Friday, February 25th was the end of week 7 of the Legislative Session. Tuesday and Wednesday, February 22nd and 23rd were very busy as Wednesday was Crossover Day and all House Bills needed to be dealt with before that day ended. Some years we have stayed past midnight on Crossover Day to get our work done, but this year we were done by 8pm even though we had 35 bills to deal with that day.
One of the more notable bills this week was HB 1327 which was legislation to lower that sales tax from 4.5% to 4% over a two year timeframe and make right as the Legislature promised to lower sales tax back down when they increased them in 2016. Right now, the State has about 154 Million dollars over it’s projected revenue from last year. This means the State has taxed you too much…way too much. HB 1327 would have held funding to essential State Government functions like education (teachers), state employees, community support providers and nursing homes harmless as we still have plenty of tax dollars to fund those things along with reducing the tax rate. I was happy to support the will of the 2016 Legislature and reduce taxes for the people of State of South Dakota. This legislation passed the House by a vote of 39-30 but was later defeated in Senate State Affairs. It’s also interesting to note that Governor Noem opposed this really good conservative legislation, but she has no issue with spending your tax dollars for an expansion of Custer State Park (which nobody wanted) or for a new airplane for her to travel to other states or for numerous other spending projects across the State.
HB 1166, the funding bill for Palisades State Park has now passed the full House of Representatives and will be heard in Senate Appropriations on Wednesday, March 2nd. I’m hoping that we have a better understanding of how much money will be needed to complete this project by then so that we can have a solid plan moving forward. Rep. Caleb Finck from Tripp and myself are working diligently to get this all hammered out so that we can get this funded for the good people of Garretson. More updates to come in the future!!!
As always, if you are interested in following along with any of our committees or chambers this session, there are two great ways to do that. First, visit www.sdlegislature.gov as this is the Legislature's home page where you can find any information about session that you are looking for. On the front page you will find a schedule of committees and when the House and Senate will be meeting and what's on the agenda for each meeting. You can also find listings of all the bills that we will be working on this session. Additionally, if you want to listen into a committee or chamber you can click on the South Dakota Public Broadcasting icon next to that scheduled meeting to listen live. The Second way to listen and watch is to visit www.SD.Net where you can find all the live audio from the committees and the live audio and video streams from the House and Senate Chambers.
Finally, if you have any questions about how to find information about a bill or committee, or any questions at all about session please contact me.
I can be reached most anytime by phone at 605-999-2948 and by email at . If you do call and I’m unable to answer, try sending me a text and I will call you back later. Additionally, if you email please include that you are from District 25 and what town you're from. We get 100s of emails a day and I cannot reply back to them all, but if I know that you are from our district, I will get back to you! Lastly, if you are planning a trip up to the Capitol for a visit during session please let me know so that we can find a time to meet up while you are here!
Have a great week and God Bless!
-Rep. Tom Pischke
