Kristi Noem

Sara Holstrom, Rep. Noem, and Amanda Wegner take time out for a photo on the marble staircase in the State Capital. The two girls are from the Willow Lake area and served the two first weeks of the session.

This week was one of variety on the House floor. We saw bills ranging from education to liquor licenses. I had my son Booker, age 5, with me on Monday and Tuesday and I don’t think Pierre will ever be the same. He was a trooper on Monday; sitting through a 3 hour commerce committee meeting and then getting only a 15 minute break before heading off to caucus and session. His praises were heard on the House floor as members declared their admiration for his ability to sit and be quiet. We could all learn something from his example that day. However, I believe all the kind words went to his head as he was sure wound up the next day. He had made a couple of friends by that time and I rarely saw him. I passed him occasionally in the halls on his way to another exciting adventure in the State Capital. He asked if he could stay for 10 days to which I replied, “Booker, even I don’t want to stay 10 days!” He made many great memories and I am grateful he had the opportunity.

Kennedy, age 10, came out and spent Wednesday and Thursday with me. What an experience to have her sit beside me while we debated bills on the House floor. She was inquisitive and often lobbied mom to vote how she thought I should. She was quite persuasive at times and I see a bright future for her in debate. She must take after her father. As House Bill 1289 came to the House floor, she asked what it was about. I informed her that it was the bill that would deny schools to receive payment for declining enrollment unless they had a decline of 10 students or 5% of enrollment. I summed it up by saying, “It takes money away from some of the schools.” Aghast, she looked at me and said, “Why? The school lunch is bad enough already!”

(Disclaimer: Kennedy’s very concerned about the feelings of her school cooks and she wishes you to know that she very much enjoys their cooking, just not some of the choices.)

The above bill was killed on the House floor.  Moving on to legislation that was addressed this week, we also saw a bill that would have required all our property tax notifications to display all the breakdowns of what the taxes represent. Therefore, each levy would be displayed such as how much is due for the county, township, school, opt out etc. I saw this as a taxpayer friendly bill, as it would give you information that explains exactly what your dollars are helping to pay for. However, our counties all operate with different types of software and actually implementing the law would have been costly and difficult to manage for counties. An amendment was added that delayed implementation, but as strapped as our counties are right now, I just couldn’t justify the action at this time.

In Tax committee on Thursday we saw one bill. House Bill 1307 would have created new classes of property for taxation purposes. The classes included cropland, noncropland, recreational, and speculation. During committee the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Hal Wick, proposed an amendment that changed the bill from becoming law to a summer study. The bill was passed out of committee and will hit the House floor next week. This is a topic that comes up often in Pierre, but I was glad to see the bill change. The motivation behind the legislation is to tax people more for land that they were using for hunting purposes or holding for investment. I believe landowners or farmers who were truly making a living farming the land could have gotten caught up in higher tax rates because of this bill if they had an occasional paying hunter or had land located in an area affected by urban sprawl. It could have possibly taxed them off their land, when their intention was to continue farming it. After visiting with the sponsor, he indicated that he was thinking of adding an owner/occupied clause that could have addressed my concern. I don’t expect the bill to pass the House floor as the usual way for summer studies to be determined is for the request to be submitted to the Executive Committee. The Committee will then consider all the requests and priorities of the legislators before making a selection. On Wednesday, a similar bill by Rep. Shantel Krebs, would have studied the state’s transportation needs, died for this very reason. As a member of the Executive Committee, I can assure you that we survey all legislators at the end of the session and see what their top priorities are for summer studies. We then compile the information, make the selection and appoint members. I expect transportation needs and classes of property to be among the top requests.

I pitched my minimum teacher’s salary bill, House Bill1268, to the House Education Committee on Thursday. The bill would establish a statewide minimum teacher’s salary at $30,000, with salary schedules to continue to be determined by the local school districts. It allows the districts 5 years to accomplish this task and use TCAP dollars to do so. There is strong support to add more money into the TCAP program, which provides $4 of state aid to every $1 of local dollars the district spends. It provides for the state and local school districts to partner in impacting teacher’s salaries. There was a much more comprehensive plan also proposed by Rep. Buckingham, House Bill 1262, that would set the entire salary schedule for the districts, repeal tenure, and set out qualifiers for the teachers to advance in pay. It is something I don’t expect the districts to look favorably upon, as it is a big change from what they are currently doing, takes away all local control, and provides no funding. Both bills were deferred until the next meeting date.

Well, I’ve run on too long and better let you go. Have a great week!

I want to start off this week’s column by apologizing for the lateness of this article. Not a positive note to kick off the update, but I wanted to hold off on turning it in so I could include the information that was discussed at our two crackerbarrels that were held this weekend. It’s possible that we spend most of our time discussing what seems to stick out to us after a week in Pierre or what we’ve been working on, when perhaps you’re truly looking for information on a topic we may not even touch on. Our first crackerbarrel was in Huron at 10:00 am at the Municipal Building. Education and the liquor license changes that are proposed in this year’s session appeared to be priorities. Senate Bill 126 is a controversial bill that will allow cities and counties to issue more liquor licenses. In the proposal, the city would have reimbursed license holders for the market value of their licenses. The new version would require holders to declare the value of their license. Interested buyers would be required to try to purchase a current license from a holder before a new one would be issued. The issue is headed back to committee on Wednesday hoping the two sides of the issue can find a compromise they agree on.

