NEWS From The Legislature

The legislative session is flying by and I can hardly believe that we are finished with the first 2 weeks already. This past week was filled with many committees beginning bill work full time and a lot of my time has been focused on drafting legislation for this session. I was also able to take some time this past week to visit with the students that visited the Capitol from Platte and answer questions that they had about specific legislation and the legislative process. If anyone is planning to visit the Capitol during session please reach out to me ahead of time and I will be sure to have some time to visit with you during your Capitol visit! Emails, texts, and phone calls all work!

This week also brought the introduction of the first of several bills that I have been working on.HB 1084 - An act to increase the maximum allowable height of certain vehicles carrying baled feed. This is an issue that was brought to my attention by several constituents of the district. Currently the law that was written in 1989 says that maximum allowable height for carrying baled hay is fourteen feet and three inches (14’3”). As many of you know as equipment has gotten larger so has our ability to make larger bales. HB 1084 proposes to change the maximum allowable height to fifteen feet (15’). I believe that this will fix this issue for many people hauling hay. Additionally, some people have suggested that will not be high enough, for this we also have a possible solution. I am continuing to work, in addition to HB 1084, with the Department of Public Safety and Department of Transportation on the possibility of adding an over height provision to the oversized permit that many hay haulers already have. This would allow them potentially to haul higher hay loads with a permit. I am hopeful that HB 1084 will be scheduled for its first hearing in House Transportation this coming Thursday, January 30th at 10:00AM.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to say Thank You our incredible IT Staff in the Legislative Research Council. Many of you may not know that the legislature this year has taken a giant step forward in the technology that we use to run the legislative process. They have created, from the ground up, an incredible system that handles all of our drafting of bills, sponsorship, introduction, amendment process, committee processes, research, administration, and greatly improves our public transparency of the legislative process. As with all new IT systems we have had a few minor glitches but they have helped to fix them in a matter of minutes or at most an hour or two. I hope that you are able to check out the sdlegislature.gov website to see just part of what they have accomplished and to follow any legislation that you are interested in.

If you would like any additional information on these issues or any other issues please contact me by email at Caleb.Finck@SDLegislature.gov or call me at 605-933-2042.

SD House of Representatives – District 21: Bon Homme, Charles Mix, Gregory and Tripp Counties

Contact information: cell: 605.933.2042; Email at: Caleb.Finck@SDLegislature.gov OR CalebFinck@Gmail.com