Week 6 of the 100th Legislative Session was eventful and busy which is the norm for the Capitol. After 25 Legislative days, I want to reiterate what an absolute privilege it is to be a part of this process. I am thankful to be able to represent District 20 and learn more about the rest of the South Dakota’s issues from my fellow Legislators. There are 105 lawmakers representing the people of SD, so there are many diverse topics presented. I am more than happy to spend the time analyzing every bill. Rest assured; we will complete all of our work in the allotted 40 Legislative days.
HB1222: Modeled after existing MN law, this bill purports to address a very real issue that many South Dakotan’s face while picking up and dropping off their kids at school or while parking in the lot to go to a school event. It is currently a crime for South Dakotan’s with a concealed carry permit to do this activity. HB1222 doesn’t allow carrying inside the school buildings, it only allows having a gun in your car while on school grounds. This bill decriminalizes an activity that people are inadvertently committing. I brought this bill because South Dakotans should not be facing a year in jail and a $2,000 fine for doing what federal law allows. This passed out of the House 64 to 5.
HB1193: An Act to prohibit the Board of Regents from requiring students to reside in on-campus housing or purchase meal plans. I voted yes for this bill. A college degree is an expensive investment and only continues to go up in cost. If students had the option to save money by living with family or friends, then its likely they would be able to get their degree with significantly less debt. Let’s not make higher education any more expensive than it needs to be. Unfortunately, it failed on the House floor 28 to 42.
HJR 5006: This resolution would be submitted to the voters to decide if they want to require an intervening general election before consideration of an initiated constitutional amendment or initiated measure having the same subject as a previously rejected initiated amendment or measure. I believe after the 2024 election that there was voter fatigue. This would be a solution to having less issues on the ballot every 2 years. I voted yes and this passed out of the House 62 to 8.
HB1259: An act to prohibit unauthorized access to certain multi-occupancy rooms. This bill was about protecting women’s spaces. In the committee hearing and on the House floor, there was testimony of incidents occurring where girls and women were unsafe in the restrooms. To me this was an easy yes because we need to protect this group especially in such a vulnerable situation. The majority agreed with me and this passed out of the House 49 to 21.
HB1236: Expand the safety zone within which hunting and trapping are restricted. This moved the safety zone from 660ft to ¼ mile. There were several testifiers that have been shot at extremely close by hunters and even some with holes in their buildings. This was a common sense bill to protect landowners and it passed out of the House 51 to 19.
HB1261: An act to provide the board of commissioners with the authority over certain intra-county land uses and construction projects. I was a firm no on this because it supersedes the authority of the townships. This is taking away local control of those closest to a project, the township boards and the landowners. From the floor testimony, it seems the bill was brought forward to address manure drag lines for one large dairy. I don’t believe we should take decision making power away from the people because of one project. Unfortunately, it narrowly passed out of the house 38 to 32.
HB1239: The bill simply removes the current carve out for publically-funded institutions and makes them follow the same law on “material harmful to minors” that everyone else has to follow including private businesses and individuals. There are 7 states that have NEVER had this exception on the books: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. The following states have REPEALED the exemption just like HB1239: Arkansas, Indiana, North Dakota, Montana, and Tennessee. I haven’t seen a single instance in the past 60 years where a librarian was hauled off to prison in any of those states. And that list includes both liberal and conservative leaning states. As for what is “harmful to minors,” that definition has been in our law for 60 years. We have had no trouble applying this standard to other industries and 12 states have no problem currently applying it to schools and libraries.
HB1266: Attach the SD Brand Board to the Office of School and Public Lands. This would move the Brand Board from DANR. Producers have been increasingly frustrated by the lack of transparency and effectiveness of the board under DANR. A request for an audit has been asked for since 2008 and has never been given. The Brand Board is completely paid for by the producers that utilize the program, so it is rightfully their money. The move to School and Public Lands would bring an audit and hopefully provide a much needed change. It passed out of the House 47 to 22.
HB1025: The big issue of the week was the prison bill. First, this bill was amended from funding and approving the Lincoln county facility to just a transfer bill. The original bill would have required a 2/3 vote to pass. The amended bill is to transfer $148 Million from the general fund to the incarceration construction fund (ICF). It’s important to note that the ICF was set up for construction or improvements to existing facilities. HB1025A meant that it only needed a majority vote because it was no longer a spending bill. Proponents argued that we need to set aside the money, so we could decide on a plan in the future.
I voted no on HB1025 for several reasons. Currently, in the ICF there is almost $600 million in the savings account. This should be sufficient to modernize the current State Pen and also still build another facility that would be more aligned with the costs that other states are building prisons for. I saw no need to set aside more money in an extremely tight budget year, if we are undecided on the project. 2. Furthermore, the money being asked to set aside is NOT surplus money. The Legislature is being asked to instead look at potentially cutting funding for many important programs including SDPB, libraries, raises for the Big 3, the National Guard, Civil Air Patrol, and unclaimed property. 3. I have great concern that SD will be able to afford the ongoing costs for this approximately $1 billion facility ($825 million GMP plus road construction, water, sewer, utility, furnishings). Construction for this project would not be completed for 3 years and the estimated ongoing costs would be $21 million additional dollars. However, this could be much higher by completion. I am extremely nervous that South Dakotan’s would see an increase in taxes or increasingly more cuts to pay for the facility in Lincoln County. HB1025A failed on the floor 34 to 35. There was an intent to reconsider. It will be voted again on Monday Feb 24th.
With the completion of week 6, there are 3 weeks left plus Veto Day on March 31st. Crossover Day is Tuesday, February 25th, which means that all of the work on House bills must be done and sent over to the Senate. This means that the last portion of the session is dedicated to Senate bills on the House side and finalizing the budget. As always feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns. My email is Kaley. nolz@sdlegislature.gov