The fifth week of the historic 100th Legislative Session in the great State of South Dakota is in the books and we have accomplished very little and are past the halfway mark. We continue to see many unnecessary bills coming our way and politics being played. If you are following along, many of these bills are coming from just a handful of legislators. Common sense is not so common up here anymore, which results in poor bills getting out of committee and debated on the floor, rather than killed and focusing on what the constituents sent the legislators here to do.
Local Government:
I was able to get HB 1154 passed on the floor, which will clarify an approval requirement from private campgrounds is only needed if a municipality is increasing the total number of camping spots on the property, not just reconfiguring the existing layout. This will now head over to be heard on the senate side.
I was able to get HB 1157 out of the Ag & Natural Resources Committee, as amended, which will now go to the full floor Tuesday. This bill will raise the maximum fee for a drainage permit to $500. Currently, the forty-yearold $100 maximum fee does not cover the administrative costs of the application and permit process, and all other citizens are subsidizing the loss.
I was not able to get HB 1156 out of the Ag & Natural Resources Committee. This was a farmer/rancher Ag friendly bill, which would provide the farmer the ability to apply and receive an administratively approved drainage permit in a timely manner, if they meet certain criteria and written approval from surrounding landowners.
HB 1159 will shift $1.8 million in gambling tax from the state General Fund to the City of Deadwood. Deadwood already receives $6.8 million that no other municipality has the opportunity to receive. This revenue is on top of sales tax collected, which is also much higher than normal collections for a city of its size. Pulling this from the general fund will result in the entire state paying for projects in Deadwood. Wouldn’t we all appreciate all citizens in the state paying for our local projects? I voted no, but it made it out of committee 103.
HB 1217 would require customer consent for installation of a smart meter for a utility service. These are installed so utility companies can save money and are not required to go in your basement or backyard. There would be a $10 fee for having an old hand read meter, which would not cover the costs of actually sending a worker out to read the meter, so the rest of us would be subsidizing the remainder. I voted no, and this was sent to the 41st day to die.
HB 1218 would prohibit cities and counties from restricting employees from carrying a firearm. This was defeated in committee, but hold on, next we will consider SB 100 prohibiting higher education from restricting firearms on college campuses. I have received eighty emails so far; none are for this. This is not about firearms, again, this is a local control issue the schools need to make.
Taxation:
HB 1234 would have added detailed information to your yearly tax bill. I really like the idea. However, after discussing this with Assessors, Treasurers and Auditors, it would be very costly to reprogram the county databases. This was sent to 41st day to die, but I did encourage counties to add these options on their own if they are updating their databases. This one will probably come back next year, and I hope it does.
SB 216 is the Governor’s Property Tax Reduction bill. The main point is to cap the assessed value increase on owner occupied residences at 3% annually, for residences under $500,000. A small workgroup has been working to find a way to reduce property tax. However, this will result in the state dictating the budgets for the county, municipalities, townships, rural water, etc.
Schools:
HB 1105 would require the display of the state seal or motto in public school classrooms. Again, why are we telling a school what to do? This failed 30-38.
HB 1201 attempted to interfere with how a school employee deals with students regarding gender ideology. Many school counselors and residents contacted the legislature to let the trained licensed professionals do their job and quit trying to interfere with the school districts. There was limited discussion on this bill as it should have never made it out of committee. It failed 28-40.
HB 1185, a complete retaliation bill to one profession when a few legislators didn’t get their way on vouchers, would restrict school districts from paying for a lobbyist. Administrators need to be at their schools and hire a lobbyist to discuss their interests with legislators. If this was truly about using tax dollars to lobby, all government related lobbyists would have been in the bill. This was politics at its best. Thankfully, this was defeated. It is interesting some are fine with using tax dollars for private education but against using tax dollars for public education to lobby for their interests.
HB 1259 deals with students using the correct restroom and changing rooms. This made it out of State Affairs, which is a heavily stacked committee. If you are seeing the pattern here, once again, the legislature is telling the school how to run their business.
