markets,
More than doubled state aid to education to help hold down local property tax increases,
Prevented the budget crisis that occurred in over 30 other states in 1981 by seeing it coming and reducing state spending the previous August, 1980,
Won dramatic changes in state banking laws that caused a national revolution in financial services and created thousands of new jobs,
Accelerated development of Missouri River recreational and tourism opportunities,
Created more new plant expansions, more new industries and more new capital investment in South Dakota in his eight years than had been done in the previous twelve years at a time when federal policies were causing record-breaking years of high interest rates and inflation,
Started water development moving forward with the state's first water development plan and regular funding,
Dramatically increased the availability of capital for home loans so that the dream of home
ownership was realized by thousands of South Dakotans,
Implemented many joint agreements with Indian tribes so that they could have the opportunity
to manage their own affairs,
Creatively used prison labor for state fairgrounds rebuilding and many other projects,
Implemented a rural renaissance program and computerized farm management courses,
Saved the Unemployment Insurance Tax fund from insolvency so that South Dakota became one of only 12 states who didn't need federal funding,
Transformed a small state college campus into a prison, thereby saving taxpayers $20 to $40 million in new prison costs,
Reduced Medicaid fraud and abuse,
Substantially reduced alcohol-related accidents and deaths through tougher law enforcement,
Accelerated the transfer of children from foster care to adoption,
Transformed a mismanaged state-owned cement plant from having lost over $70,000,000 in potential business and overspent $10 million in plant renovations to an efficient operation that deposited over $91 million in profits into the state treasury that didn't have to be raised in taxes, and
Safeguarded the underground water supply of western South Dakota and received $5 million from the ETSI Corporation for water development.

After eight years in private life, Janklow was re-elected in 1994 to his third term as Governor. He has often said that being Governor for the great people of South Dakota is the best job, the most challenging job, and the most enjoyable job that anyone could ever have.

Governor Bill Janklow began 1995 by winning legislative approval for the largest tax decrease in South Dakota history and the largest tax decrease of all fifty states for 1995. Property taxes on agricultural land and owner-occupied homes were reduced by twenty percent. Instead of allowing property taxes to increase at the recent average rate of over $40 million per year, Janklow reduced property taxes by $83 million in his first year.

To stop large property tax increases at the local level, Janklow's tax reduction plan also limits local government and school spending to annual increases of only three percent or inflation, whichever is lower. Janklow also put the same tight budget controls on state government by keeping the state spending under the rate of inflation for the first time in eight years.

In 1996, Janklow's budget for state government is the first one since the Great Depression that actually spends less money than the previous year. It contains a reduction of over 790 people and since the budget's approval, Janklow has eliminated another 250 jobs. Janklow has reduced the part of state government he supervises by over ten percent.

Janklow made state government more efficient by managing it like a business. He has re-negotiated state contracts to make them less costly to the taxpayer, promoted joint ventures with city and county governments to prevent local tax increases and eliminated over 60 state government newsletters. He has also reduced the amount of overtime allowed, consolidated state inspection programs, and privatized home health care.

Janklow also put state prison inmates to work on several building and remodeling projects, saving millions of dollars for taxpayers. Janklow also created the only program in America where prisoners build affordable homes for senior citizens who want to stay independent and live in South Dakota's small towns.

Janklow's changes in law and administration have fixed workers' compensation problems. He has also created hundreds of new higher paying jobs by bringing new companies to South Dakota and helping the state's homegrown businesses grow even faster.

At the end of Janklow's eight years as Governor, one citizen told the Minneapolis Tribune, "We need someone as outspoken and animated as Janklow." State Senator George Shanard told a Nebraska newspaper that Janklow's "extremely aggressive, extremely intelligent, extremely sincere. He's probably regarded as one of the best--if not the best--governors in South Dakota history."

A daily newspaper editor wrote "more often than not, he is a people's governor who wants to make a difference for the people of his state." Another newspaper concluded, "The epitaph of his eight-year administration must read--what he did he did with the honesty and courage of convictions. Call it dedication, call it sacrifice or call it whatever you like, Governor Janklow has been good for South Dakota."