Weekly Recap - Week 5
Last week Covid-19 finally hit the Capital and State Legislators. As of Sunday, 8 House members have tested positive and no Senators. I was in close contact with the first Representative who tested positive and chose to stay at home last week and participate remotely. I did get a test, and I tested negative. The Legislature set up rules for this year that allow a Legislator to participate remotely by Teams. I was able to attend my committee meetings and vote on bills being heard on the Senate floor. Being the Chair of the Senate Local Governments Committee, I had some concerns about running the meeting out of my office instead of being in person at the committee room, but for the most part, everything when off without a hitch. I did have to have two computers up and running and put in a good hour of serious prep time to be prepared. Last summer, committee rooms were upgraded so the video could be used in them, and now all committees are set up to use Teams, so individuals wishing to testify remotely can now use video and voice. Before this session, a person could only call into most committee rooms to provide testimony.
This week the Senate will be meeting after the session a couple of times to talk through potential spending bills and proposals. Last week the Governor informed the Legislature the state would have another 125 million dollars of one-time funds available due to the CARES Act and savings to the state. Tax revenues are on the rise right now, and we expect that to hold for a few more months, but we also expect that number to come back down after all of the free money from the Federal Government runs out. I really hope we all can survive Covid and this national debt we are running up.
If you like to follow the Legislature and some of the different bills, I will provide a couple of interesting ones that will be heard on the Senate floor or in committees this week.
SB 124 An Act to provide for the exercise of religious freedom.
SB 152 An Act to authorize counties to issue off-sale liquor licenses. I did vote against this bill in committee, but I need to ask a couple more questions and may end up supporting the bill.
SB 123 An Act to require a comment period for the attorney general’s statement regarding initiated measures and initiated amendments.
SB 144 An Act to make an appropriation to provide for a crisis stabilization unit and declare an emergency. This bill will send $4,600,000 to the Department of Social Services to provide money to Pennington County to build a crisis stabilization unit that will serve western South Dakota.
HB 1034 An Act to revise certain youth hunting requirements. This bill would remove restrictions on nonresident minors to hunt and fish in South Dakota. I’m all for getting more kids in the fields and on the water, but I’m not sure this bill is the answer.
Please contact me with your comments and concerns at herman.otten@sdlegislature.gov