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We passed three more election bills off the Senate floor this week. HB 1112 is an act to modify provisions for a statewide runoff election. This will require a runoff election to occur 8 weeks from the date of the first primary election. HB 1124 is an act to modify provisions pertaining to the testing of automatic tabulating equipment. HB 1165 is an act to modify certain provisions pertaining to absentee voting. This bill bans prefilled absentee voting forms and prevents ballot drop boxes which are an avenue for election fraud.

HB 1114 is an act to allow for a partisan recount board. I passed this bill out of Senate State affairs and it will go on consent calendar on the floor. We will continue to work on legislation to make our state’s election law even better than it currently is.

Healthcare HJR 5004 is a resolution to propose and submit to the voters at the next general election, an amendment to the Constitution of the State of SD, authorizing the state to impose a work requirement on certain individuals who are eligible for Medicaid. This would allow the State of SD to require those who are able bodied, between the ages of 18-64, and not pregnant – to have to work to stay on Medicaid benefits.

I did amend this resolution in committee to allow for an exception “unless diagnosed as physically or mentally disabled”. I wanted to be sure that someone who can’t meet the work requirement needs due to cancer treatment, a mental health diagnosis, or kidney dialysis, for example, wouldn’t be kicked off Medicaid and be left uninsured.

This resolution still did not pass out of committee because the committee felt (7-2) that the people of SD had spoke in the last election and that there are too many questions about what a work requirement would look like and how to determine who is “physically or mentally disabled”. The resolution died.

I did pass HB1150 out of committee and it will be put on the Senate consent calendar and hopefully move to the Governor’s desk. This bill will remove the renewal fee for a medical marijuana card for those who have only been given a short trial period with a card. Basically, the DOH can only charge one fee per year and the health care provider can still limit the time frame, to provide good follow up care. I feel like this is a way that we can keep marijuana patients with their primary care providers, and out of pop-up clinics.

We are continuing to discuss the Medicaid reimbursement rate for providers. The Governor had set an initial goal to increase the rate, and we as a legislature are looking at those numbers and what we can do with our current budget. I would like to see the rate increased to 100%. This will help keep our nursing homes open, as we have seen many close recently.

HB1220 is an act to allow that a female who undergoes an unlawful abortion, will not be criminally charged. This will be heard in Senate Health next week.

My colleagues and I are trying to put together a bill, before the end of session or possibly next session, that will protect the life and health of the mother. We are still in negotiation with pro-life groups to determine that language. This has proven to be a very difficult negotiation process as we have been at the table with stakeholders for the past 8 months and have not yet found a path forward. I trust that we will be able to clarify this language and proceed forward together to protect the lives of mothers and babies.

I was able to move HB1185 out ofSenatecommerceandenergy to the 4th step of the legislative process. It will be heard on the Senate floor Monday and will hopefully move to the Governor’s desk for signature. This bill will remove non-competes for behavioral health counselors, social workers, physical therapists, and occupational therapists.

Agriculture SB185,whichcreatedaboard to review foreign ag purchases, failed in the Senate. I and our Ag groups are planning to set aside time before next session, to come together with law that could prevent ownership of land if those foreign entities have bad intentions of harming our State and the nation. North Dakota and Montana may pass legislation this year that could provide some framework for us. I hope to have productive legislation to bring forward next year.

We did pass HB 1159 which will allow us a way to track some of these foreign ag purchases by requiring disclosure to the secretary of state. I still believe we need to have more teeth in this legislation and have a way to accurately limit and discover these harmful transactions.

I am thankful that we have three representatives involved in agriculture in District 21. Representative Overweg, Representative Blare, and I are a great team working to help educate the rest of the legislature on Ag issues and move forward Ag legislation.

Juvenile Justice I was able to move SB4 out of House judiciary this week and it will be heard on the House floor Monday. This bill came out of our summer study and will allow judges discretion to use DOC services for a habitual juvenile offender. I think this is a positive step toward getting juveniles the services that they need in our rural areas.

Tax cuts The legislature was looking at 3 specific tax cuts this year to decide how we can keep money in the pockets of our citizens. We discussed owner occupied property tax cuts, removal of the food tax, and a decrease of sales tax. The food tax bill died in the House. I have always had the sales tax cut at the top of my list as this was the feedback I was getting from District 21. It also makes sense economically.

If we dropped the sales tax from 4.5% to 4.2% we would be keeping about $100 million dollars in the pockets of South Dakotans every year. This is a very responsible way to reduce and we should be able to sustain our obligations based on the budget numbers and needs that we are seeing, and estimating in the future. This would be the greatest tax cut in South Dakota history.

Special guests Morgan Gill from Colome is a Senate page currently and I enjoy having our local kids in Pierre seeing how the process works. Colome is my hometown, population 300, and I have been so thankful to the parents and teachers that help get our kids involved. If anyone is interested in being a future page, please contact me.

Thankyouforallowingme to serve District 21. Please reach out with any questions or concerns at erin.tobin@sdlegislature.gov