(Continued from page 24)

flowers they had delivered to Anderson Seed's operation in Redfield. A Canadian company later announced that it planned to buy the Redfield facility, but officials said there would be no money left to pay farmers after the sale proceeds are used to repay a bank loan secured by a mortgage on the property.
• After Anderson Seed failed, the commissioners said they would ask the 2013 Legislature to change the law so grain buyers would have to provide a current financial statement when they apply for a license, one given under penalty of perjury. Anderson Seed provided a 9-month-old financial statement when it renewed its license in 2011.
• Nelson and Fiegen note they weren't even on the commission when Anderson Seeds got its initial license and the subsequent renewal. The $100,000 bond the company had to provide won't cover all of the farmers' losses, and the commission intends to seek modest changes in bonding laws.
• Nemec said he entered the race specifically because of Anderson Seed.
• "I thought that was a travesty and a failure to regulate," he said.
• Nemec wants to make such companies post much higher bonds and to change state laws that prevented a state economic development agency from telling the PUC that Anderson Seed was in financial trouble. If all else fails, a temporary check-off fee of 1 cent a bushel on all grain sold in South Dakota could be imposed just long enough to pay farmers for losses in such cases, a way for all farmers to help those who have been hurt, he said.
• McGovern believes bankruptcy law should be changed so farmers, now considered unsecured creditors, are put on equal footing with banks and other secured creditors. But Nelson said if bond amounts are set too high, grain buyers couldn't afford them and bonding companies would refuse to sell them.
• McGovern stirred up the race with a television ad that accuses the current commission of approving a rate increase for Xcel Energy that lets the company use rates charged to South Dakota electricity customers to help pay for the company's use of private jets and its chief executive officer's $11 million salary.
• "I won't approve rate hikes until they eliminate their wasteful expenses," McGovern said.
• Nelson and Fiegen said Xcel's top officer is paid to run companies in eight states and the company's employees often can travel more efficiently on private airplanes than on commercial flights. In electric bills sent to an average South Dakota residential customer, only 12 cents a year goes to pay the CEO's salary and only 30 cents a year goes to operate a private plane, according to the company.
• Nelson said the Democrats fail to mention that the PUC allowed Xcel a far lower

(Continued on page 26)