LEGISLATIVE REPORT

Representative Rocky Blare

District 21

Gregory/Tripp Charles Mix/Bon Homme Counties

Committees: Agriculture and Natural Resources, Judiciary, Vice Chair of Transportation

Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave. Pierre, SD 57501-5070

Cell: (605) 840-0963 Home: (605) 842-1617 email: rockyblare@gmail.com

The 96th session of the SD legislature ended this week and it went a lot better than it has in several years.

On Monday the House heard 25 bills and 2 motions. There was a smoke out attempt of bill SB105 which had failed in committee 9 to 4 earlier.

House Resolution 701 was a motion to wait on the potential impeachment of the attorney general Jason Ravensburg until after a conviction, plea of guilty or nolo contuidre or acquittal in the case vs the state. The House of Representatives evaluate whether articles of impeachment are necessary and proceed accordingly.

SCR 607 affirmed the legislatures support of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

SB128 which says no school district, school board or association of media contractor may interfere with the right of news media to attend and engage in journalism concerning any high school activity or event. Reasonable accommodations would be made for them at the event free of charge. This would apply at any state championships.

SB27 allowed tuition rates paid for online or remote learning off campus to be in line with the other rates at an institution.

SB34 makes a $75 million appropriation to expand broadband services along with $25 million from covid relief funds. Another $100 million will be contributed from the industry to get coverage to remote areas of the state.

SB93 would appropriate $20 million for the rail line from Pierre to Rapid City. There will be a match in federal grants of $22 million and $42 million from the railroads to redo the entire line. They can then move more safely and increase speed from 10 to 25 mph and carry much larger loads.

SB99 would go toward building the DEX (a livestock and equestrian complex) at the State Fair. This will replace the one that was burned down last year. $12 million was appropriated and $7 million has been raised from private donations for the project.

SB126 and SB186 would build and complete a crisis center in Rapid City with $4.6 million and in Sioux Falls $3 million for the LINK triage building which would help support our behavioral and mental health providers and reduce substantial costs incurred now. Minnehaha County is putting up $1.2 million, Sioux Falls, $1.2 million, Avera $1.2 million, Sanford $1.2 million along with grants and gifts totaling $1.4 million for this project. Truly a state, county, state and private citizens partnership. These facilities will help with providers and families all across the state.

SB48 would pay off $21.5 bond obligation at our technical colleges and save $1.7 and help prevent fee increases for our students.

SB28 allows $3.9 million donation from private donors for adding a wrestling facility to the Sanford Jackrabbit Complex on campus at SDSU. Equipment and furnishings are included. This does not cost the state any money. SB25 appropriates up to $4.2 million to implement provisions concerning the legalization, regulation and taxation of medical marijuana and possibly recreational marijuana. This declares an emergency to get started on work which the voters passed in this last election.

HB1259 was amended to $6 million from $9 million. It will pay out over 2 years instead of 3 years for township infrastructure improvements such as small bridges and culverts.

HB1100 was amended in the Senate which would have removed a criminal penalty for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana even if you are under 21. It effectively would make recreational marijuana legal and removed the limits on the amounts of marijuana one could purchase. Therefore IM 26 (medical marijuana) will take effect July 1, 2021 as written and approved by voters for medical marijuana in last year’s general election.eral election.

The big news is we finished Thursday approving a budget of $5.1 billion. By far the most ever in SD history. Most of the increase in the budget was because of covid relief funds sent to us from the federal government to offset costs and revenue losses due to the pandemic. Fortunately for SD we stayed open and businesses and residents found ways to work. Therefore, our sales tax was higher this year than last year, despite the pandemic challenges.

This year we were able to raise all the Medicare providers to 100% of the true methodology rate. This is truly a good report for CSP providers, LTC, psychiatric care and in home care assistance and others that have worked so hard for those in need.

We approved a 2.4% increase to schools; state employees and the mill levy request will be lower in most cases because we are using less state funds. For example, the maximum tax levy on ag property will go from $1.44 to $1.41 per thousand dollars value taxation.

House Bill 1100 which would have given the state agencies and stake holders time to implement initiated measure 26 was amended in the Senate to include the decimalization of marijuana. The House did not agree with the amendment, therefore it died. So, the voters will get IM 26 as it was written and voted on and will start July 1, 2021. This is strictly the medical marijuana law.

