Latest
After more than a decade on the sidelines, Andes Central/ Dakota Christian girls basketball coach Shane Nieuwenhuis is stepping away from coaching, closing a chapter that has been defined by strong teams, lasting relationships, and a deep commitment to the players in his program.
Read more
After finishing as state runner-up the past two seasons, Gannon Knebel of the Wagner Red Raiders made sure his final trip to the top stage ended just the way he had envisioned since he was four years old, standing alone at the top of the podium.
Read more
As I’m writing this on Saturday afternoon it’s hard to believe there are only four days left in the Session and by the time you read this it could be over. I’m hoping to be finished with our work on Wednesday, which would be a day early. We are close on the budget and property tax plans but just wait, now that I’ve said it, the wheels will fall off. We finished Ag Committee on Tuesday, and I am proud of the work we did this Session. The committee heard testimony on some difficult and emotional bills and in my opinion, they handled them professionally and with dignity. We heard and discussed the Senate bills this past week and have more on Monday, so let’s talk about some of them. We voted to create the County and Township infrastructure Fund to help control unobligated moneys, along with a 5-million-dollar appropriation for R.A.I.F. which is the Rural Access Infrastructure Fund. We’ve been trying to get this done for a few years now along with the Townships and County’s Lobbyist and it feels good to finally get it over the finish line. We made it illegal for candidates for office from taking contributions from foreign nationals, not that I believe it’s a problem in South Dakota but better safe than sorry. We will be purchasing a new airplane for the SD Highway patrol for 5 million dollars; I voted against this appropriation for these reasons. First, when the federal government uses our airplane, they don’t reimburse us, and they use it frequently. Second reason was they told me it’s a 3-million-dollar airplane with a 2-million-dollar camera and equipment which sounded absurd to me, I asked for a list of the equipment and didn’t receive it. I did support the 5 million appropriations to local and rural firefighters, and it passed; this should help our local departments purchase some new equipment they need. SB 124 passed and will put a 5-year moratorium on Cell Cultured protein, if you remember the House and Senate passed a bill earlier that banded it completely, but Governor Rhoden vetoed it. This is the compromise bill, I voted for it, so we got something, but I liked the complete band better, I still don’t understand why the Governor vetoed it, but I guess you can ask him. SB 198, which would have forced school boards to adopt a cell phone usage plan during school hours failed, I didn’t support it because the Administrators in District 21 told me they already have cell phone plans. I fought against SB 76 which allowed the state to loan 30 million dollars out of South Dakota Housing fund to Sioux Falls and Rapid City’s airports. That is not what we originally appropriated these funds for; they were meant for housing and that is where they should stay in my opinion. I know this column is short this week, but I’ll save explaining what happened with property tax relief along with the budget next week. If I tried to explain every plan that was still alive when I left Thursday it would take the whole paper and besides, I’m not sure which way it will go, but it’s always like this the last two week. Have a great week and please contact me if you have any questions or concerns at 605-680-0304 or Marty.overweg@sdlegislature. gov. Thanks again for your support, Rep. Marty Overweg
Read more
The Education committee had the day off on Monday as we waited for Senate Bills to arrive, so our day started at 2:00 finding us on the House floor. We again started with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, and the work began.
Read more
Week eight down and one week left to go for the 101st Legislative Session. In appropriations this week we rolled through budget setting for departments that didn’t have much change from last year. Motion Sheets from our work group to begin right sizing FTE(full time employees) and Federal and other fund authority have been supported by the committee so far. We did not pull back on as much as I had pushed for, but since we ran out of time to get motion sheets in we settled on a middle ground that both us and our LRC staff and the Governor’s staff could agree upon. If the great people of District 21 decide to send me back to Pierre again I intend to continue to dig through this topic with the intention of getting even more of the fluff cut down in these areas by building off the data from this work group. If anyone would like to talk about the data we compiled to show excess authority vs what we are cutting this year please reach out. I would be happy to share! One of the most consequential demands of the appropriations committee is to act on principle, not emotion. If the appropriations committee gives the thumbs up to every program’s request for an increase, allows new programs to be built into the General Appropriation Bill, or allows the requests for the State to fund an ever-increasing role into all parts of life to pass, we will end up with a socialist mess that is failing our citizens. We must remember the state has exactly zero dollars of its own to give. This coming week is truly going to be a test, as there are five to six different motion sheets that will expand the role of government into an area it historically has not been funding in an on-going capacity, or will increase on-going dollars to programs that are not the fundamental role of government. Every dollar we allow to be pulled into something else is a dollar that will not go toward our basic obligations like the big three- raises for state employees, inflationary increases for providers, and increases for education.
Read more
The Wagner boys basketball team jumped out to an early lead and nnever looked back Tuesday night, defeating Bon Homme 77-42 in the opening round of the Region 5A tournament.
Read more
For one Wagner native, wrestling has been far more than a sport. It has been a lifelong journey that began in childhood and helped shape the person he is today — a journey that recently led to induction into the South Dakota Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Read more