A vibrant crowd of citizens from in and around Jerauld County filled the back room of Springs Inn Cafe last Friday to hear what their District 20 legislators had to say about the current legislative session.
District 20 Senator Josh Klumb opened the legislative cracker barrel, thanking local folks for a great turnout. He said that the 2023 session is “off to a good start,” and that although the state has a $200 million surplus, there is over $1 billion in “spending asks” so it is clearly impossible to fund them all.
Representative Ben Krohmer, in his first year as a legislator, explained that he serves on the Commerce, Energy and Transportation committees.
Representative Lance Koth shared that he spends most of his time on house appropriations and joint house committees, meeting with his peers everyday to take all the information from policy committees and government recommendations to figure out how to put all of it in a balanced budget.
The legislators discussed a wide variety of topics, including the extra $200 million resulting from AARPA stimulus money that poured into the state in 2020 during the pandemic.
“A number of us feel that where we are currently is an inflated number. If we were to pull all stimulus money out of the economy where would we be?” Koth asked. “On average, if you go back in South Dakota history the extra money left over after balancing the budget would normally run 15 to 25 million dollars a year. All of a sudden we have $200 million and as you can imagine, there is lots of arm wrestling.”
The topic of Medicaid expansion came up first in the discussion with Koth pointing out that nursing homes, youth services, community service providers, dentists and in-home services are struggling.
“We will attempt to raise medicaid reimbursement to 100% of cost based on inflationary factors for all providers. In order for these agencies to survive, — if we don’t do 100% — we are going to not only lose nursing homes but also places like Abbott House. This will cost $32 - $40 million more out of the general budget — not just one year but ongoing. It’s over and above the governor’s proposal. I feel we are in crisis mode, we are pushing for 100%,” Koth said.
Dale Paulson asked the legislators about foreign land ownership, adding that he can’t see any upside of China owning any ag land.
“The primary issue is Ellsworth and security concerns,” said Klumb. “Also, this is the bread basket — would they like to destroy us from within? I think they might,” he said, adding that there is still work and digging that needs to be done with the proposal before moving forward.
Tom Dean commended legislators on their Medicaid expansion comments, then steered conversation to the topic of HB 1080, a bill, which restricts doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or performing gender-transitioning surgery on minors in the state. The bill was signed into law by Governor Noem on February 13.
“I believe Bill 1080 is one of the worst pieces of public policy I’ve seen in a long time. It’s based entirely on emotional claims and alarming claims about mutilation — there is no evidence that is happening in South Dakota,” Dean said.
Koth took the floor to respond.
“I voted for it. Number 1, I believe in Genesis — it says God created male and female. I’m not going to debate the medical piece of it. Secondly, we have a history in our country that we feel young people too often can’t make a good decision. We have laws in place that prohibit driving, buying tobacco, alcohol and that they have to stay in school until a certain age. My third reason is that if there is a reason other than ‘I don’t feel like I’m a male or a female’ it does not prohibit them from doing something when they turn 18.”
Klumb weighed in on HB 1080 as well.
“I agree with all those statements. I can’t say it better than Koth,” Klumb stated to the audience, and was met with applause.
Krohmer then took the floor, explaining that he sat in to hear the testimony for HB 1080.
“Suicide rates tend to increase after surgery. Yes parents have rights but they aren’t absolute. We don’t let parents abuse kids or animals. And as Koth mentioned, we don’t let kids under 18 get tattoos,” Krohmer stated.
Dr. Dean calmly answered that statement, “I agree that we should put severe restrictions on any intervention that causes permanent change. But some of these meds have been shown to calm things down — there are a lot of mixed up kids — and let kids and parents sort things out with help of counselors.”
Dean continued, “One person I heard testify wasn’t even from South Dakota and was an adult when he got it (gender-transitioning surgery) done. The person they had testify was irrelevant.”
Lance answered respectfully, “I will not get in a debate with you as it relates to medical field. I must add too that overwhelmingly the constituents I represent wanted me to vote for the bill.”
Roger Hainy, one of the cracker barrel organizers, changed the topic and asked legislators about the tax-cut bills on the table, “Where are we headed for tax relief?”
Koth answered by pointing to the proposed bills regarding grocery tax, real estate tax and sales tax.
“It is pure speculation on how this is going to happen. In these areas we are the second to seventh lowest taxed state in the nation. We do not have an income tax, personal or corporate tax,” Koth shared. “We have consumption tax — we live off consumers spending money through sales and excise tax. To drop that prematurely concerns me. I’m looking far beyond — it has to make sense not just next year but for the next two years, three years, five years.”
Klumb echoed Koth’s statements, “I would love to cut taxes but I don’t want to put the state in a bad position down the road. I do not believe we are over taxed.”
Krohmer shared what he has heard in the halls of the Capitol.
“There are pros and cons for all of them. There is a potential problem with the food tax — since it takes the state rate to zero, municipalities are worried they won’t be able to charge sales tax on groceries. The property tax sounds good on the front but handling it at the state level instead of leaving it to the counties would be new waters,” Krohmer said. “Overall cutting sales tax from 4.5 to 4 percent, I’ve heard more positive feedback on sales tax than the others. The downfall is that it’s not multiple choice.”
Drew Kraft then posed a question to the District 20 legislators, “Why does the governor think we can take a $100 million cut? Is that before 2020 money?”
Klumb answered by stating that if legislators could eliminate Covid money from the mix, they could make a better decision.
Fred Krohmer posed a question about state and excise tax when it comes to hog and cattle confinements.
“We have these confinements up around the county and we were told we’d get about $90,000 and we only got about $20,000. We had two finished last fall and the check for the county is $30,000,” Krohmer explained. “We have three sets of barns in Viola Township and the tax they get on the building is less than $500 a year. We need money back into the counties to keep these things going. We’re losing out because we can’t even afford maintenance.”
Klumb was honest and said he did not know why the checks were so small, adding that he can look into it but also pointing out that the topic of county funding has been discussed this legislative session.
“Counties and townships have been brought up a couple of times this session. In fact it has been brought up more recently that in the last eight years I’ve been a legislator — counties are in trouble what are we going to do?” Klumb said.
He continued by saying that consolidation has been discussed to answer the problem.
“Consolidation has to be talked about. There are too few people in these areas,” Klumb said. “It’s something no one wants to talk about but we can’t keep pouring money into these systems that are losing money without taxing more.”
The 2023 South Dakota Legislative Session began Tuesday, January 10, 2023 and ends Monday, March 27, 2023, to complete a 38-day session. During the session, the legislature will be in recess beginning Friday, March 10 through Friday, March 24.