I want to thank my constituents for your support. I want to encourage anyone who has any suggestions or questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Representative Rocky Blare rockyblare@gmail.com

Senator Erin Tobin

District 21

Gregory/Tripp Charles Mix/ Bon Homme Counties Committees:

Commerce & Energy, Education, Vice Chair of Health & Human Services

Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave. Pierre, SD 57501-5070

Capital: (605) 773-3851

Cell: (605) 840-4224

e-mail: Erin.Tobin@sdlegislature.gov

We finished up our last week of session and some amazing things happened for South Dakota during the finalization of our budget. We were able to get teachers and state employees a 2.4% raise. We also were able to give community support providers about a 16.7% raise. This is huge for SD and if this is all we were able to do this session I would have been very pleased. But we did more.

We placed some long term investments in the state with one time money. We will expand broadband to the whole entire state. We will extend the railway from Pierre to Rapid City. We put $50 million into an endowment for the South Dakota Freedom Scholarship, which is a need based scholarship. These three things alone will have a positive impact on our state for decades upon decades. This was truly historical for our state.

Bills that we finished up on last week include:

HB 1217 was a bill to protect female sports programs. This was not a bill to hurt transgender students. Transgender students have a right to play on the same teams as their biological makeup. Women have come a long way in the last 100 years as they didn’t always have sports. Title IX is a federal law that was put into place which helps guarantee that biological women get the same athletic chances as men; to give women the right to play, receive scholarships, and compete on an even playing field.

We have to continue to protect the biological differences that males and females inherently have. When one group of people have to give up their basic rights for another’s – whose rights even matter anymore? I do not feel like refusing to give up one’s rights equals discrimination. I’m not going to allow the NCAA, or any institution, tell me what rights I have or do not have and I don’t think the people I represent are willing to do this either. HB 1217 will now go to the Governors desk for signature.

SRD 901 was a proposal to not approve of the merger of the DENR and Agriculture. I reached out early on this as I wanted to see what everyone’s thoughts were. I have been getting opinions on both sides of this issue. I took all of this, and the information that I learned during the legislative session, to formulate my vote. I would like to remind everyone that the Governors Cabinet is picked by the Governor and it doesn’t necessarily matter if there is one or two departments that she oversees.

I truly believe Ag and DENR would work very efficiently, transparently, and effectively by being together. I see redundancies that would be eliminated by this. I see the benefit in working in the same building in order to communicate better as issues arise. The farmers and ranchers in the Senate – voted in the same way I did. I will continue to support ag going forward and I also personally consider farmers and ranchers to be some of best conservationists as they truly want to leave the land to the generations to come.

The executive branch was very transparent in this issue from the start. I encourage all of you to listen to the hearings that were held on this if you truly want to see the inside of this decision.

I told you all last week that we needed to see what the final product would be with medical marijuana. I had several major concerns with HB 1100 after hours of discussion with Senate/House colleagues and constituents.

I felt that if we were to have an interim committee, it needed to be heavier on the legislative side and not have so many people sitting on the committee because especially with this topic; more isn’t always better. I felt that we needed to allow patients access to this right away while we were tweaking the final bill with the interim committee. This is why I voted initially for the affirmative defense amendment and then voted to amend it further to make certain we were being as safe and as reasonable with this.

The amounts for a patient with a seizure disorder or cancer would have required at least 24 gm of the concentrate to last a month. I was not ready to ask a chronically ill patient to acquire more medication every 7 days just because we as a legislature aren’t comfortable with that.

We were able to agree as a Senate that this is what SD wanted. I am proud of the Senate for this. During our discussions I continually heard “What the people asked for” and “The best for our patients and veterans.”

Ultimately, the House of Representatives couldn’t agree. We as a Senate stood our ground, knowing that the bill could die and IM 26 would go into effect. We were ok with this as a 2nd option. We knew IM 26 wasn’t perfect, but it is the best we could do with all the information we had, the ask, the need, and the huge array of opinions on this topic.

I want to thank you for allowing me to serve District 21 this session. It was a learning experience in many ways. From the first time I stood up on the Senate floor to speak about a bill during week 1, to the last week where I spoke about four bills on the Senate floor in one day – I grew so very much. My people at home were always in the back of my mind during these decisions and when I had to stand up and speak on tough issues.

I tried to keep everyone in the loop, respond to every email from my district, and represent you in the way that I campaigned – with my values. Not every bill had a clear yes or no vote, in fact most didn’t. I ended this session knowing that I gave it my all and that is good enough for me…..for now.

Veto day will occur March 29th. I hope you all continue to reach out to me during the off season. I was elected to Executive Board, so I hope to keep you updated during the summer months regarding summer studies and so forth. Please visit erintobinforsd.com to sign up for the newsletter. I’ll try to update this as much as possible.

Thank you all for allowing me to serve.

Until next session – Stay well!

Senator Erin Tobin District 21