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Well, the 17th Legislature Day is in the books, the deadline to drop bills is past, and if you’re a legislator here comes Crossover Day. The next two weeks will be fast and furious with Legislators running from one committee to another, testifying on bills while trying to get back and vote in committees they sit on. If you’re Chair of a committee this makes you want to pull your hair out, which explains why I’m losing most of mine. But there is a method to the madness and we get our work done. Just over 500 bills were introduced this session which is normal I guess but it always amazes me that there is that many things wrong in South Dakota. I’m carrying two bills this year. The first one will involve the Brand Board and helping with some fee changes for inspections. The second one is a Right to Repair bill, now this is a heavier lift and yours truly is not John Deer and Case Internationals favorite person. This bill will allow farmers and ranchers access to certain programs so that they or someone else could fix equipment they own instead of having to use the equipment dealers shop to do their repairs. This should give producers more of a choice and give dealers less of a monopoly on cost of repairs. Next week the two committees that I sit on will be doing double meetings all week which will make for some long days but it’s also important we don’t get behind. This week was a quick turn around since I must be back Saturday night for the Governor’s Inaugural Ball so this article might be a little short then normal. Although we took a lot of bills on the Floor this week it wasn’t all that exciting but there are a few that stood out. The Convention of States bill died on the Floor which surprised me since it got out of State Affairs rather easily, but you never know. One bill that passed was HB 1061 which protected parent’s rights to access their child’s medical records. I believe Parental rights are important and I supported this bill. The bill that would’ve required all schools to allow a Chaplain to be on staff either paid or on a volunteer basis failed and we passed 1068 which allows National Guard members to wear their military decorations at graduation. I loved this bill and the idea of honoring these young people for serving in the South Dakota Guard and thank my District mate Representative Halverson for bring it. We also decided we should ban cell cultured meat and voted to block our state government from spending state funds on it. I voted for both, this stuff is horrible, but it makes me nervous letting government tell people what they can and cannot eat. It concerns me to go down this road of losing our freedom of choosing what we eat but so many of you thought we needed this law, so I supported it. That’s going to wrap this week up but just a reminder, next Saturday the15th we’re going to have three Crackel Barrels starting in Wagner, then Corsica, and finishing in Plankinton. Please check your local papers for times and locations and I hope to see you there. If you need to contact me my information is Marty.overweg@sdlegislature.gov or give me a call or text at 605-680-0304. If I don’t respond right away, please forgive me, I shut my phone off when I’m in a committee meeting. Thanks again. Representative Marty Overweg.
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A few (or more) years ago, Popeye the Sailor Man was an inspirational cartoon character. When needed, the superhero would quickly swallow some spinach and become strong, able to pack a punch that would defeat any evil villain.
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Several Charles Mix Electric members took advantage of three local meetings held in January to provide information on rate changes that will take effect on April 1st. In an effort to reach as many members as possible, Charles Mix Electric held district meetings throughout the county in Platte, Lake Andes, and Wagner.
Read moreWe had an exciting week in Pierre swearing in a new Governor and Lt. Governor to lead South Dakota for the next two years. Our new Governor, Larry Rhoden, chose Representative Tony Venhuizen to serve as our next Lt Governor and preside over the Senate. I like our new Lt Governor and have served 4 years with him in the House in which he served as the Vice Chair of Appropriations. I respect him both as a person and as a Legislator. I look forward to serving and working with both of these gentlemen to make sure South Dakota stays strong, safe, and free. We had other guests as well this week, Corsica/Stickney school and Armour school both came to visit us and tour the Capital. Like I’ve told you before this is one of my favorite things that go along with my job. It takes a little work to get them to engage and ask questions but once they do it’s great. You never know what they’ll ask or what’s on their mind. That was proven again this week when one young man asked why I was wearing a pink tie that day, to which I responded because I was married and he’d understand someday. As I mentioned in last week's column, things picked up this week with bills being dropped and Legislators running around like their hair was on fire. On the House floor we had around 30 bills this week and a few of them were kind of interesting, like HB 1052 which prohibits the exercise of eminent domain for a pipeline that carries carbon oxide. As you can imagine there was a lengthy debate on the House floor and after hearing the pros and cons, I voted for the bill because in the end I felt it protected landowner rights and makes everyone play by the rules. Also, on the floor we passed HB 1044 which allows the use of newborn safety devices where a parent who feels that they aren’t able to raise their newborn child are now able to drop the child off at these designated safe places with no questions asked. I’ve received many emails, letters, and post cards about the funding cuts for local libraries and I understand how important our libraries are to our communities. Like I said before when Governor Noem announced theses kind of cuts when she knew she was leaving was in my opinion not right. I think all departments of government need to cut spending across the board, but I am not in favor of gutting one or two of them. Some of these cuts were proposed to make room in the budget for the new prison funding, I also do not think that was a smart approach to governing. I’m talking to other legislators and the Governor’s people to see if there is any room for negotiating on these proposed cuts. I almost forgot to mention that I have my first page sponsor working for us for two weeks. Emmie Huizenga from Platte/Geddes school is working hard and hopefully learning some interesting things. The Page program is great and it’s fun to work with these great kids from communities across the state of South Dakota. We always claim Ag as our number one industry but the kids we raise and turn out to the world are awesome as well. That about does it for this week’s column. Remember if you need to contact me, it's Marty.overweg@sdlegislator.gov or call me at 605-680-0304. Always my honor to serve you, Representative Marty Overweg
Read moreThis week was the start of a lot of long days. We start at 7:45 Monday, Wednesday, Friday in Education. We start at 7:45 on Tuesday and Thursday in Health and Human Services. We have to be done with our meetings by 10:00 so that the next committee meeting can get started in that meet-ing room. Some days we had to carry over to the next meeting day the bills that we didn’t get to. One day we had security officers in our meeting.
Read moreIt has been a historic week of the 100th Legislative Session. We started the week off with Larry Rhoden officially our new governor, who then announced his LT Governor pick. A select committee was formed and a confirmation hearing was held for Tonnis H. Venhuizen. Tony was a member of the Joint Committee of Appropriations/House Appropriations Committee, so that leaves a vacancy on our committee. He was then confirmed by both chambers by a unanimous vote. The House of Representative members joined us in the Senate as the new LT Governor and President of the Senate took the oath of office. The last time this situation occurred was a much more somber situation, when Governor Mikkelson had died in a plane crash.
Read moreThe 100th Legislative Session is one third of the way done with the completion of Week Three. Governor Larry Rhoden addressed a joint session of the House and Senate for his first time as Governor. Highlights of his speech were the need to keep South Dakota strong, safe, and free. We need to have fair and predictable regulations for businesses where the rules aren’t changed in the middle of the game. He stressed the importance of civility, communication, limited government, and transparency.
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