We have officially completed 8 weeks of the 2010 South Dakota Legislative Session! Next week marks the final week of session and will culminate with legislators debating and ultimately passing the General Appropriations fiscal year 2011 budget on Friday, March 12.

Budget Plan

On Friday, my GOP colleagues and I unveiled our list of proposed cuts to balance the fiscal year 2011 budget. This has been a long process for all of us as we have worked diligently with members of the House-Senate Joint Appropriations committee to identify $40 million + worth of cuts to state government departments, programs and other entities.

I believe the Republicans in the legislature have taken the right approach during the legislative session regarding tackling our budget deficit. With programs and personnel subject to being cut, it is absolutely paramount that this process be done in a thorough and responsible manner over the duration of the entire legislative session. I also believe strongly that our goal to balance the FY 2011 budget without using reserves is the right path to take. Early projections show our fiscal situation to be much more dire in fiscal year 2012 so we need to save our reserve money for next year when we will need to use it.

It is important to note that all these cuts are not final as we will be working next week with our Democrat colleagues in the legislature and the Governor’s office to hammer out a final list which will be included in the General Appropriations legislation. I plan on discussing these cuts with constituents over the weekend and taking their feedback with me to Pierre next week.

Here are the list of cuts:

Dollar/Cuts/Department
$150,000/Legislative travel/Legislature
$200,000/Board of Regents inter-state compact participation/Board of Regents
$300,000/Drug Court/Judiciary
$1,700,000/Intensive Meth Treatment Program/Corrections
$300,000/Dakota Digital Network tech reduction/Bureau of Information & Telecommunications
$265,000/BOR university consortium/Board of Regents
$2,300,000/Tobacco prevention/Department of Health
$970,000/PhD program in physics/Board of Regents
$770,000/Student tech fellows/Board of Regents
$660,000/School for the Deaf/Board of Regents
$100,000/State Fair/Department of Agriculture
$500,000/Education Service Agencies/Department of Education
$1,000,000/Tourism & State Development/Tourism & State Development
$400,000/Co-op Extension Service/Board of Regents
$500,000/Agriculture Experiment Station/Board of Regents
$6,500,000/Federal Medicaid clawback/Department of Social Services
$4,000,000/Excess personal services/All
$4,000,000/Capital expenditures, travel, supplies/All
$7,000,000/2 percent across-the-board cut, excluding K-12 education and Medicaid/All
$11,500,000/Large project refund reform
$43,115,000 Subtotal
$2,700,000/Projected tech school enrollment decline/Board of Regents
$500,000/Game Fish & Parks parks division/Department of Game, FIsh & Parks
$800,000/School consolidation incentives/Department of Education
$3,500,000/Change to growing enrollment program in K-12 funding formula/Department of Education
$2,000,000/Potential other funding sources for South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship/Board of Regents
$52,615,000 Total

Committee Action

We had some very significant debate on important legislation in both the Education and Judiciary committees this week.

In the Education committee, we heard testimony on Senate Bill 124 which is the legislation that seeks to change the index factor for K-12 education and also ties increases in K-12 education with increases in state government general fund revenue. I am a strong proponent of this approach because I continue to believe it is the most responsible method to allocate funding for K-12 education. Simply put, during years when state government revenues are growing, K-12 education will get more of the share of funding. During years when state government general fund revenues do not grow, K-12 will share in some of the sacrifices. I believe that this legislation will, in the long run, provide more funding for K-12 schools and also help us during the lean economic years in South Dakota.

I was very disappointed that SB 124 was amended in committee and passed in a manner that changes the complexion of the bill. I will be joining a group of legislators that will try to amend SB 124 back to its original form on the House floor on Monday. Stay tuned!

We also passed SB 12 this week in the House Judiciary committee. Senate Bill 12 is the highly publicized legislation that reforms the sex-offender registry list in South Dakota by creating three “tiers” of lists on the registry. The first “tier” includes a list of offenses where someone on the registry could request to petition off the registry after 10 years. The second “tier” includes a list of offenses where someone on the registry could request to petition off the registry after 25 years. The third “tier” includes a list of offenses (including all offenses where children were the victim) where someone on the registry would be on their for life. It is important to note that it is NOT a slam dunk that offenders will be automatically off the list. This bill just provides for them a petition process to make their case to get off the list. I believe these are equitable changes to the sex offender registry list.

