HURON The second coffee with the legislators was held Saturday morning in the commission room at City Hall in Huron.
District 22 Representative Kevin Van Diepen opened the day with his introduction talk. He joked, The last two weeks have probably been the most challenging thing that Ive ever gotten myself into. He reported that one of the most interesting things that came across his committees recently was an equine dentistry bill that spurred about 800 emails from people regarding the bill.
He addressed handling the bill to defund the Huron School District, reporting that the first night that it was reported, he was up until 1:30 a.m. answering phone calls about the bill. He was pleased with how he and his fellow District 22 legislators worked through that situation, though they requested for the Representative in question to be removed from the education committee. He did report that the legislator was removed from leadership of the committee but remained on the committee.
Senator David Wheeler began his introduction by reflecting on the revenue numbers set by a joint committee this past week. The numbers were between Gov. Noems original budget proposal in December and the projected revenues from the Legislative Research Council, so he concluded that there will be more available than what Gov. Noem originally proposed, but budgeting will still be tight.
Representative Lana Greenfield discussed HB 1239 that came through her committee regarding potential criminal charges for librarians who check out obscene materials. She also mentioned that property taxing and funding various repair projects across the state are priority discussions in the House right now.
The first question to the legislators regarded HB 1239, beginning with Sen. Wheeler due to the bill barely passing the House and now reaching the Senate. He noted that librarians have been good about getting messaging out, and that he will be working with fellow Senators to defeat the bill.
Van Diepen discussed the arguments on the House floor regarding the bill. He explained that if a bill contains provision for someone to go to jail, eventually someone somewhere is going to jail. He attempted to work with fellow Representatives who were proponents of the bill to remove the criminalization portion of the bill, but to no avail.
The next question was regarding funding for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Van Diepen answered first, citing the connection with SDPB and the public safety radio system in the state, which shares towers that SDPB owns across the state. He also noted that Representatives were recently asked to identify top funding priorities as they move forward for appropriations, and he placed SDPB in his top three, stating, they should be funded at their full amount requested without any cuts.
Greenfield agreed with Van Diepens stance, but she also shared the background for the cut proposals, stating that there are members of the former Governors budget committee and members of the legislature who believe that public broadcasting is leaning left. The funding cut, she explained, is supposed to be a message, one that Greenfield states is being proposed without considering the ramifications to everyone in the state.
Sen. Wheeler was asked about SB 188 regarding changing the rules behind absentee voting. Wheeler stated that he was not in favor of the bill as it removes no excuse absentee voting, meaning someone who votes ahead of election day at the auditors office would have to provide reasoning if they request an absentee ballot at the office, even if doing so in person. He also explained that the language of the bill is adding more loops for a person to cast a ballot.
The legislators were asked about the sales tax and the potential for adjusting that tax up or down during the session. Greenfield and Wheeler both stated that the primary tax focus in Pierre this session has been on property taxes. A bill to potentially raise the sales tax was proposed, but it failed in committee.
Wheeler was challenged by a questioner on previous voting record on pipeline-related bills, including legislation that led to RL 21 last fall. He explained that many on the anti-pipeline side of the argument believe that RL 21s repeal of a previous piece of pipeline-related legislation should be the end-all on pipeline discussion in the state. However, Wheeler stated that his job as a legislator is not to stop the pipeline or to build the pipeline. My job is to make sure that reasonable regulations are in place for any project that would come through.
He identified the bills regarding eminent domain that are being debated in the legislature at this time. Greenfield mentioned a few other bills being considered for the same topic, but they struggle to receive support due to many of the pipeline opponents not willing to vote on a bill, even with increased landowner protections, if it could be seen as voting for pipelines.
The legislators were asked about any bills that may be hog housed later in the session after being defeated earlier. Van Diepen reported that he has seen his first example of this, where a bill is defeated and then similar language or even the exact same language is assigned to a pending bill that has not been assigned to committee yet. He noted that this will likely happen more as the session moves forward, but many of those second-chance bills are not receiving any more traction than they did when they were initially defeated.
The final question was regarding HB 1261, which would affect the funding and control that towns and townships have on roads and structures. The representative for towns and townships stated that their organization was not connected regarding the development of the bill. This bill was sent to the Senate, and Wheeler stated that he has not fully investigated the bill yet and needs to review the laws regarding right of way within townships before taking a stance on the bill.
Van Diepen reported that when the bill came through the Ag and Natural Resources committee, he voted to pass in order to correct multiple conflicting laws on the issue. Greenfield voted no because she felt as if the bill was too ambiguous.
In her closing, Greenfield stated that there are a lot of social bills this year, saying that the primary purpose of those bills is to create a scorecard for one lobbying group or another. She thanked the District 22 voters who have emailed and/or come out to Pierre to discuss issues.
Wheeler stated that this week is crossover day, which means all bills originating in one house of the legislature must be passed or defeated to move into the other house by that date. He encouraged District 22 voters to indicate theyre from District 22 when reaching out.
Van Diepen echoed his fellow legislators and explained that on the previously mentioned equine bill, he received hundreds of emails, none of which were from District 22, but one local veterinarian contacted him, and that meant significantly more to influence his vote on the issue.
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