We finished the 21st legislative day of the 98th South Dakota Legislative session. There are 16 Legislative days remaining.

House bill 1133, an Act to provide that the transporting of carbon dioxide by pipeline is not a common carrier was heard this week on the house floor. The bill basically amended existing statute whereby all pipelines companies holding themselves out to the general public as being engaged in the business of transporting commodities for hire, by pipeline, are common carriers and are not subject to the provisions of Title 49, except as provided by this chapter and chapter 49-41B. The amendment basically changed this section to say, “a company transporting carbon dioxide, by pipeline, is not a common carrier”.
I did not vote for the bill in that we would be changing the rules in the middle of the game, and it would further complicate business for the Ethanol Industry in our state. Ethanol is a very important industry for our number one industry, agriculture. The bill did pass and will now head over to the Senate for further debate.

I will be serving on the Joint Appropriation revenue setting sub-committee which will be tasked with setting revenue projections for FY 2024 ending June 30, 2024. We will begin committee hearings on February 14th and finish on the 15th, after which the projected revenue will be inserted into our road map showing us what we will have available to spend.

In addition, we will be having an in-depth discussion on around 50 one-time spending bills that will eventually be inserted into the supplemental budget. It is important to note that currently we have $177 million dollars more in one-time bill requests than we have money to cover. The supplemental budget is money not spent and available, estimated at $304 million, for one-time spending bills for fiscal year ending June 30, 2023.
The Joint Appropriations Committee will also be focusing on FY2024 budget, paying special attention to major items, including but not limited to tax cuts bills and the four big spenders, Big Three inflation, Medicaid providers to 100%, Tuition Freeze, and School Vouchers.
The House Appropriations Committee, rather than the Joint Appropriations Committee, has been assigned 20 bills. Bill hearings are scheduled for House bills 8-12 am on Thursday, February 16, and 8-12 am on Tuesday, February 21. Bill hearings are open to the public and must be scheduled in advance to give opportunity or proponent and opponent testimony.
The Joint Appropriation’s work groups continue to gather information from providers that are dependent on Medicaid. We continue to find a much greater need for increased Medicaid reimbursement than what was projected in the Governor’s budget.

Another important Joint Appropriation’s workgroup is analyzing the tax cut proposals that have passed out of Tax Committee, those being repealing tax on food, lowering sales tax from 4.5% to 4% and not taxing the first $100,000 of homes. In addition to analyzing the direct cost of the tax cut, they will be preparing an in-depth report on the cost and time to implement each of these proposals.

South Dakota’s FY2024 budget will be balanced as required by our constitution.
A little history. The South Dakota budget balance amendment also known as constitutional amendment P was on the November 6, 2012, ballot where it was approved. The measure made clear in the south Dakota constitution that the state budget must be balanced. The reason behind the proposal was because the state constitution only implied that state budge needed to be balanced.

Thank you for the honor of serving as your District 20 Representative.