We all headed back to Pierre after a 2-week break for one final day, which was Veto Day, last Friday, March 29. The two bills on the agenda were House Bill 1186 and Senate Bill 176. Also, in the House, we elected 5 new members to the Executive Board and approved the next year’s legislative calendar. Both bills were returned from the Governor for what she ruled as “Style and Form Veto.” There isn’t enough ink to explain the discussion regarding the debate that ensued.

HB 1186 is a bill to continue cost sharing for funding of juvenile detention in the counties. The bill had a clerical error which would cut the money for 2019. The Governor vetoed this bill with a “Style and Form” putting a date in it so the money would continue to go to the counties this year. If that had not been done it would have cost the counties a lot of money. The House supported the veto with a vote of 48 yes and 19 no. The Senate passed it with a vote of 28 yes and 3 no. This needed a simple majority to pass. It moved back to the Governor’s desk and she signed it that same day.

The contentious bill was Senate Bill 176. This bill was introduced through the Joint Appropriations Committee. SB-176 basically granted $1 million for the purpose of developing more habitat ground primarily for pheasants, but would also benefit ducks, geese, partridge, and grouse as well as big game like deer and antelope.

It also is set up to match one dollar of general funds (your tax dollars) for every dollar received from the private sector like Pheasants Forever and Ducks Unlimited, just to name two. This match also would pertain to any federal dollars going to our state’s habitat. The cap from our state treasury would be one million dollars.

What happened with SB-176 is there was also a clerical error when we passed it in the late hours of March 12th leaving out a clause to make the monies used in 2019. The clerical error put the one million dollars into 2020 funds and not 2019 like it was intended. The funds were allocated in the FY 19 budget and if this Style and Form Veto was not upheld with the date change, it would have caused a structural deficit for the budget and put our Triple A Bond Rating in jeopardy. If we would lose the Triple A Bond Rating it would cost the state and industry, including education, millions of dollars. The vote on the 12th was 48 yea, 14 nay, 8 excused (absent). The bill needed 47 for 2/3rds because of the funding. The 2/3rds is figured out of the House legislator total of 70 representatives. So, if eight are excused (absent), that makes it that much harder because we actually need more than a 2/3rds vote, as in this case as we only had 62 members present to vote.

The debate was brought by several who voted in favor of the date change by a “style and form veto” on HB 1186 but thought the date change by a “style and form veto” on SB 176 was not right. They are thesamefolkswhodebatedagainst the bill in the first place and wanted to do anything possible to make it fail. The Senate had supported this bill change early in the day with a vote of 24-7. Finally at 5 PM the debate was closed and the House voted, passing the bill 41-25.

In closing, I would like to explain my support for the habitat bill, SB-176. First and foremost is economics. Take our 1-1/2% tourism tax. Statistics have proven that for every dollar we spend with this tourism tax revenue we receive four dollars back. This is a good return on our investment to the #2 industry in our state. In South Dakota, Agriculture is the #1 and Tourism is the #2 industry for revenue.

Regarding pheasant, duck, and goose hunters, the return on investment is 18 to 1!! This makes it 4.5 times more return on investment than our tourism rate. This is a great deal!

I applaud Governor Noem and her staff for having the courage and foresight to try and invigorate our bird hunting, especially trying to keep us as #1 in the country in pheasant hunting. It wasn’t easy, but SB-176 passed and South Dakota will benefit from the revenue from our bird hunters.

At the end of our 40th day, which was Veto Day on March 29th, we ended the session with the traditional Sine Die. This is Latin which means without assigning a day for further convening. The double doors in the back of the House chamber and the double doors in the back of the Senate chamber were both opened. Then the Speaker of the House looked across the rotunda through the Senate chamber to the Lieutenant Governor, President of the Senate, and at the exact same time they gavel out for dismissal of the 2019 94th Legislative Session, Sine Die. In common terms, the legislative session is over! The next legislative session begins on January 14, 2020.

To all the citizens of District 21 I again want to extend my appreciation to you for your support, your ideas, your encouragement, and your prayers. It has been a great honor to serve all of you in District 21 and all across the state. Again, if you would like to contact me, call (605) 207-0406 or email me at Lee.Qualm@sdlegislature.gov

Praying you have a wonderful week! Blessings!