PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Go to sdlegislature.gov for an updated list of legislative committee meeting agendas, as well as the House and Senate floor calendars, for Monday, the 30th day of the 2023 session’s main run. Visit sd.net to hear committee and floor actions as they happen or catch up via the archives.
Follow KELOLAND’s Bob Mercer on Twitter @pierremercer for updates throughout the day from Pierre. And check out KELOLAND.com for all the latest news, including legislative reports from Jazzmine Jackson, Eric Mayer, Jacob Newton, Rae Yost and all the others.
FROM THE GRINDER (They’re making laws, not sausage!): Monday not only marks the start of the final week for the Legislature’s committees to hold bill hearings, it’s also the deadline for special appropriations bills to clear their first chamber. Here’s a look at the spending bills set for debate today:
Today’s Senate calendar shows 13 spending bills that originated in its chamber. Several weren’t among the governor’s recommendations. One is SB-158 from appropriators Republican Sen. Jack Kolbeck and Republican Sen. David Johnson that would send $20 million to public airports. Another is SB-156 from Republican Sen. Helene Duhamel that calls for another $100 million of federal COVID-19 relief money to be spent on water projects; Duhamel originally wanted the money specifically for “a grant to local project sponsors for the engineering, design, and preconstruction activities of the Western Dakota Regional Water System project,” but the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee removed that phrase…
Today’s House of Representatives calendar shows 10 spending bills that began in its chamber. Among them are the governor’s two big prison bills, HB-1016 that seeks $60 million for an additional women’s facility at Rapid City and HB-1017 that calls for more than $341 million to replace the men’s penitentiary in Sioux Falls…
The House also is scheduled to debate HB-1143, whose prime sponsor now is appropriator Republican Rep. Tony Venhuizen, a former chief of staff for both Governor Noem and previous Governor Daugaard, that requests $5 million for “restoration, maintenance and repair” of the state Capitol building. It had started as an empty “vehicle” bill — that is, an intentionally vague piece of legislation meant to become something else later if necessary — that House Republican leader Will Mortenson introduced. The House State Affairs Committee that Mortenson chairs inserted the $5 million language into it on February 15, and the next day the House received notice that the prime sponsor would change to Venhuizen, the House appropriations panel’s vice -chair.
