The fourth week of the historic 100th Legislative Session in the great State of South Dakota is in the books.
Governor Rhoden and Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen are full steam ahead! They are very involved in the day-to-day operations. On Tuesday, myself and ten other new legislators were invited to lunch at the mansion. It was an open-mic event where we could ask the Governor and Lieutenant Governor any questions. It was informal, informational, and just a really nice thing for them to do. I appreciated it very much. Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen was asked to give us something he did not expect in his new position. Apparently, he spends about two hours a day taking group photos on the capitol steps! Visitors love to have the Governor and Lieutenant Governor in photos, and they are normally more than willing. You won’t find that in most states.
I found myself voting no on many bills this week. Some are just clearly not necessary. Others are good ideas, but none of our business. We continue to see bills that try to tell the cities, counties, and schools what to do. Guess what? They ALL have their own local boards to deal with these issues. I will talk more about this below, but the biggest one for me is property taxes.
Believe it or not, we had another CO2 conversation. HCR 6004 would affirm the state’s position and urge the President to not interfere. I am sure the President was concerned, but he didn’t attend sessions to listen in. As I have said before, until the court decides, no changes should be made to statute. This resolution failed 34-33.
SJR 502 would allow SD to apply for a convention of the states. I am for a convention of states, as I feel our federal government is out of control and has been for way too long. However, this failed.
HB 1054 would allow a chaplain in public schools. This is church and state separation issue, as well as a local school board issue. This failed 18-49. The next school bill will be on placing the Ten Commandments in the classroom. It is important to note this goes a step further and talks about curriculum in elementary schools. The Clergy is not for this. Also, a school can already have this if they wish. This is also now a part of the new Social Studies curriculum. To me, this is a church/state issue and a local control issue, and I will be voting no.
HB 1154, as amended, will clearly define that a municipality with a campground does not need approval to swap out campsites with cabins, if they are not expanding the total size of the existing municipal campground. A true expansion of total campsites will still need unanimous approval.
HB 1106 requires a report regarding refugee resettlement services. I voted no, as this is not required to be a law. If this information is needed, anyone can just call LSS and ask them for their annual report. I worked with LSS for many years. They provide a large array of services to many different groups of people. To maintain funding for future years, they must track all statistics. This bill passed 56-12. This is a good example of us making laws to just make up laws.
HB 1109 prohibits the manufacture, sale, or distribution of cell-cultured meat in this state, and to provide a penalty therefor. I voted no on this bill. First, DANR was against this bill as this is already federally regulated. Again, a good example of us making laws to just make up laws. In addition, we want a free and open market in the US. If we restrict this product that another country may want, other countries can start to restrict our products as well. We already have enough regulations on the products we make in SD that are shipped to states like California. We want to maintain a choice; you don’t have to exercise the choice. This bill passed 42-26.
HB 1118 prohibits the award or use of state moneys for the research, production, promotion, sale, or distribution of cell-cultured protein. I voted yes on this bill as I do not feel this would be a good use of tax dollars. The state universities are still able to conduct lab testing. This bill passed 68-1.
SB 12 limits the amount of money that may be loaned or transferred to a candidate or political committee. This started out to be a great bill to close a loophole in campaign donations vs. a campaign “loan” that just never gets paid back. However, it was amended to limit federal campaigns from transferring over $10,000 to a state campaign. Obviously, this was a stab at any federal elected official wanting to come back and run for office. An amazing presentation by Representative Reisch amended the bill on the floor to the bill’s original format and purpose, which passed by one vote. This full bill then passed 38-29.
HB 1050 would have authorized municipalities to impose a 1% tax to fund capital improvement projects. I supported this bill, because the tax must be approved by 60% of the voters, would be limited to 5 years, and there would be a two-year window before a new plan could be approved. Local Control is normally threatened by the legislature. This bill provides local control. Rural communities struggle to finance improvements. Although this is a tax, it will be used on projects that would be constructed anyway. This bill would save the taxpayers money by not incurring a large amount of interest, and having the funds collected before the project is started. Rural communities struggle to finance improvements. This bill would keep small towns alive. Opponents explained there is already a process in place for this, Tax Increment Financing (TIF). However, this bill allowed for a municipal project to be paid for by taxes collected in the municipality. A TIF diverts the total incremental property taxes collected to pay for the project, to include the property taxes normally going to all other taxing authorities, such as the county, township, school, rural water, etc. This bill was sent to the 41st day to die.
HB 1176 provides that equine dental maintenance does not constitute the practice of veterinary medicine. This was requested by horse owners but highly rejected by the veterinary field, mainly due to the scope of practice and medication used prior to working on horse teeth. This bill passed 39-28.
We have many different property tax bills in the hopper (I can’t use the word pipeline!). This is one of Governor Rhoden’s top priorities. We have been asked to prioritize the bills. Many of them are just a “cut the county, city, and school taxes bill”. This isn’t sustainable. Do you like your streets maintained? Do you like gravel on the rural roads? So far, there has been only one bill I support. HB1019 eliminates property taxes levied on owneroccupied single-family dwellings and increases certain gross receipts tax rates and use tax rates. As explained before, 56% of your property taxes go to the school district, which generates $280 million. The school portion of your property taxes would be reduced to zero dollars and these lost dollars would be made up by an increase in sales tax. For many, this would be a cost savings. For every thousand dollars of taxable sales you spend, your sales tax would go from $42 to $50. You would have to buy a lot of taxable goods before you would spend more on sales tax than property tax. Much of our sales tax is generated from tourists but 100% of our owner-occupied property tax is generated by residents. Do the math on your own home and let your legislators know! We will need to ensure there were safeguards in place if we experience a decrease in sales tax the school would still be made whole by the state aid to school funding.
We have had many unnecessary and inappropriate bills dropped. HB 1224, which would defund the Huron School District, was dropped by Representative Phil Jensen from Meade County. This bill was pulled the following day, but the backlash continued. He was removed as vice-chair of the education committee, but many have called for a full removal, which is up to Speaker Hansen to decide. Inappropriate behavior like this just makes it more difficult to work together in the best interests of the citizens. We should use common sense to make good decisions, not crazy ideas or legislation that is not needed.