Personal Bills

I’m happy to report that HB 1206 (my bill involving life insurance contestability provisions in the event of fraud) is on its way to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law! I’m also happy to report that two of my other bills that I primed on the House side (SB 156 & SB 97) are going to the House floor on Monday for debate after passing out of committees this week.

Senate Bill 156 is a bill that ensures that BOTH juvenile and adult drug convictions get reported to South Dakota schools and the South Dakota High School Activities Association. Currently, the Unified Judicial System is only mandated by statute to report juvenile violations. This means that an 18 or 19 year old who is participating in high school activities and gets charged with a drug offense could fall through the cracks in terms of being reported by the UJS to the schools.

Senate Bill 97 seeks to change salvage law by adding an extra definition on the title of a vehicle. Currently, if a vehicle is stolen and there is no damage to the vehicle, the title of the vehicle is still labeled as a salvage vehicle (even if there is no damage). One result of this is it lowers salvage value which is ultimately passed on to the insurance paying public. This legislation would simply add a definition of recovered theft, no damage to a title and incorporates an element of fairness involved to all sides.

Contact Information

Feel free to contact me anytime to discuss issues that are of importance to you. My e-mail address is rep.schlekeway@state.sd.us and my phone # is (605) 310-8600.

Have a great weekend!

Todd

It is officially crunch time for the 2010 legislative session! The rubber will hit the road over the course of the next two weeks as my legislative colleagues and I will be working diligently to finalize the fiscal year 2011 budget and identify approximately $40 million worth of cuts in order to balance our books in state government.

House Floor Debate

Tensions rose this week on the floor of the House of Representatives as we debated some prominent issues. The calendar of bills was jam-packed on Monday and Tuesday of this week because it was “crossover day” on Tuesday meaning that all bills that started in the House had to have had their final hearing/debate in the House by Tuesday.

The most high-profile issue we debated on Tuesday was House Bill 1083, which was a bill that would make an appropriation for costs related to the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority to secure the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) at the old Homestake mine in Lead, SD. The bill asked for an appropriation of $5.4 million dollars for a six month period from December 2010 through May 2011 to keep the DUSEL lab in operation until the guaranteed grant money becomes available from the National Science Foundation in June of 2011.

It is important to remember that the $5.4 million would have come from 5 different funds in state government and not general funds. These funds are flush with money and this would have essentially been a one-time transfer out of these funds to keep the “once in a lifetime ” DUSEL project operating until next spring. I had an opportunity to visit the DUSEL lab last summer and it offers enormous revenue potential, economic development and higher education research capabilities to the state of South Dakota.

Unfortunately, House Bill 1083 failed on a party line vote on Tuesday. I was very disappointed that our Democratic colleagues on the other side of the aisle block voted against this legislation and choose this issue to play a partisan game of russian roulette with. The bottom line is that the Homestake DUSEL project has been a bi-partisan endeavor since day 1 of the project in South Dakota. Former Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. Tim Johnson, Sen. John Thune, Rep. Herseth Sandlin and Gov. Mike Rounds have all played vital roles in the advancement of this project. The South Dakota legislature has also been behind this in a bi-partisan fashion since its start in 2005.

I can tell you that the Republicans in the State House of Representatives and State Senate are still working diligently to find a way to make this special appropriation happen by including it in the general appropriations bill at the end of the session. To make this happen, we’re going to need the help and support from our friends on the other side of the aisle.

Committee Action

Two of my bills passed out of committees this week. I am the prime sponsor of HB 1206 which provides life insurance companies with the ability to contest policies after a two year period in the event that the insured was fraudulent in the application or medical examination process. This bill took one more step this week as it was passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee.

I am also the House Prime Sponsor on SB 109 which streamlines the process concerning the deposit of county funds related to the 24/7 sobriety program. This bill passed the House Judiciary Committee last week and is now headed to the house floor next week for debate.

Sioux Falls Day at the Legislature

Wednesday of this week was Sioux Falls day at the legislature. The Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored two bus loads of Sioux Falls citizens to spend the day with us in Pierre. The Sioux Falls Chamber sponsored two events during the day: a noon luncheon and an ice cream social in the capital rotunda.

