Last week, there was a vote to select the people who will serve in a new form of government in North Sioux City, South Dakota.
As that commission gets set up, two notable meetings will take place on Tuesday, April 22.
First, the last meeting of the city council members will take place at 7 p.m. On the heels of that, the first meeting of the North Sioux City Commission will take place about 7:30 p.m., a city official said Thursday.
Also that day, the final canvassing of the April 8 voting will take place, and it appears that a recount this week has flipped the outcome in one of the five city races.
In the original count for a North Sioux City Commission spot with a one-year term, David Wilch led Vincent Tucker, 401 to 399. The recount reversed the winner, as Tucker got 400 votes, compared to the 398 of Wilch.
One of the other contests saw Chris Bogenrief win the new mayor post, and the other incoming commissioners are Julie Burhoop, Jessica Strain, and Lynn Hoffman.
*Additionally, Republican U.S. Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota this week weighed in on the recent widely-changing applications of tariffs by President Donald Trump.
Rounds said the tariffs were concerning, as trade wars could be problematic for the U.S.economy. Therefore, he said American consumers should buckle up.
Rounds also addressed the president’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has taken extreme cuts to government operations in the name of efficiency. He understands the Presidents’ efforts, but said mistakes are being made.
“If you’re impacted directly by a DOGE cut, let us know, and let us go back and see if it was done by accident," Rounds said. "President Trump really wanted to have a more surgical approach to actually making some of these (cuts), but in the meantime, DOGE, with good intent, went in and shut a lot of stuff not realizing what the impact would be on the state and local level.”
Rounds made those comments to a small crowd affiliated with Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political group, at a Rapid City hotel on Monday. Also concerning Rounds, on Thursday he reintroduced legislation that aims to streamline existing federal rural housing programs.
It’s called the Rural Housing Service Reform Act. Rounds said the bill expands housing opportunities by offering loans, grants and rental assistance to people in rural areas, including Native communities.
There is a Democratic co-sponsor with the measure, in U.S. Senator Tina Smith, of Minnesota.
*In other news, Iowa House lawmakers on Thursday sent a bill to the governor’s desk that would require high schoolers to pass the U.S citizenship test in order to graduate.
Students would be given multiple choice questions taken from the list of questions used for the US citizenship test. They would have to answer at least 60 percent correctly to pass.
The testing requirement would apply to public, private and charter schools.
The Iowa Senate passed that bill on Monday.
Democratic state Senator Art Staed voted against the proposal. Stated said requiring the test won’t ensure students have an in-depth understanding of the material, as they will be just doing rote memorization.
Supporters of the bill say requiring the test will make sure students understand how the government works and help them make informed decisions.
*Also, Republicans in the Iowa Senate voted this week to approve language for a constitutional amendment that would make it harder for lawmakers to raise certain taxes.
The constitutional amendment would require passage by a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate to raise personal and corporate income taxes. Current law requires a simple majority.
Republicans say raising taxes should be hard and they don’t want their tax cuts to be reversed.
Democrats opposed the amendment, saying it’ll tie the hands of future lawmakers. Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner of Iowa City says the measure does nothing to limit other kinds of taxes, such as property or sales taxes.
If the House approves the constitutional amendment this year or next year, it would go on the ballot for Iowa voters to decide in 2026.
