Kristi Noem

Rep. Kent Juhnke lost his  19 year old son last week in a tragic event. Tonight is the visitation in Vivian and tomorrow the funeral at the Lyman HIgh School auditorium. Please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers today and in the future. I will be attending the visitation and prayer service tonight with many other legislators.

I enjoyed reading last week’s column’s by my two fellow legislators from District 6. As I read the first few paragraphs of Paul and Brock’s articles, I found two very different perspectives on the 4 day weeks we are spending in Pierre for the majority of this year’s session. I chuckled as I realized that something so simple could have two perspectives and I found it as a good reminder to how every situation can be looked at from different angles. A good thing to keep in mind as we progress through the next few weeks of session. ..

I will say I’m appreciating the shorter weeks as it allows me more time to complete work at home and at our family businesses, attend crackerbarrels and events to update community members on capital events, and still have quality time with my family. South Dakota maintains a citizen’s legislature, which I believe is to its benefit. Our legislators do not make politics their career. They own and operate businesses in our communities and earn their living the same as those who elected them.  It’s important that they have this experience to apply in their decision making that will affect all people in the state. A little extra time on the weekends gives legislators time to complete their responsibilities and spend time researching and reading bills for the coming week.

On to current events at the capital…This week some tough decisions were made.  The State Affairs committee saw the bill that would have exempted certain school districts from closing if their student numbers were less than 100, which was put into law last year. The bill failed in committee and will not see the House floor. This directly affected the Conde school district and they will have some decisions to make in the future.

House Bill 1243 was heard in Tax committee this week. It would have imposed sales and use taxes on certain advertising services and products and to dedicate the increased revenue to the food tax relief fund for the purpose of reducing sales and use taxes on food. It would have reduced the current tax on food from 4% to 3%. It failed in committee and I believe one of the things we all need to keep in mind is that we already have a program to address this issue that is not fully utilized. If anyone is on the food stamp program for 3 months, they are automatically eligible for the food tax refund program. There is assistance for those who need it. In the future, if this item were to be addressed, I would prefer a funding source that did not have a direct impact on the economy and tax our freedom of speech rights.

Open records legislation continues to be talked about in the media and in the capital. In the debate, I hope we all realize the importance of maintaining the security of information regarding private individuals and citizens of South Dakota. Yes, items that are set in statute to be available should be transparent; however, when that transparency releases personal and financial information of citizens in our local communities, we have a duty to protect them. I have recently had this conversation with someone in a national office regarding our volunteer organizations bank account numbers. Because the group, of which I am a club leader, is a nonprofit, the national organization will be starting to require audits. As a part of this audit, they want us to report our local bank accounts numbers. If this was a state requirement and the record was open to the public, my club’s bank account could be accessed by virtually anyone. This is exposure I do not wish to inflict on any South Dakotan who is only trying to comply with state laws.

We are continuing to work on education, property tax, and budgets. Those who were concerned about the fee that would have been added to metered water to help fund conservation districts will be relieved to know that that provision has been removed from House Bill 1185. It was an amendment I supported in committee and the bill has been sent to the Appropriations committee for review. We also defeated HB 1215 in Tax committee this week which would have changed the requirements for ag property to be assessed at that level. The increase was not necessary and it was not a viable option.

We will have a very controversial bill on the House floor on Monday, which is HB 1051. This bill changes the formula and policy for consolidation incentives for local schools. I voted against the bill last week on the floor. I’m sure Paul will cover this situation and I will let him address the details. I do want to say that it is important that we be good stewards of the tax payer’s dollars that are entrusted to us and send them to where they are most needed. However, I feel that this bill enacts a completely new policy in regards to incentivizing consolidations for our smaller schools that choose to do so. The benefits are far less in HB 1051 than the current law provides for.

I presented two of my bills in House Tax committee this week and both passed out to the House floor. HB 1182 has already been sent over to the Senate and HB 1181 will be debated next week. I talked about them in last week’s article and won’t cover the details again, but the information is available online if you’d like to look it up.