I want to personally thank District 11 residents Margaret Amundson, Mark Willadsen, Doug Berkland, Aaron Kvistero, Nate Welch, Jason Mueller and Stacie Fredenburg for taking time out of your schedules to make the trip to Pierre. It was great visiting with all of you!

Legislative Coffee

On Saturday, I will be participating in a legislative cracker barrel session at 10 AM at the Holiday Inn City Center in downtown Sioux Falls. Legislators from Districts 9, 11, and 12 will join me on the panel.

Contact Information

Feel free to contact me anytime to discuss issues that are of importance to you. My e-mail address is rep.schlekeway@state.sd.us and my phone # is (605) 310-8600.

Have a great weekend!

Todd

We have officially completed five weeks of the 2010 South Dakota Legislative Session! The next four weeks of the legislative session will be “crunch time” as lawmakers will be voting on legislation that will seek to find cuts and efficiencies that help reduce our estimated $40 million deficit for fiscal year 2011.

The intensity will also be picking up as crossover day is next Tuesday. Crossover day is the legislative day where all bills that started in the house of origin must be out of that chamber and over to the other chamber. For example, any bill that starts in the House must be out of the House by next Tuesday (either passed or defeated). After Tuesday, in the House of Representatives, we can only deal with bills that have passed the Senate.

We had an interesting week in the House Education committee. In the Education committee, we passed House Bill 1152 which requires the Department of Education to develop a framework for entrepreneurship education. South Dakota school districts would be able to use this curriculum established by the Department of Education as resources to enhance the business, personal finance and internship opportunities for students. It is important to note that it will not be mandatory for school districts to use this curriculum. I was a proponent of this legislation because I have been an active participant in the Junior Achievement program and I see the value that business education has on preparing student’s for real-life experiences.

Opportunities Scholarships also continue to be a hot topic this legislative session. This week, the House Education committee passed House Bill 1160 which allows home schooled students an opportunity to qualify for an opportunities scholarship if they achieve an ACT score of 26. Since home schooled students are not measured on curriculum, they are required to achieve a higher ACT score than students who attend public or private high schools in South Dakota. This was an interesting debate and I see both sides of this but at the end of the day I believe that it is important that home school students not be denied the opportunity to qualify for this scholarship if they want to attend college in South Dakota.

I’m also pleased that my legislation (HB 1206) to allow life insurance companies to contest life insurance policies after two years in the event of fraudulent activity by the person insured passed the House Commerce committee unanimously this week. This legislation will now move to the House floor this week where I will be advocating for its passage.

On Saturday, I joined my legislative colleagues from Districts 9, 11 and 12 for a Legislative Coffee at the Holiday Inn City Centre in Sioux Falls. We fielded great questions on many of the most important policy issues facing South Dakota this legislative session. I appreciate all of the District 11 residents and Sioux Falls citizens who attended the cracker barrel. There will be two more legislative coffees (February 20 and February 27 at 10 AM at the Holiday Inn City Centre) that I would encourage everyone to attend.

Have a great week!

We have officially completed sixteen legislative days and the fourth week of the 2010 session! The capital was bustling with activity this week as our committee hearing schedules were jam-packed with testimony on bills and the floor debate in the House was longer and more contentious.

We passed several significant bills this week out of the House Education committee. On Monday, we passed HB 1108 which lets school districts keep the maximum allowable general fund base percentage (amount of general fund money they can keep in reserves) at 40% from 2011 until 2014. This bill is very significant as it freezes the maximum amount of reserves school districts can keep in their general fund at 40%. Without this bill, school districts would have been forced by state statute to draw down their general fund base percentage to 25% by fiscal year 2012. This legislation will provide school districts more flexibility with their financial decisions by keeping more in general fund reserves during these tough economic times. HB 1108 also passed on the House floor and is now headed to the Senate Education committee. If you want to review this bill, visit this link: http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2010/Bill.aspx?File=HB1108HED.htm

On Wednesday the House Education committee passed HB 1190 which establishes alignment between opportunity scholarship requirements and high school graduation requirements. HB 1190 would allow a student to be eligible for the opportunity scholarship in South Dakota by substituting career and technical education (CTE) classes
approved by the Department of Education in place of the current foreign language requirement. The bill also provides some flexibility for opportunity scholarship recipients. Currently, these students are required to take 15 credit hours for both the fall and spring semesters (30 total credit hours per year) as one of the criteria needed to maintain the scholarship. The change made in HB 1190 would allow students to take less than 15 credits in one of their fall or spring semesters as long as they take a total of 30 cumulative credits in the fall and spring combined. HB 1190 will be debated on the floor of the House next week. You can review this bill by visiting the link below:  http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2010/Bill.aspx?File=HB1190HED.htm .

