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With only Veto Day left, the 101st Legislature Session is in the books. When I look back to the seven sessions that I’ve served in I can’t help but realize a few things. First is, we should never increase the days of our session and secondly, of all the bills we hear there’s only 6 or 7 things that we get done that really matter to this state. When I see 500 to 600 bills every year, I can’t believe there are that many things wrong with our state and to be honest I don’t know where they get all these ideas. Ok, I’ll get off my soap box so we can visit about how the last week of session went. This is always the week where we hammer out a balanced budget by voting on the Supplemental and the General bill, also known as the G bill. I voted for both even though I didn’t like some of the appropriations that were in them but like we’ve talked about before, we do the best we can in 40 days and the fact is not everyone is going to like everything in the budget. Example is, I voted and fought against the 5 million for a new airplane, but when I voted for the Budget, I ended up voting for the new airplane. Also, we talked a lot about property tax relief for South Dakota residents and passed two bills, SB 96, which is the Governors bill to let counties put a half cent sales tax on, along with SB 245 which will use part of the sales tax to reduce the local effort for general education levies on owner occupied single-family dwellings. Now to be clear, neither of these bills increase the sales tax rate, but if the sunset comes off in 2027 and the rate goes from 4.2 to back to 4.5, then the .3 increase or around 110 million will go to property tax relief for owner occupied. SB 96 is also for owner occupied but also for all property tax and can be referred to a vote of the people in that county. Now since SB 245 won’t take place until July 1, 2027, we are going to buy down the first half of the year from one time money and return 55 million to the citizens, this is the part I liked about this deal. Year after year I watch as most of the one-time money ends up in the east or west side of the state and for once we’re getting some back. I believe this is just a start and would imagine this conversation will occupy future legislature sessions for years, we need to figure out some things with our schools like how we fund special education and overall spending. One of the greatest things about our state is the low taxes and I want to keep it that way and that will take more conversations and some hard decisions in the future. Once again, I want to thank Tristen Petrik for serving as my intern this session. He was awesome and made my job easier. It’s great when I get to work with our talented young people. I also want to thank all of you who support me, it is a true pleasure serving you and I hope you give me that chance again. Please attend one of the five candidate forums that are planned in April and May where you can visit with the candidate’s seeking office in District 21 and let me know if you’d like to post a yard sign for me. If I can be of assistance to you or you have a question feel free to contact me at 605-680-0304 or at Marty.overweg@sdlegislature.gov. I should also thank the newspapers of District 21 for posting these articles every week of session. They do this at their expense, and we all should be grateful for that service. I hope to run into you this campaign season and get a chance to visit on issues that you have concerns on. Thanks, Representative Marty Overweg.
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We started out our Monday with a couple of House bills that were sent back to us from the senate with an amended version that they had passed. The first, HB1200A was a DO NOT CONCUR BUT SEND TO A CONFERENCE COMMITTEE vote. The second HB1209A was also DO NOT CONCUR BUT SEND TO A CONFERENCE COMMITTEE. They would both be heard on Wednesday. We tabled a couple of bills and passed eight with a lot of discussion.
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We have completed the 9 week legislative session and what a journey it has been. The legislaturehasactedonover600 bills, resolutions and commemorations. The largest amount since the 90s. It almost feels like January 13th was yesterday because the time goes so fast there is always somewhere we need to be, someone we need to be talking to, bills that need to be read,informationweneedtoresearch, committee hearings on billsandmostimportantlyserving our districts best interests. During and prior to my 4 years inthelegislatureheateddebates on property taxes have been daily conversations. We ended up with around 30 proposals regarding property taxes. I am proud to say the legislature and theexecutivebranchputpolitics aside and worked tirelessly to finally deliver options for relief to owner occupied property taxes. In 2022 the legislature temporarily lowered the sales tax from 4.5 to 4.2%. Bills were introduced to make this relief permanent, but they ultimately died before I had a chance to vote on them. With the sunset in place the sales tax will go up next year automatically. SB 245 designates the future sales tax revenues offset owner occupied property tax. At the end of the day this will put more money into the hands of homeowners andhopefullyhelpthoselooking into homeownership. The hope is that the extra will provide future growth for schools in futurebudgets.Pairedwiththis bill was SB 96 an optional sales tax for counties for those counties with the highest property taxes. We looked at 2 optional sales tax ideas this year. The other was HB 1245 an optional tax for municipalities to build future projects. I voted against this bill. Hypothetically, if Sioux Falls implemented both these options this could be an additional 1.5% sales tax on you when you go to Sioux Falls for a Doctors appointment, basketball tournament, Christmas shopping, etc…. The bill is currently on the governor’s desk. This being said I encourage you to shop locally. District 19 has such great options for all our needs and we want to keep it that way. Each little town in District 19 has a special place in my heart and I love travelling to all our communities and supporting them. It has been an absolute honor to serve you the last 4 years. Putting my people 1st has been my mission the entire time I have served you. I can’t thank you enough for trustingmewithyourvote.Iam seeking re-election and humbly ask for your support once again to serve you.