I better quit as I’ve already written enough to create a dilemma for the local newspaper editors. Thank you for keeping in touch. I enjoyed seeing all the special visitors this week. There were way too many to mention, but they included the county officials, neighbors, and friends. Have a great week.

This week in Pierre we continued work in committee and on the House floor. Commerce committee saw some bills dealing with Workman’s Comp claims and heard updates from the Dept of Labor and Insurance. Bills you may have been reading about in the press were dealt with this week in the Senate. Legislation that would outlaw vanity license plates was killed in committee. Senate bill 23 was killed on the floor, which would have given the Department of Education authority to consolidate small schools below 100 students if they hadn’t already done so within two years.

We have passed our deadline to file unlimited bills and Tuesday will be the last day to file our final 3 bills. I will have two bills up in House Taxation Committee on Tuesday morning. One will deal with appeals to property taxes and the other will revise certain provisions related to assessments for elderly and disabled persons.  The property tax bills are scheduled to go to the State Affairs committee and have no been put on the schedule yet.

I am continuing to work on an education bill that will address teacher’s salaries and allow schools to use TCAP funds for this purpose. The legislation will leave the control of the salary schedules within the districts with the local school boards and administration. There are other bills filed that set the schedules in statute and contain no funding. I don’t believe they are viable options for our schools; however teacher’s salaries in some districts are much too low. In contacting all the schools, I have found that in some districts the base salary is as low as $20,000. The amount of the base salary in each district also appears to have no correlation to the size of the school. This wide range of salaries answers some questions as to why our state has such a low teacher’s salary average, while some school districts are doing a good job in compensating their staff. There appears to be good support to address this issue in both chambers.

I want to thank the Kingsbury Co. Cattlemen for the wonderful lunch on Thursday. It was good to see you all and enjoy the excellent homegrown beef.  I also had the opportunity last week to enjoy dinner with the local REA’s and visiting with all the directors including my neighbors Dale and Deanna Olsen and Alvin Kangas.  It was nice to relax for a couple hours and visit with friends from home. Judy Tryzinka, the Codington Co. Republican chairwoman, helped host a lovely reception at the State Library.

Amanda Wegner and Sara Holstrom have finished their two weeks as pages and I want to thank them for their service. They are great girls and I’m excited to see how their stay in Pierre will inspire them to continue to impact their communities and state.

We were honored to have Senator John Thune address the legislature this week. He provided us with an update on the farm bill and other legislation that Congress will be dealing with in the upcoming months.

I sure appreciate all the phone calls and emails. Keep them coming as the session progresses. I can be reached at 881-2526 or by email at Rep.Noem@state.sd.us.

Press Release
January 14, 2008
 Representative Kristi Noem announced today that she will be filing legislation that will set a statewide minimum teacher salary and allow TCAP funding to be used for that purpose. School districts will have 5 years to comply with the standard, but will need to file a plan with the Department of Education to reach that goal.

“Right now the bill sets the statewide minimum teacher salary at $30,000 per year. The schools will have the ability to set their own payment schedules for staff, but this puts a floor on the process.” Says Rep. Noem  This legislation seeks to make the state partners with the districts in that some of the funding for this change will be allowed to come from the current TCAP program. “The TCAP funds last year were used in a variety of ways by the districts to help increase teacher compensation. Some districts found the funds difficult to apply for and use. Many times it required extra time to be put in by the teaching staff to utilize the funds. What I am hoping to do is streamline this process and allow those districts who will need to address their base pay to use these funds to do so. It is a Win-Win situation for all involved,” continues Rep. Noem. “It will also allow the districts 5 years to make the change, so as not to put them in a financial bind by placing them in a time crunch, as this is not a fully funded piece of legislation.” 