On Monday the House Judiciary committee passed HB 1081 which revises certain court automation surcharges. House Bill 1081 is the number one priority of Chief Justice Gilbertson and the Unified Judicial System this legislative session. This legislation would raise the filing fees that plaintiffs and other persons instituting charges would pay in civil, criminal and small claims actions. What would the increased fees be used for? The Chief Justice and a member of the UJS staff testified in committee that the revenue generated from these fees would be used to purchase a comprehensive electronic software records program. South Dakota lags way behind its neighboring states in the technology used in our judicial system. Currently, the UJS has an antiquated records system that makes it more difficult for all stakeholders in the UJS system to communicate and access records in an efficient manner. The new technology is expected to cost around $11.5 million. I thought the testimony by Chief Justice and other legal professionals was very compelling and I plan on supporting this effort on the House floor as well. To read this bill, click on the following link: http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2010/Bill.aspx?File=HB1081HJU.htm

I have great news to report on the elemental formula/insurance coverage issue I have been working on for months now. I am happy to report that I did not have to submit the bill I had drafted because on Tuesday, we were able to come to an agreement with the major health plans in South Dakota. We were able to hammer out an agreement with the state of South Dakota’s health plan as well as the health plans of Wellmark, Dakotacare, Sanford, Avera, and Medica. These companies cover almost the entire health plan market share in South Dakota. Our agreement was based on a similar terms of coverage agreement made in Minnesota in 2007. South Dakota is now the 14th state in the country that provides private health insurance coverage to cover the expense of the elemental formulas Neocate and Elecare for children who are allergic to milk and soy products and have no alternative for sustenance.

I want to personally thank District 11 resident Brenda Eich for leading the charge on this issue. Brenda led a coalition of families with children who suffer from these disorders and have experienced the financial difficulty of paying for these formulas out of pocket and with no help from their health plans.

I also plan on sponsoring legislation (House Bill 1206) in the next several weeks that will give companies who sell life insurance policies an opportunity to contest the policy within the first two years of the policy if the applicant or the policy holder insured was fraudulent. Currently, life insurance companies can only contest the plans during the first two years when the policy holder’s premiums are not paid. These protections are already on the books for companies that sell health insurance and we would like to have them in place for life insurance plans as well.

Please feel free to contact me anytime. I can be reached at (605) 310-8600 or rep.schlekeway@state.sd.us. As always, stay tuned to toddschlekeway.com/blog for updates and videos from the 2010 legislative session.

We have officially completed twelve legislative days and the third week of the 2010 session! The third week was a little strange due to the inclement weather conditions that hit South Dakota last weekend and earlier this week. Many legislators from certain parts of the state did not get back to Pierre until Tuesday afternoon and many were consumed all week communicating with and helping their constituents who were without power in their homes, businesses and farms.

This week also was the filing deadline for lawmakers to submit an unlimited number of bills. The final deadline for legislators to submit their final 3 bills is this Tuesday. The Legislative Research Council has indicated to us that the number of bills filed and introduced this year will be down from previous legislative sessions. I suspect that this is primarily the result of the economic conditions are state is currently facing. Most legislators have no desire to even attempt to introduce legislation that has any financial strings attached to it. Also, I sense a desire by legislators on both sides of the aisle to not get bogged down with as many bills this year so they can focus on solutions to solving our budget deficit issue.

I am happy to report that we are making progress on one of the signature issues I have been working on this session. We have been working for months to get private insurers to help cover the expense of elemental formulas Neocate and Elecare for children who are allergic to milk and soy based products. We have been meeting with the families, the medical directors of health plans, employees from the SD Department of Health and Division of Insurance, and various government affairs and lobbyist stakeholders to hammer out a terms of coverage agreement. I have legislation drafted with bi-partisan support but it appears like we are very close to taking care of this outside of the legislative arena which has been my desire the entire time. Minnesota also took this route when they provided coverage. I will provide a final update on this issue in a future weekly report.