SB 51 would require schools to display 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 voted no. This bill failed 3137.
Voting:
Several voting bills were discussed, such as HB 1066, HB 1208, HB 1220, SB 185, and SB 218. Everyone wants election reform, but these bills are not supported by the Auditors who will be unable to do what some of these are asking. Many citizens feel these would be unconstitutional by denying a person the right to vote. The auditors would need to verify someone has actually slept in SD the last 30 days. I’m not sure how that is even possible. One bill is a National Ballot, so someone in SD could vote for federal issues, but not state and local. This is a good idea, but the Auditor would need to figure out how many ballots to order, based off the previous election, where this type of ballot didn’t exist. What happens when we run out of ballots? They will also need to figure out how to interpret words in the bill. In addition, are we fine with the non-resident voting for our congressmen? A study needs to be formed to come up with a good bill to be sure SD residents are voting in SD elections. Having multiple bills try to piecemeal voter reform together is not what the people deserve. We have been talking about voter reform for several years and this is the best we can come up with?
HB 1169 would modify the signature requirement for a petition to initiate a constitutional amendment, requiring all voting districts to have 5% of the voters sign the petition for the amendment to be placed on the ballot. This requires a good representation from across the state and not someone sitting in Sioux Falls collecting all the signatures. This passed 60-9.
Budget:
BFM is predicting sales tax revenue will be 1.53% lower than what they thought in November. This will result in an additional budget reduction of $23 million. We met as a caucus and prioritized our projects. This was then sent to appropriations to consider.
Prison Funding/Construction:
We had a great presentation this week on the prison. The Department of Corrections (DOC) presented why it should be built, then the opponents presented on why it should not be built. Much of the legislative discussion focused on the quality of services provided in the prison. However, that is not what we are voting on. Are the services bad? Absolutely. I used to be the director of counseling programs in the prison. In 2011, major changes were made in the counseling programs. It didn’t work. Now, the DOC is working to get the programs back on track. It will take time, lots of time as there were years of mismanagement. What are we voting on?
HB 1025 will appropriate $182M dollars to the Incarceration Construction Fund and authorize the construction of the new prison in Lincoln County. This was passed out of State Affairs and referred to House Appropriations. This is the final allocation of funding for the project. Since it will take years to build, not approving the funding will not stop the project, it will just cost the taxpayers more in the long run as the $825M total amount is based off the interest earned over the next few years.
Other:
We wasted way too much time on HCR6009, requesting the attorney general to file a lawsuit against the People’s Republic of China and related parties to seek damages related to the COVID-19 global pandemic. I’m not sure if China was watching SDPB to see this, but again, we are not getting anything accomplished.
HB 1166, to enhance penalties for the violation of right-to-work statutes, created laws against union members. We already have laws for all people, regardless of their profession. This passed 59-9.
HB 1165 would move the grain checkoff refund paperwork from the checkoff association down to the elevators. The reason was the process was too difficult. However, many people who contacted me against this did not mention the process, but rather they were angry how the dollars were spent on a controversial issue at the last election. This bill tied and a reconsideration vote is scheduled for next week.
HB 1205 would renegotiate several building leases the state has with local developers. It essentially breaks the leases and would make the state look like a terrible renter. This bill stems from a new lease several state agencies agreed to for the new One Stop Center in Sioux Falls. Good idea to have all services in one building? Yes. Rent go up? Yes, it’s a new building. Some legislators were not involved in the process and angry. The one who brought the bill wasn’t even in the legislature till January and they moved in last November. The quote of the day on this was “the solution to bad government is not more government”. This failed 31-37.
HB 1069 will put additional regulations on vape products. I am not a vape fan, but also don’t like putting additional bureaucratic regulations on local businesses that will change very little on how they are currently operating. This passed 57-11.
HB 1117 would have made it illegal to use a cell phone while driving, unless using a hands-free device. This failed 29-39.