by Benjamin Chase
of the Plainsman
HURON – Two of the three District 22 legislators spoke to a standing room only crowd on Saturday morning at City Hall about the first few weeks of legislative session.
Representative Lana Greenfield spoke first, talking about the numerous visitors to Pierre from District 22, and specifically from Huron. She then talked about the work of the House education committee, which she chairs.
Senator Brandon Wipf discussed learning the ropes in his first session after being appointed last spring. He spoke about decorum in the Senate in his impression.
Wipf featured HB 1044, regarding rural healthcare money allocated to the state. Wipf reported that in the first year of the program, $190 million will be distributed in the state to rural healthcare systems as he emphasized the needs in rural communities for care close to home, especially among aging populations.
The first question from the audience was regarding the school voucher bill, HB 1168. Greenfield stated that the bill is potentially going to die due to a lack of a sponsor. She also discussed existing tax credits for private education, increased poverty level to make more need-based scholarships available for private education, and a passed bill to pay for free lunch for a larger number of students as a means to explain why there is not a lot of appetite in the legislature to sponsor a bill on school vouchers.
Greenfield and Wipf both also discussed the $1,700 federal tax credits for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, which could be used by private or public schools.
The next question was on HB 1021, regarding demolition of buildings on the South Dakota State Fairgrounds. Wipf stated that he was asked to carry the bill on the Senate floor by the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The primary purpose is to provide funds to remove dilapidated buildings on the fairgrounds. The bill passed through committee, joint appropriations, and both floors unanimously.
The next question came about a working group organized to cut five percent across the board in the budget. Sen. Wipf stated that the group is working, but it’s losing traction.
The next question was about the plethora of voting bills and connecting the legislature with county auditors, who would be responsible for carrying out the bills passed on elections. Greenfield joked, “We want to run everything (in Pierre). Even when we don’t know what we’re doing, we think we’re the authorities on everything, apparently.”
She added that changes in voting recently have caused downstream issues that are being cleaned up. She stated that she hoped there would not be a lot of change to voting this session.
Wipf noted that an early piece of advice he got as a Senator was to keep county auditors happy, and he stated that on the local government committee that he is part of, there were a number of “clean up” bills due to unintended consequences of voting bills from last session, and those bills did receive supporting testimony from county auditors who came to Pierre to testify on behalf of the bills.
The next question regarded municipal financing, in the form of HB 1245 to allow for specific taxes for capital outlay purposes and multiple bills regarding tax increment financing districts, or TIFs. Greenfield mentioned that there is a lot of misunderstanding regarding TIFs due to the misuse of the TIF program.
Both legislators stated that HB 1245 was early enough in the process that they have not become familiar with it yet.
Sen. Wipf and Rep. Greenfield were then asked about data centers and the financing for them. They came down on opposite sides of the issue, with Wipf in favor of exploring how to fund data centers. Greenfield has significant concerns before moving forward with state funding of data centers.
The legislators were asked about a bill regarding zebra mussels that was defeated and how to encourage legislators to engage and be interested if the bill were to come forward again. They both suggested additional education and personal stories to help encourage legislators to understand what is being proposed.
As they closed, Greenfield and Wipf both encouraged District 22 voters to contact them to express their thoughts on bills. The next legislative coffee is Feb. 28.
Representative Kevin Van Diepen was not present due to illness.
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