Senate Report - by Bryan Breitling

2023 Legislative Session Begins!

The 2023 Legislative Session opened on Jan 10th with Governor Noem’s State of the State Address. “Our state’s agriculture industry is now a $32 billion industry, and it’s responsible for 1 in 5 jobs in the state.” She also addressed points on her ‘Building the American Dream’ initiative by supporting education and building workforce in SD, and points on her ‘Promoting Stronger Families’ initiative with expanding the state employee FMLA from eight weeks at 60% of pay to 12 weeks at 100% of pay, creating a statewide risk pool so private employers can participate, and other family initiatives.

I will continue to serve as Vice Chair of Senate Appropriations. In our first week, not much activity has taken place on the floor. So far, there are 140 bills dropped this first week, and they must make their way through the committee process before hitting the Senate Floor. SB41 Housing Infrastructure, is the lone bill that made it out of committee to the floor. It passed 31-0 so it will now go to the House for continued debate. This bill was passed last year, but the funds were not released without some updates, so this bill fixed the concerns. The bill provides grants and revolving loans through the SD Housing Development Authority to assist with housing infrastructure, such as streets, water/wastewater, electrical connections, and curb & gutter projects, designed to make new housing developments less expensive to complete and therefore cheaper for our state residents to build houses.

In appropriations, all departments will present their budget to the committee in the coming weeks. This week, we heard from the Bureau of Finance & Management (BFM), Governor’s Office, School & Public Lands, Public Utilities Commission, State Treasurer, Tribal Relations, Veterans Affairs, Military, Investment Council, Retirement System, Legislative Audit and Legislative Research Council.

Most of these departments are stable, so not a lot of items to highlight, but some interesting nuggets of information are… BFM reported that the federal dollars that came to the state to manage were: Cares Act $1.25B (all spent), ARPA Recovery Funds $974.5M(about 1/3 spent), and ARPA Capital projects $115.8M (zero spent – awaiting approval from the feds). The Investment Council reported that while 2022 was not a great investment year, SD has far exceeded most other public and private industry investments with just a -0.7% return this year and +8.35% return over the last 20 years. SD has the lowest cost public investment system in the nation at less than 0.1% cost.

The state retirement system paid out in 2022:

County - Recipients Annual Benefit

Campbell - 63 $1,014,120

Brown - 1,374 $30,548,442

Edmunds - 114 $2,041,564

Faulk - 127 $1,840,191

Hand - 120 $2,011,907

McPherson - 80 $1,289,488

Potter - 112 $1,974,232

Walworth - 233 $4,364,908

I am working on legislation for landowners’ rights, county jail financial support, Hiddenwood Lake rebuild, and other topics. I get to work with a great team representing your interests. District 23 Rep. Scott Moore from Ipswich, Rep. JD Wangsness from Miller. I would love to connect with you if you are able to make a trip to Pierre this year. Please email, text or call any of us to set up a visit. As always, I can be reached at [email protected]. I look forward to continued conversations!

House Report - by Scott Moore

As of January 7, 2023, shortly after 11 a.m. it became official. I took the oath of office as South Dakota House of Representatives, for District 23 (Hand, Faulk, Edmunds, McPherson, Potter, Walworth, Campbell, and a portion of Brown County).

Since winning the Primary and not having a General Election, I have been able to meet with many different groups who I look forward to working with. I have been assigned to the Education Committee, Health and Human Services, and the Veterans Affairs Committee.

I have been fortunate to have District 3 Legislators and JD Wangsness and Bryan Breitling from District 23 try to help me understand this process. I do believe we have a good group of Legislators that can work together, but I can assure everyone we will not always agree but will respect each other’s vote and move on to the next topic. All current and past legislators and state employees that I have met in Pierre and other gatherings have a common goal: to keep South Dakota financially strong and to keep our mid-west values. I have no doubt we can accomplish these goals.

While meeting other legislatures I have been asked many times what my stance is on eminent domain (landowner rights). I believe and support the idea that legislators can strengthen landowner rights with some modification to the existing law. How this will look when completed is not clear yet. Tuesday January 10, 2023, South Dakota Legislation began and I’m sure there will be bills introduced on landowner rights but until they are all on the table to be discussed/debated, I would only be making a uninformed decision or statement on a final decission.

With my past and current positions with FEM Electric Cooperative I have a good understanding of what landowners and agriculture producers expect when crossing their land and disturbing the soil.

My cell number is 605-216-2617 or email me at [email protected] with your phone number and topic you would like to discuss. Thank you! We are going to have a great 2023.

House Report - by James Wangsness

The South Dakota Legislature convened to open the 2023 Legislative Session, at 12:00 p.m. (CT), January 10, 2023. Rep. Hugh Bartels of House District 5 was nominated and elected Speaker of the House with 53 yeas and 14 nays. Rep. Mike Stevens of House District 18 was nominated and elected Speaker Pro Tempore of the House unanimously.

After a short recess, both House and Senate met in the House chamber in a joint session of the Legislature at 1:00 p.m. (CT). Gov. Kristi Noem gave the annual State of the State address.

In her address, Gov. Noem stated that South Dakota is growing and strong, being number one in personal income growth in the nation, also stating that South Dakota is the number one state in which to be a soldier, airman, and veteran. South Dakota was also the freest state in the nation, defending peoples' right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and stated her plan to lower taxes to better enable people to live the American dream. Gov. Noem stated her determination to expand the apprenticeship program to help fill the job vacancies and better enable young men and women to pursue the job of their dreams. Gov. Noem announced that tourism in South Dakota has dramatically increased and stated that the Department of Tourism would this year launch a dedicated Native American tourism marketing campaign to expand tourism to the Native American reservations to teach key stories and history from our Native American communities. Gov. Noem declared her intention to further expand paid family leave from covering 60% of an employee's salary to 100% and recommended providing state employees up to $25,000 to cover the cost of adopting a child domestically. Gov. Noem then announced the Stronger Families Scholarship Proposal to better provide foster children with the education they need, and to give them better access to childcare. Gov. Noem also declared that the Chinese Communist Party was perhaps the greatest external challenge facing the nation by watching Americans through Tik Tok and seizing land. She announced her determination to pass legislation to ban the purchase of land from hostile nations, creating the board called the Committee on Foreign Investment United States South Dakota.

Guests included former Gov. Dennis Daugaard, and 2022 Miss South Dakota, Hunter Widvey. Also present was the staff of Avera Avantara in Salem, and Staff Sergeant Mark Kock whom Gov. Noem honored with the Governor's Award for Heroism.

Rep. James Wangsness noted it is good to be back in Pierre.