This legislation seeks to make the state partners with the districts in that some of the funding for this change will be allowed to come from the current TCAP program. “The TCAP funds last year were used in a variety of ways by the districts to help increase teacher compensation. Some districts found the funds difficult to apply for and use. Many times it required extra time to be put in by the teaching staff to utilize the funds. What I am hoping to do is streamline this process and allow those districts who will need to address their base pay to use these funds to do so. It is a Win-Win situation for all involved,” continues Rep. Noem. “It will also allow the districts 5 years to make the change, so as not to put them in a financial bind by placing them in a time crunch, as this is not a fully funded piece of legislation.”  

The bill will only address teacher’s salaries for K-12 education and the TCAP funds cannot be used for any salaries except certified teachers. Administration salaries are also not available for the funding. Rep. Noem has spent most of the week contacting all the school districts in the state to research their current salary schedules and bases set. She has also enlisted the help of several interns to complete the project so the legislation can be filed in a timely manner. Rep. Noem continues, “I want to be sure the $30,000 base salary projection is accurate and achievable statewide. That number may be a little fluid for the next couple of days, until all the information has been gathered.”

“I believe this is a visionary piece of legislation for the State of South Dakota. What it is saying is that the people of this state believe that our teachers deserve to earn a decent wage for the hard work and effort they extend to our children every day. This legislation will ensure that South Dakota remains competitive in attracting excellent qualified teachers by continuing to offer market wages in return for their investment in our children.” says Rep. Noem.

The 2008 Legislative Session was kicked off on Tuesday, and what a difference 5 days make! This is our shorter session of 35 days as compared to the 40 day session that was held in 2007, and since those 5 days come off the front end of the session, legislators are hustling to get their bills researched and filed on time. The flurry of activity and number of bills pre-filed are indicative of what we can expect throughout the next couple of months. The Governor presented his State of the State address, which was basically a recap of his budget address that occurred in the beginning of December. He gave some directives to the legislature, including solving the property tax problems and not spending new monies. We also heard the State of the Judiciary address presented by Chief Justice David Gilbertson.

I will serve on the Taxation and Commerce committees again this session, as well as continue to serve on the Executive Committee of the Legislature. The property tax bills have been sent to the State Affairs committee this year, so I do not expect to see them in the Taxation committee. There is already much effort and research being done on behalf of education. I will be filing a bill of my own that will address teacher compensation. I am looking forward to the debate and welcome any input you may have into the subject once I have submitted it. I also have a few other bills that I am currently putting together and working on, so I will keep you updated as to what those look like next week. A good friend directed me when I was first elected, “You better wipe out a bill or two for every new one you come up with!” Therefore, I will be working on that as well.

I enjoyed having breakfast with the FFA students this week from Florence, Willow Lake, Lake Preston, De Smet, and Arlington. There may have been more, but I must have missed meeting them. I believe Paul is going to list their names in his weekly update. They are outstanding examples of the kind of quality people South Dakota can produce. As I told them, a regret I had about high school was that we did not have an FFA chapter to be a part of.

I also was privileged to have two pages that I sponsored this session with me this week on the House floor. They are Amanda Wegner and Sara Holstrom from Willow Lake. They have done a great job helping us get organized and survive the schedule of the first week.

Our focus this session will not only be on education and property taxes, but also renewable energy initiatives, open government, and fiscal responsibility. We also have already voted on and passed a legislative Code of Conduct. This document is established in our Legislative rules as a guideline for the kind of conduct we require of our members. We will be accountable to each other and hold ourselves to the highest of standards.

I can be contacted anytime on my cell phone or by email. I have included these at the bottom for your convenience.  I also have a website that will include updates that you may access at anytime. Please take advantage of it. I appreciate the trust you have placed in me and take my responsibility very seriously. This time will go quickly, and I look forward to serving District 6 diligently in Pierre.

Representative Kristi Noem
Capitol Building, Third Floor
500 East Capitol Avenue
Pierre, SD  57501
www.kristinoem.com
(605) 881-2526
Rep.Noem@state.sd.us