The Seventh week of the historic 100th Legislative Session in the great State of South Dakota is in the books, with two to go.
We tackled cross over day where all bills need to be moved over to the other chamber. I honestly think we may have made a difference helping people this week. Appropriations continues to find a way to restore some of the cuts proposed to the budget.
On Wednesday, Mitchell received the Community of the Year Award from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Big win for Mitchell. My Bills/Concerns: HB 1157 raises the maximum fee for a County Drainage Permit Application fee. The current $100 fee created in 1985 does not cover the costs of notifications, postage, public advertising, and site inspection. Any costs above the $100 fee are subsidized by the rest of the county taxpayers. This passed 64-6 in the house and 28-6 in the Senate. It will now be sent to the Governor’s office to be signed.
SB 37 is very similar to my HB 1155, which revises the annual reporting period for public safety answering points. I presented HB 1155 and spoke in favor of SB 37 on behalf of the 32 Municipalities, Counties, and Tribal Governments with a Public Safety Answering Point (commonly known as a PSAP or a 911 Center), who are required to report 911 Fee information to the State of South Dakota using the state fiscal year. SB 37 will change the period to the calendar year and will allow the 911 fee you see on your phone bill to continue to partially fund the 911 centers. This fee only covers a small portion of the actual costs to run the 911 centers. Since funding is tied to this, it requires a 2/3 vote and will be heard on the floor Monday. My HB 1155 will be heard in Senate Local Government Committee Monday morning and hopefully continue to move through, just in case there are any issues with SB 37.
HB 1038 repeals the proposed cuts to burial assistance of veterans. I spoke against the proposed cuts, which are only $52,000 of a $7,300,714,543 budget. This program helps the surviving family with a very small amount to assist with funeral expenses and is a pretty small drop in the bucket to be cutting. We defeated this cut unanimously! SB 52 authorizes the expansion of the South Dakota State Veterans Cemetery, to add above ground vaults. A $75,000 appropriation from the General Fund is matched with a $1.5 million in federal funds. This was passed unanimously! A good Representative stated, “the big winners this session are dead Veterans”! For me, this was one of our biggest accomplishments and possibly something I will use someday! State Issues: HB 1025, a bill to transfer $148,109,837 to the Incarceration Construction Fund, failed last week, but was requested to be reconsidered. Due to a legislator hitting the wrong button, the reconsideration request failed. The Governor held a press conference this week announcing a Prison Reset. He has created a workgroup of legislators and community members to determine the need, size, and location of a new prison. A special session will be held on July 22nd to hear the results.
As I said last week, the prison will eventually be built. We need a new prison. I hate the fact that we do, I hate the fact it is so expensive, but kicking the can down the road will just increase the costs to the taxpayers.
Myself and one other Representative are the only ones I know of who have actually worked in the prison system, but we sure have a lot of prison experts in the room. In just under 20 years working in corrections, I never considered myself an expert, but in just 26 short days many legislators have.
HB 1235 would reduce a limit on the annual increases of property tax revenues payable to certain taxing districts, and to subject school districts to a limit on property taxes collected in a year. This will reduce the max 3% down to 2.5%. This will have a drastic effect on schools, counties, cities, townships, rural water, and any other taxing authority in your district. I spoke against this bill. It’s easy to cut county, city and school budgets. We just quit plowing snow, quit fixing roads, lay off some firemen, police officers, jailers and teachers. It’s that easy. I would normally say, this is not the State’s budget, and we have no business telling the local governments how to run their budget. However, I believe this will have an impact on the state budget. Every school that doesn’t receive funds from property taxes is going to be asking the State for those lost funds. This is a Local Government issue. This bill passed 39-31 and will head to the Senate.
HB 1249 was to protect landowners from the use of deception, fraud, harassment, intimidation, misrepresentation, or threat, “in acquiring easements or easement options”. Guess what, we already have laws against all of these crimes, doesn’t matter what they are acquiring. Having laws against deception for a specific business or a specific topic is just not needed. This bill passed narrowly at 36-34 and will head to the Senate.
HB 1242 would limit the amount of money that may be transferred to a candidate campaign committee, a political action committee, or a political party by the authorized committee of a candidate for federal office. This is a direct attack on our congressional delegates being able to return home to run for office. If you are seeing the pattern here, this bill also narrowly passed at 36-34 and will head to the Senate.