 Senate Bill 172 would appropriate money to the Department of Public Safety to fund the South Dakota Highway Patrol. This bill was heard in Senate Judiciary and was amended to read $2,000,000 rather than $1. It will now be heard in Senate Appropriations.
 We have a bill before us that would regulate the right to carry a fire arm on the campuses of public institutions of higher education. This passed unanimously out of State Affairs Committee on Wednesday. We’ve had a lot of feedback on this issue from people within and outside of the state.  Overwhelmingly, residents of South Dakota wish to have the right to carry firearms on these campuses. The opinions of those from out of state appear to be those from activist groups that would like gun control in almost every area of our lives. I’m proud of the people of South Dakota who recognize the importance of hunting as a pastime to pass on to the future generation and the right to bear arms.  Also, I believe we are smart enough to realize that criminals don’t follow the rules anyways.
House Bills 1005 and 1006 passed the House floor on Thursday. House Bill 1005 revises certain provisions concerning the assessment of real property, to assess agricultural land based on its agricultural income value, to create an implementation and oversight advisory task force, to repeal certain provisions regarding the assessment of property, and to repeal the nonagricultural acreage classification. This bill was amended in House State Affairs and was passed out of the committee on an 8-4 vote.  The vote on the House floor was 45-22 in favor of the bill. This bill was discussed at length at the Clark crackerbarrel. There were a few area residents who had some concerns about the impact of the legislation and I feel we had good discussion.  This is a major change in state policy and it’s not hard to believe we have some dissention in the ranks. However, as one who has spent the past 2 years studying this issue in session and on the Property Tax Summer Study, I believe it is the right change to make to a broken system. House Bill 1006 is the companion bill that holds the school districts harmless in counties where assessments would drop and does the same for taxpayers in counties where assessments would rise. The bills will now move to the Senate side and I will follow its progress. Please feel free to contact me regarding any questions you may have.
I have the privilege to have my son Booker with me this week on Monday and Tuesday and my daughter Kennedy will join me on Wednesday and Thursday. I am anticipating that they will have an educational experience. Booker was shocked to see desks and chairs in the House chambers when he arrived on Monday morning as he was told all weekend he would sit by mom on the House “floor”. It was a little tough explaining the thought process to a 5 year old. Have a great week.

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

This will be my last legislative column for the 82^nd session.  Our final day, commonly referred to as “veto” day was held last Monday in Pierre.  The majority of the business during session on that day is to deal with the bills the Governor vetoed when they crossed his desk.  In order for that legislation to become law, both houses must override the Governor’s veto by a two thirds vote.  Five bills came before us that day and died by failing to receive the needed votes.  The Governor had a good day.

The bills returned to their house of origin first.  The Senate convened to hear SB 183, 95, and 103.  Senate Bill 183 contained provisions for nursery’s and small greenhouses to receive the same exemptions of sales and use tax on fertilizer, seed, and chemicals that agriculture already receives.  This bill passed out of the Senate but failed to receive the needed votes in the House.  I was disappointed to see the legislation go away, as I felt these small businesses in South Dakota should receive the same treatment that all other areas of agriculture receives already.  They take many of the same risks and deal with the same volatility that occurs in the weather and markets.  SB 95 also passed out of the Senate over to the House of Representatives.  Technical school governance has been one of the largest topics for debate this session and I won’t cover it again as I discussed it quite a bit in a previous column.  The bill, which would have formed a new layer of administration and governance, died by a narrow vote.  The final Senate bill was SB 103, which redistricted the appointments to the brand board.  This bill failed by a large margin and the Senate upheld the Governor’s veto. 

The House of Representatives heard two bills which originated there.  They were HB 1189, which dealt with requiring booster seats for all children ages 5 to 8 years old and weighing less than 80 lbs, and HB 1131, which transferred money from the state highway fund to the coordinated soil and water conservation program.  Both bills died on the House floor.  I believe all House members recognized the importance and need to fully fund the conservation program, however the Governor vetoed the bill because of concerns he had regarding taking the money from the highway fund.  Construction costs and needs are rising and he views the money as necessary to adequately maintain our roads and highways.  He promised to find an alternative funding source for the conservation fund and both sides reached a compromise.  I voted to uphold the Governor’s veto on this bill as I am a big supporter of our District Conservationists and the work that they do in South Dakota.  It was a “good faith” vote and I believe a win-win situation for both the conservation program and the highway fund.  We will maintain the necessary dollars for our roads and the soil and water conservation program has become a priority of the Governor’s. 

When Senate bill’s 95 and 183 reached the House floor after passing the Senate, they failed to garner enough support to become legislation.  All in all, when the day was over, all five of the Governor’s vetoed bills were sustained. 

It’s hard to summarize a whole session in one column, but I do want to express to you all how honored I was to represent you in Pierre.  I appreciated the visits, phone calls, emails, and letters.  We did some good work in many areas, and will return next session with a goal of accomplishing even more in education, health care, and property taxes, to name a few.

I will serve throughout the year, as elected by my fellow House members, on the Executive Committee and will return often to Pierre to conduct the business of the Legislature.  Some of the duties of this committee include deciding summer study topics, task force appointments, and overseeing department personnel and budgets.  If you have any recommendations or areas of concern that you feel should be addressed by the committee feel free to contact me at rep.noem@state.sd.us or 881-2526.  You can also find a list of events that I will be attending at my website if you would like to catch up with me at one of those.  My website address is www.kristinoem.com.  Have a great summer!