I had an opportunity to be the prime speaker on two bills this week on the House floor. On Tuesday, I advocated for a bill that would authorize the deposit of federal special education funds into the capital outlay fund for the purchase of equipment as long as it is specifically tied to special education. On Wednesday, I advocated for legislation aptly named the Good Samaritan bill. The bill allows emergency responders, Good Samaritans and others who may become exposed to blood borne pathogens while rendering aid in an emergency situation to obtain medical information about the person they assisted.

The South Dakota Public Broadcasting television program Statehouse devoted coverage of the floor debate on both of these bills this week. If you would like to view my floor speeches and the debate on these issues, click on the video links below:

http://www.sdpb.org/Statehouse/shows.aspx?MediaID=57694&Parmtype=TV&ParmAccessLevel=sdpb-all

http://www.sdpb.org/Statehouse/shows.aspx?MediaID=57703&Parmtype=TV&ParmAccessLevel=sdpb-all

I would encourage all of you to watch Statehouse  every weeknight at 10:30 PM (re-aired every morning at 6:00 AM) on your local SD Public Broadcasting channel. This program provides the best wall to wall coverage of the South Dakota legislative session.

Please feel free to contact me anytime. I can be reached at (605) 310-8600 or rep.schlekeway@state.sd.us. As always, stay tuned to toddschlekeway.com/blog for updates and videos from the 2010 legislative session.

We have officially completed the second week of the 2010 session! The pace in the capital building started picking up this week as legislators have been seeking co-sponsors for their bills and submitting them to the Legislative Research Council for formal introduction. The deadline for legislators to submit an unlimited number of bills to the LRC is this Thursday, January 28.

Committee hearings in both the House and Senate have also formally commenced as all of the committees have conducted hearings on bills. I serve on the House Education and House Judiciary committees and we had some interesting discussion on a variety of bills this week.

On the House Education committee, we heard testimony on several bills impacting special education. House Bill 1021 will allow school districts who receive federal special education funds the option to deposit these funds into their district’s capital outlay fund for any equipment purchase for special education. For example, under this legislation, school districts can transfer federal special education money into their capital outlay fund and purchase computers, materials or equipment for SPED teachers. The key is that the capital outlay money be spent on special education equipment. Right now, districts must spend SPED general fund resources to purchase equipment for their special education programs. The bill passed unanimously in the House Education committee. I plan on carrying this bill on the House floor this week.

On the House Judiciary committee, we conducted hearings on a variety of bills brought to us from the South Dakota Attorney General’s office. One specific bill would provide for certain mandatory training for county coroners. Currently in South Dakota, county coroners have very limited training opportunities. This bill would authorize the Law Enforcement Officers Standards Commission to establish minimum educational and training standards for newly elected county coroners and advanced training standards for incumbent county coroners. The committee will take final action on this bill this week.

Solving the budget issues remains to be the number one priority of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. We will be working diligently over the next 7 weeks to come up with proposals and ideas to help alleviate the budget situation. It can’t be stated enough that very difficult decisions lie ahead and that there will have to be cuts to good state government programs. I would encourage South Dakota residents to pay close attention and stay in communication with your lawmakers this session.

The House Republicans are going to play a vital role in this process and search for cuts and efficiencies that have the least impact on the citizens of South Dakota. It is imperative that we take a responsible approach this session and that includes saving our reserve money for the fiscal year 2012 session (when we will be in a situation that we will more than likely need to use some of these funds).

On Friday morning, I had the opportunity to say the Leadership Prayer at the annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast. It was an honor to participate in this event as it is always an uplifting and spiritually convicting event. The main speaker was Tony Hall, a former U.S. Ambassador and Congressman from Ohio. Tony delivered an outstanding message that focused on spiritual leadership and his passion to help solve world hunger issues.

Please feel free to contact me anytime. I can be reached at (605) 310-8600 or rep.schlekeway@state.sd.us . As always, stay tuned to toddschlekeway.com/blog for updates and videos from the legislatative session.