HB 1186 would provide for the revision and eventual repeal of the employer’s investment in South Dakota’s future fund. Just read that title. We had to consider “repeal of the employer’s investment in South Dakota future”. There were a few instances where the funds were not used as intended, but by and large this fund is used for economic development in the state and has attributed to many successful businesses coming to the state. This failed 32-36. If you want lower property taxes, but are against providing incentives for economic development, you don’t understand the process.
HB 1204 would revise the subpoena powers of the Government Operations and Audit Committee. They already have these powers. This bill is a power grab to eliminate the Executive Board from approving the subpoena first. This bill passed 36-34, but hopefully will die in the Senate.
SB 8 is an act to establish certain criminal offenses for boat operators who cause bodilyharmwhileintoxicated. Essentially, this bill treats the offense the same as if the driver was in a vehicle. There was very emotional testimony in committee on this bill, from many who were directly affected by the death of a young girl run over and killed on a lake. On the floor, there was again emotional testimony on why this is a good bill. An unfriendly amendment was brought, but not supported by a majority of the body. The bill passed 5218. It is appalling to think 18 representatives don’t respect a life enough to vote for this bill. It was voted unanimously in favor in Senate Judiciary, Senate floor, and House Judiciary.
We had two big wins for the people this week, and I don’t get to say that very often. SB 99 makes an appropriation for purchasing sexual assault kits and passed 69-1. HB 1221 makes an appropriation for victim services provided by nonprofit organizations and passed 68-2. Again, appalling someone would vote against helping our people who are in this situation.
SB 83 revises the penalty and provides treatment for the ingestion of certain controlled substances. Essentially, it lowers ingestion of a schedule III or IV drug from a Class VI felony to a Class 1 misdemeanor for the first and second offense. This was the hardest vote I have had so far. For many years I was a licensed addiction counselor in the prison system. I am a strong supporter of addiction treatment, but don’t like reducing the severity of crimes. The SD State’s Attorney’s Association, law enforcement, and many others involved in the system were against this. I voted no because I don’t think this bill will result in the intentions, but it passed 37-33. Telling Schools How to Run Their Business: HB 1200, a bill to permit merit pay as a component of teacher compensation passed. The sponsor didn’t quite understand the difference between longevity and merit, as the bill originated to give raises to teachers with twenty years. Schools should be allowed to determine their own teacher compensation, that’s why they have a school board and administration. This bill was amended to remove everything except “a teacher may receive merit pay”. It passed, but it doesn’t do anything and is one of those un-needed bills I’ve talked about.
HB 1114 would make a $6.7 million appropriation for the purchasing of equipment to support the South Dakota Board of Technical Education. This is the only bill I can think of where an organization (the tech schools) came to the legislature and said, “if we raise 30%, will you give us the rest to better our schools?” However, some people in this legislature do not see the value of our Technical Schools. This was supported by Appropriations but failed to reach a 2/3 vote on the floor. This was reconsidered, then amended to reduce the dollar amount to just $100, just enough to keep it alive and move it over to the Senate. This was a sad day for our Tech Schools, who are providing state of the art programs to our youth, and now, possibly without state of the art equipment. Hopefully the Senators will value the local talent our Technical Schools generate and reinstate the funding.
SB 219 will require the acceptance of a cash payment for admission to a schoolaffiliated event. Yes, we already discussed this when HB 1017 failed to receive a majority of the members elect at 35-33. The problem with this bill is this will spill over to events outside the school, such as the Corn Palace. Third party vendors hosting a school event will be required to comply. We are now telling schools and local businesses how to operate. This passed 36-34.
HB 1093 requires the board of a school district to hold a bond election at the primary or general election. This was amended in the Senate, so needed to be approved again in the House. This isn’t a terrible bill and has been carved up more than a Christmas turkey, but again, it dictates school business. This passed and will be sent to the Governor.
SB 208 amends provisions pertaining to a school district’s proposed opt out, capital outlay certificate, or other agreement. This bill had many consequences that would delay many decisions a school administration and board is tasked with, especially during emergency repair situations. This bill failed 31-39.
For as much we are concerned with schools one would think a majority of the legislature would be on a local school board.
I look forward to discussing issues of importance with the citizens of Jerauld, Sanborn, Miner and Davison Counties. If you have any concerns, feel free to contact me at jeff. bathke@sdlegislature.gov.