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Every year I ask my students, “How old is old?” The answers vary, but the most honest response I’ve ever received came from a patient who said, “Old is 10 years older than my age.” We all tend to push aging just out of reach, as though it belongs to someone else.
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The legislature is now in recess until Veto Day on March 30th. This past week, as I stated in my previous newsletter, was the ultimate test for where the appropriations committee was when it comes to asking each member to “Put your money where your mouth campaigned” as we battled it out over some spending line items in our on-going budget. Unfortunately, I must report that there should be quite a few less candidates running for re-election claiming the title “conservative,” especially those on record in appropriations. To give an example of the ridiculousness of this last week I will share a couple of the instances. The first one has to do with proper state budgeting practices. During budget hearings earlier in session, the Department of Ag and Natural Resources Secretary presented his budget which included a reduction for a program elimination, however it was not a full reduction of the amount that was originally appropriated for this program. When questioned about it the answer was, admittedly, that they had absorbed the remaining dollars and an FTE into the budget. This is not proper budgeting practice. It is deceptive, not transparent, and is how the budget gets padded and bloated. Senator Taffy Howard made sure to bring the motion sheet to remove the remaining funds from that program that was to be eliminated. In committee we had just enough votes the first time around to pass Howard’s motion sheet. Then came the governor and the Secretary in an uproar. They admitted the budgeting practice was not proper but convinced enough appropriators to cave and give them the money back. This was not the only Department that this happened with. The second test was over TANF. (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) Last year the appropriations committee approved a fund swap to begin a glide slope down reducing the benefit amount to take the state share of the program back down to the federally required MOE (maintenance of effort.) South Dakota was at one of the highest benefit amounts compared to surrounding states. As more federal programs are cut or shifted onto the states we need to begin making responsible, targeted cuts to keep up with our mandatory obligations. Unfortunately, the changes that were made by the Secretary and approved in appropriations and in Rules Review over the interim were just undone with the majority of appropriators voting to restore the state share. The state is also now going to pick up the tab for all local school lunch programs for those who qualify for the reduced priced meals, expanding state role yet again to subsidize a federal program. This funding was sold to legislators as a decision between starving kids whose parents couldn’t pay and the state paying, when in reality, no kid is starving at the schools. The schools pick up the costs and either cover it or donors help cover it. After working to bring suggested reductions, cuts, and right-sizing options to the table all session and then seeing certain members in appropriations not only fail to stand strong and fight for those items in the last week, but to actually go along with the increases, was indeed disappointing. The passed budget included an $80million increase in General Funds, which a large percentage will be contributed to the 1.4% inflationary increase for Medicaid providers, state employees, and education, along with the FMAP change, which increased the state share of the Medicaid costs. On a more positive note, the work groups this session delivered a more dialed in target for Medicaid utilization and education enrollment, which should result in less one-time dollars next fiscal year for the governor and legislature to fight over for all their spending ideas. We accomplished a great deal of right sizing that has not been done in over eight years as well. This resulted in a reduction of 121 Unutilized FTE, $58.2 million in Federal Fund Authority, and $32.5 million in Other Fund Authority. I am happy to discuss any of the votes from appropriations.
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PIERRE, SD – Resilience. It’s one of the prizes that keeps conservation- minded land managers striving for improved soil health. Operational resilience in the face of floods, market fluctuations, rising input costs, extreme temperatures, and of course, drought. A healthy, functional soil can help a farm or ranch survive all of them.
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Week 9 is over, and the 2026 legislative session is in the books. With our first calves already on the ground, I’m ready to trade long floor sessions for calving night checks, feeding chores and more time back home with Lauren, Michael, and Catherine.
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