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A TRAUMA-INFORMED APPROACH TO THE THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE
Read morePIERRE, S.D. – The fate of a bill tied to one of the most contentious subjects in the South Dakota Legislature this year – data centers – ended up in the hands of a senator that couldn't be located.
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Hard to believe there are only two weeks left in the 101st Session and let me tell you, it’s been quite a ride. This Session had the most bills drafted and introduced since the 1998 Session and the House of Representatives set a record by hearing all our bills by 3:45 on Cross-Over day including the Senate bills we had on our Callender that day. The first year I was in Pierre we went till 1:00 am or something like that and I promised myself if I was ever in Leadership that wouldn’t happen. Last year we were done by 5 p.m. which makes me proud of this Leadership team the last two years. We had a lot of bills go through the House this week including appropriation bills. We will see quite a few of these as we get closer to setting a budget plan. As far as policy bills go, we passed HB 1184 which defines a man and a woman, I know this sounds unnecessary but in today’s world, it is for future legislation in South Dakota. We also passed a bill that would stop the advertising of the abortion pill which has been in the news lately and has caused a lot of controversy. On the crazy side, we had to pass a bill stating that a person must be a United States citizen to vote which surprised me wasn’t already a law in South Dakota. I wanted to talk about SB 156 which we had in Ag committee this past week. This bill was to increase penalties for animal abuse. In my opinion this bill was a direct attack on livestock producers statewide and how they care for their animals, we cannot afford to let those who are not in the business, judge us. Ag is this States number one industry and I believe it’s my job to protect it and letting a bill like this get passed would be devastating. The House Ag Committee is one of the strongest I’ve served on in my seven years in Pierre and it’s an honor being their Chair when they beat back a bill like this, they make me very proud. Writing this column every week is challenging, I’m not always sure what bills will interest you and which bills concern you and what’s going on in your life at this time. I hope you find them somewhat interesting. If not, my English teachers would completely understand. So maybe we should visit about Property Tax relief since it’s all legislators can talk about this year. I’ve been quiet on this subject mainly because I don’t have a good plan but also because I haven’t seen a good plan either. I don’t like what’s been happening with property taxes or how they have been increasing but we also must look at the facts. Pierre does not spend one cent of your property tax money. Every cent is spent on the local level and schools make up the biggest share by far along with County and Townships. If we continue to let schools, counties, and townships spend money, our property taxes will continue to increase. The only way out of this is to create a new tax revenue, such as sales tax, which is a new tax on the same people who pay property tax. All the plans that I’ve seen so far either depend on increasing sales tax or shift even more of the tax burden onto ag property, I think both are a bad idea. In my humble opinion we can only cut taxes by holding government’s feet to the fire and control what they spend, that includes local, state, and federal governments. Look at it this way, if increasing sales tax by 1 or 2 percent now fixes our problem, but schools, counties ,townships ,state and federal governments keep spending we’ll have to increase again 5 or 10 years down the road. I’m not saying our local governments are doing a bad job but statewide we have some serious problems, and we need to address them, sooner than later. I have put my petitions in to run for my final term in the House of Representatives, and I would be honored if you’d let me serve you and District 21 again. I hope at least I’ve been understanding to your views and that I listened to your concern. I take this job seriously and stive to do my best for everyone of you, after all you are the bosses. If you need to get a hold of me my cell is 605-680-0304 or email me at marty.overweg@sdlegislature. gov. Thanks for your support.
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In appropriations this week, we cleared our docket of bills. Next week begins the task of putting all the pieces together, and it will be a busy time. SB205, the bill to reduce the original registration tax on drones and separate the revenue from the aeronautics commission, made it out of committee in the House before it nosedived and crashed and burned after coming into contact with many members who are more concerned about funding airport maintenance than keeping tax revenue uses germane to the industry being taxed. First on the calendar for cross over day Tuesday was two reconsideration votes. The prior day, SB193, which would change regulatory laws regarding back up generation, had been reconsidered. After that vote the sponsor gave his intent to reconsider the second time, then I stood up and asked for a parliamentary inquiry, asking how it is eligible for reconsideration when it’s been reconsidered once already. The President then responded that it is his interpretation of the rules that since the bill was amended before the vote it was now a different question and therefore eligible for reconsideration. That evening we talked with LRC staff and we felt that this was not the correct interpretation of the rules, and that it was worth challenging to avoid setting bad precedent and allowing a continuous loop of reconsiderations to begin to take place. When the second vote for reconsideration on SB193 came up, the President Pro Temp called for a point of order and stated his case on why he believed SB193 was ineligible to be reconsidered a second time. The body supported that challenge and SB193 was then lost. The next reconsideration vote was on SB239, a bill aiming to expand a government economic development program for large projects. This bill would’ve allowed the GOED (Governor’s Office of Economic Development) board to review applicants on a caseby- case basis and grant partial or full sales tax refunds for up to 30 years. When it came time for the reconsideration vote a member called for a “Call of the House.” This rule requires the Sergeants at arms to close the doors of the chamber and search for the missing member( s) to bring them back to vote. Why would a member of the body who voted yes on the bill the day prior care so much if a member who voted no was missing? Thanks to the Supreme Court’s advisory opinion stating they believe the LT Governor can cast a vote to break a tie on final passage of a bill, a 17-17 vote leaves a good chance the bill will pass if the Governor’s office supports it, effectively making a member’s absence more powerful than their no vote. After the “call of the house” motion was made, and the search conducted, the report was that they could not find him, contact him, nor was his car in the parking lot. The Senator was actually gone before we caucused prior to session. We voted to proceed with business, and the bill was defeated. This upset some members of the body, which then led to several procedural motions being made that extended the night even longer for no reason. We ended the week on a good note, with HB1001, the bill to allow for prescribed burning along the river, passing with no opposition. This is a long overdue victory for ranchers in our district who are doing their best to steward the land they care for and preserve our grasslands.
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The Wagner Lady Raiders took to the big stage at the SDHSAA Girls State Wrestling Championships, competing against top talent from across the state.
Read moreLast Thursday night, the Wagner Lady Raiders welcomed the Mt. Vernon Plankinton Titans to the home court for the final round of Region 5A play.
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