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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.
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WiththecompletionofWeek Eight, only one is week left in the 2026 legislative session.
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Beyond property taxes, the other big finish-line items are the budget and appropriations bills. Those decisions set the direction for the year ahead— education,publicsafety,health care,andthebasicservicespeople rely on. With only a couple of weeks left, the focus shifts from big ideas to what we can responsibly pass and pay for.
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On Crossover Day, the House of Representatives passed, a bill to “establish parameters for the reimbursement of school districts that provide free or reduced- price meals to students”. The prime sponsor stated that the bill does not remove parental responsibility, as only certain families are eligible, andtheparentsmuststillfillout paperwork in order to receive meals for their children. South Dakota’s current system, based off the National School Lunch Act of 1946, means that while costs of these meals remain constant, funds are inconsistently gatheredthroughdistrict budgets, private fundraisers, and community charity. The bill provides a small amount of state funding to relieve the school districts of these continuous costs which are not receiving continuousfunding.On Wednesday, House Commerce and Energy heard SB 88, which passed unanimously and with zeroopponenttestimony.Senate Bill 88 is an act to “clarify the procedure for a potential condemner to examine real property absent the property owner's permission”. The bill was brought to address problems createdbyaformerlawallowing surveyors with a PUC permit to survey private land without addressing the landowner. The repercussionsofthisformerlaw included surveyors surprising people in their own homes and making unauthorized changes to their land, resulting in several lawsuits. SB 88 codifies a 2024 SD Supreme Court ruling that invasive surveying is unconstitutional. The bill passed committee unanimously and was sent to the floor to be heard on Thursday with a Do Pass recommendation. A bill to invest in South Dakota’s youth passed the House on Wednesday afternoon with a majority support of the house. HB 1244 was an act to provide a one-time appropriation to the Jobs for America’s Graduates program, currently available in many South Dakota high schools. The sponsorbrieflysharedaboutthe program, whose aim is to keep students facing certain hardships staying in schools and to instill leadership qualities in them, leading to employment post high school. The program boasts a 99% graduation rate, a 99% retention rate, and 88% of studentsthatareintheprogram move on to full time employment or post-secondary education. While the existing JAG programs currently receive funding that stems from their local school districts, the appropriation would go into a pool to be used for the expansion of the program, and which would be used to attract other federal and private funding sources. The bill required the support of 2/3 of members elect in order to pass, and it passed easily with 51 representatives present in support.Thelightisattheendof thetunnel.Wehave2weeksleft. Madisonisn’tpartofourdistrict but every year they bring up all their4thgradersaftertheyhave a “little legislators’ session” It’s a highlight of the session for so many of us. I would love to see more schools participating.
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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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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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