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Lawmakers in Pierre are seeing some changes as the budget-writing committee takes on new leadership.
The Joint Appropriations Committee has changed from last year, when Rep. Dean Wink was chairman of the House panel and Sen. Corey Brown was chairman of the Senate panel.
A Republican from Howes, Wink has been elected speaker pro-tem and is next in line to be House speaker.
A Gettysburg Republican, Brown has been elected Senate president pro-tem and handles administrative work while presiding over the Senate when the lieutenant governor is absent.
Those jobs require a lot of time, so Wink and Brown are no longer on the time-consuming Joint Appropriations Committee. The new chairs are Sen. Deb Peters of Hartford and Rep. Fred Romkema of Spearfish. Both are Republicans.
