As you’ve probably heard in the news media already, the legislature has wrapped up its work for the 2008 session with the completion of veto day on March 17. The Governor vetoed 7 bills that needed to be dealt with by the bodies. I will cover them here for you and try to address some of my concerns.

The first bill is HB 1016, which created a new formula for distributing state funding to the four tech schools. The Governor vetoed the bill because of a flaw that occurred in the drafting of an amendment that was added in the legislative process. I agreed with the Governor’s concerns, as did the bill’s sponsors, and voted to sustain the veto. This will continue to be a hot topic in the legislature until we firm up reliable funding for the tech schools in the state.

HB 1233 is a bill that would have required state government to post a variety of financial information on a website for ready access by taxpayers. I believe the legislation was cleaned up during the session and resulted in better accountability and opportunity for taxpayers to see how their tax dollars are spent. The Governor vetoed the bill based on the opinion that he felt there would be a large cost to the state and it was not feasible to gather the information adequately. These were all concerns that could have been addressed and analyzed before the dollars were spent and a framework could have been started and put in place to get the information out to South Dakotans. The House voted to override the veto; however the Senate sustained the veto and the bill died. I voted to keep the bill.

HB 1242 was a bill that would have required the Board of Regents to participate in development of a program and policy for school districts to use for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. The bill died on the House floor for a couple of reasons. There were some language errors that would have eliminated many students from qualifying. Also, it placed the state in jeopardy of losing federal funding that goes to our local school districts. At this critical time of tight school budgets across the state, I could not justify placing more funding at risk. I believe the issue at hand is a personnel issue at the School for the Deaf in Sioux Falls and there are other avenues we can pursue. I have specifically asked to participate in those discussions to resolve those issues. I voted to sustain the veto and maintained my no vote that I placed during the session.

HB 1258 was legislation that dealt with gift certificates and placing expiration notices on the cards. I voted against the bill originally and voted to sustain the Governor’s veto as well. This bill places burden on the retailers, not the original distributors of the cards. It also inadvertently allows the distributors more opportunity for abuse than is currently in place. Also, I believe there is an element of personal responsibility here. We all can call the businesses to find out if the gift cards expire and I feel this treads closely to government solving problems for the individuals, when there is an opportunity for those individuals to do so for themselves.

HB 1269 created a new combination license for beer and South Dakota produced wine sales. I originally voted for the bill, but switched my vote to sustain the Governor’s veto when I became aware of a possible violation of Commerce laws. I do not make it a practice to establish legislation that I know violates other laws in place. However, not enough legislators agreed with me and the bill became law by overriding the Governor’s veto.

SB 129 died on the Senate floor by sustaining the Governor’s veto. This bill attempted to correct some problems with health insurance, but could have possibly left some South Dakotan’s without coverage.

The final veto was a line item veto in SB 203 that was sustained as well on the Senate floor. The items vetoed attempted to prevent monies from being diverted to other areas from public schools and special education in public schools. A typographical error prompted the veto and the Senate’s decision to sustain.

One would look at the day as a successful one for the Governor, however, I believe the questions he had were valid and a few of them were in concert with my earlier concerns. Also, I believe it was an example of our great process at work and I believe the bills that were vetoed did have some flaws and the legislature agreed to was irresponsible to pass flawed legislation.

Thank you for reading these weekly updates throughout the session. I enjoyed your comments and feedback. Campaign season will kick off again soon and I look forward to seeing you at all the area events. I will continue to serve on the Executive Board, with our first meeting starting in April. I have asked to be placed on the property tax implementation task force as well as the education one. It will be a busy summer, but one where we can get a lot accomplished. I’d love to talk with you all soon.