As you start to read this article, we are beginning our second to the last week of session. We did complete crossover day last week, but had to suspend the rules to do so. On crossover day, all the bills have to leave their House of origin and “crossover” to the other. The House of Representatives did not get their calendar completed, and suspended the rules to allow one more day to get the job done. The House has an unusally large number of bills this year and a shorter session to get the original hearings for the bills over. An little fact you may find interesting is that members try to wear black on crossover day in memory of all the legislation that has met its demise over the previous weeks. And believe me, some of it deserved to die.

We had Valentine’s Day last week as well and my Valentine made the trip out to visit me. Bryon hadn’t been to Pierre since I was sworn in, so it was special to have him there. He came out after work, surprised me with supper and headed back. It was a quick trip, but with kids at home and calves hitting the ground, he just couldn’t stay longer. I will say that if it was up to him, we wouldn’t be calving right now. It’s not very smart for me to buy cattle that are calving in February and then proceed to be gone the entire month….or is it?

I wanted to write a little bit about our crackerbarrels we had over the weekend. We had one in Lake Norden at the Bull Pen Saturday morning at 10. I want to thank Alvin Kangas for lining it all up and Wendy for allowing us to meet in her place of business. We had great attendance and good conversation. Topics included allowing guns on campus, property taxes, illegals in the state, funding for conservation, education, liquor licenses, smoking bans and eminenent domain. I will try to pick a topic or two this week that I haven’t covered before.

I wanted to visit with you regarding the proposed smoking ban that was working its way through the legislature this year. You may have heard that there was an “impromptu” meeting of the state affairs committee on the House side for the sole purpose of putting forward legislation, HB 1237 sponsored by Rep. Joni Cutler, which would ban smoking in public areas statewide. The members of that committee were told that it was something they could do according to House rules. They passed the bill out of committee, where it was to continue on to the House floor. Later it was deemed that this was not correct procedure and the bill was thrown out. It never did make it to the floor. However, it did stir up public interest and I received many postcards and emails supporting the ban. I would not have supported the legislation. I am not a smoker and never have been. We have had very little of it in our family as I was growing up. However, I do believe that business owners already have the option of making their place of business smoke free. We have the option to visit their place of business or not. If I choose to go to a restaurant where there is smoking, that is my choice. If enough people object to the smoking and it starts to hurt business, I’m sure many business owners would ban the practice as well. That business owner has the right to determine if they want to allow smoking and I have to right to determine if I want to go there or not. I don’t believe the government has any place in that discussion. What many of us have deemed as a “bad habit” is not looked at the same by others. We are a country of freedoms and yet we continually see the drive by others to legislate all of our freedoms away. Government has a place in our lives, but it should be small, unobtrusive, and not dictate every portion of it. Now, we already have many regulations set in law that protect areas where we have no choice but to go and many times with small children, including clinics, office buildings etc. But when we take it to a statewide level, we remove many property owners’ rights along with it. My question for those who would support the statewide ban would be, “What’s next?” What if they decide eating French fries is a bad habit? Diet Coke? It’s possible. Diet Coke has products within it that are known carcinogens so the same argument could be made. I have found people are usually in support of bans, as long as it isn’t something they participate in. If you study the bills proposed each year, you will find many that provide for overregulation of our society. Something to keep in mind as we go forward is that we shouldn’t ask government to do something for us that we have the ability to do on our own.

We also had a crackerbarrel in De Smet at 2 pm on Saturday at the Wards store. The cookies were out of this world! I wish I would have filled my pockets. We had great debate, heated at times, on gun control, education, and the Opportunity scholarships. We had great attendance there as well.

I wanted to cover two more bills that passed the House floor this week that you may be interested in. HB 1263 allowed 10 year olds to hunt in South Dakota. Current law sets the minimum hunting age at 12, with an exception for landowner’s children who are allowed to hunt at age 10. This bill requires a parent or guardian to accompany the child as a mentor. The adult is not allowed to carry a gun, must stay within arms reach of the child and hunt in a group no larger than 6 people. The mentor must not have more than one child with them at a time. Gun safety courses have to be completed by the mentor before they can take the 10 year old hunting. I voted against this bill last year but did change my vote this session. I liked the extra controls put in place, the supervision requirement, and the limited group size. I will say I struggled with the discrepancy between landowner’s children and other children with in the state and how they were being treated as far as eligibility for hunting rights. It is always up to parents to decide if their children are ready for hunting. All kids are different and their development should be taken into account before the decision is made to get them started in hunting.

SB 174 is aimed at speeding up state hearings on the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad’s application to acquire land by condemnation for its planned expansion project. The DM&E wants to spend $6 billion to rebuild 600 miles of existing track across South Dakota and Minnesota and add 260 miles of new track around the southern end of the Black Hills to reach coal mines in Wyoming. It would then haul coal eastward to power plants. The railroad applied more than a year ago for state permission to use eminent domain to acquire right of way from ranchers unwilling to sell. The bill will speed up a state hearing on the request. The Senate approved the bill on a 20-13 vote. It will be coming to the House.

We also have a resolution coming forward that would make each legislative session 40 days long. We now have a 40 day session and a 35 day session on alternating years. The state Constitution requires this format and to make the change there would need to be a vote of the people of South Dakota.

I want to thank Alvin Kangas for the bobsled rides on Sunday. We got to talking at the crackerbarrel in Lake Norden on Saturday about the fact that his family had homesteaded Al and Sharon Noem’s farm. He said he had always wanted to take his team of horses and ride along the property. Since Al and Sharon are my in-laws and I happen to love horses, I invited myself along. We had a great family gathering, enjoyed the warm weather, and sampled hand churned homemade ice cream. Well, that’s if you can call 3 bowls full “sampling.” I brought my mother along and as we were leaving she said to Alvin, “This is the best day I’ve had in a long time. Thank you.” I agree Alvin. Thanks for sharing the heritage with us and making memories for us all.

Have a great week everybody.