The 8th week of the 2022 Legislative Session ended on Thursday, March 3rd. Our focus has now shifted from House Bills to Senate Bills and legislation regarding spending and the general budget. With so much excess taxpayer money coming into the State this year, the fight for dollars for projects has been more exuberant than in years past. I believe every State school has asked for money for one project or another this year, when we usually only fund a couple projects in a typical session. Unfortunately, the Legislature has rejected all ideas to lower your property taxes and/or your sales tax burden because the majority of Legislators favor building buildings on collage campuses and funding more social programs than actually helping out the average taxpayer.
It seems that every week in the Legislature brings it’s own flavor of drama and this week was no different. For example, we’ve been overwhelmed with numerous pieces of Legislation regarding marijuana this year and many of them would seriously hamper the medical marijuana program. I have fought hard against these attacks as the people of South Dakota were clear with the vote in 2020 with 70% of the people in support. Many of these proposed attacking measures were supported by Governor Noem and her friends in the Legislature.
The fireworks continued with the debate of HR 7004 which was a House Resolution addressing the Governor’s unacceptable actions in the matters related to the appraiser certification program. This resolution was brought forward by Representative John Mills of Volga who, like many other of us true Conservative legislators, found the behavior of the Governor to be unacceptable. Astonishingly, during the debate, it appeared the Governor was texting a certain member of the House and asked him to deliberately interfere and disrupt the explanation as to why Rep. Mills brought the House Resolution. Ultimately, the resolution ended up failing to get the required number of votes to be passed as too many other legislators lack the fortitude to stand up for what is right even when it means holding the Governor of our own party accountable.
Update on the Palisades State Park Road: At this moment, HB 1166 looks good as it was amended in Senate Appropriations committee to the exact details to fund the exact amount needed to completely rebuild the road and then it passed that committee unanimously. Now, there are numerous backroom deals and cuts made during this last week so I can’t say we are completely out of the woods yet. In fact, on Thursday morning, Senator Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown, who is the President Pro Temp of the Senate told me “the Palisades Road bill is dead.” Now, it’s hard to say if he will hold true to his word because he’s pretty much an egotistical maniac but I’ll continue to do what best for the good people of Garretson and continue to fight hard for this funding.
As always, if you are interested in 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
