25th District Representative Randy Gross
After a busy first week, the legislative pace picked up even more in the second week. Bills are working their way through committees. A few bills of interest are discussed below.
The House passed HB 1001 by a vote of 54-12. This bill removes the sunset clause on the bill that reduced everyone’s sales tax from 4.5% to 4.2% last year, making the tax cut permanent as was envisioned when sales taxes were raised in 2016. HB 1001 now moves to the Senate for consideration. Since my drafting this article, the Senate has voted to defeat HB 1001.
The state expects $115 million in surplus ongoing revenue this fiscal year, much of which Governor Noem proposes putting towards a 4% increase in funding for education, health care providers and state employees. There is considerable discussion centered on making sure the 4% for education finds its way into teacher salaries. Figures available from the State Department of Education shows about 138,000 K-12 students with $10,500 cost per student. Public school revenue per student ranks 34th in the nation, while public school teacher salaries rank 50th. The legislature funds education – we do not set teacher salaries.
Several bills under consideration relate to “compacts”. Compacts are agreements between states to recognize professional licenses among the states to alleviate work force issues and allow citizens to have continuity is the services they use. A key element of compacts is that they should not change South Dakota standards. For example, an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse currently licensed in Iowa may work (if Iowa is a compact member) in South Dakota under the compact (without additional licensing paperwork) but must still meet and follow all South Dakota standards. These bills are receiving support but generating debate to question and confirm compliance with South Dakota standards and questions as to which direction employees will migrate if other states have higher wages.
You may have heard or read about the need to construct new state prison facilities because of overcrowding and the age/inefficiency of existing facilities. Prison facilities are extremely expensive because of their specialized needs. Some funds were appropriated for this purpose last year, but more is needed, and unfortunately anticipated costs continue to rise rapidly. In her budget, the Governor proposed allocating $228 million towards a new men’s prison. In addition to funds approved last year, she proposed $27 million more for the Rapid City area women’s prison project to account for inflated costs. Going forward, the amount to set aside for this purpose will be a dominant budget discussion point.
On Thursday, we had a joint memorial service for former legislators who passed away during the last year. This was a very moving event honoring those who have worked on your behalf and provided service to our great state.
Please remember, this is your government, and all citizens are welcome to visit the Capital and testify on bills, remotely or in person, or simply observe the process. Information on the content and status of bills is available on the state web site https://sdlegislature.gov. I can be contacted at .
Sen. Tom Pischke
With the 2nd week of the 2023 Legislative Session now completed, we are starting to see a good number of bills being introduced. We already have 142 items introduced in the House and 120 introduced in the Senate. Our job will be getting very busy in the upcoming weeks as we manage to navigate through all these proposed pieces of legislation.
This last week was highlighted with House Joint Resolution 5001. If passed this would have changed the process in which the Republican and Democrat candidates for many Statewide offices would be selected. Right now, the parties selected these candidates in convention process in which active members of each political party gather, listen to nomination speeches, and vote amongst themselves as to who is best suited to be their party’s candidate. The proposed change would have basically eliminated this Convention process and opened the process so every challenged race would be on the primary ballot. This would have opened pandora’s box and we’d have more big dollar donors funding races for Attorney General and Public Utility Commissioners. I did not support this effort because our current process works just fine, and it keeps big money from big donors like Sanford and Summit Carbon Solutions out of more South Dakota political races.
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 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!
Senator Tom Pischke
SD Senate – District 25
Senate Education Committee
Senate Local Government Committee
Senate Tribal-Relations Committee
Cell: 605-999-2948
Email: &
