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Thirty-Eighth Legislative Day
By Jason | March 12, 2009
Our South Dakota 2009 Legislative Session is nearly complete. The 40th and final day will be March 30th, which comes after a two week break. The 40th Legislative Day is also termed Veto Day, because we will attempt to override any of the Governor’s Vetoes.
I have officially passed my first few bills while serving as the House Prime Sponsor. SB 140 and SB 185 are on their way to the Governor for his signature.
Senate Bill 140 received strong support for its passage in the SD House of Representatives. Sen. Julie Bartling brought this Bill to Pierre as an avenue for school districts to enter into whole-grade sharing contracts. I have enjoyed working with Sen. Bartling on this Bill, and I am glad she asked me to help out!
Senate Bill 185 also received strong support in the SD House. This Bill removes the “Basic” category in the High School graduation requirements. The recommended program also was strengthened to include balance for Career and Technical Education coursework. Sen. Russ Olson and I served as the Prime Sponsors for this Bill.
Tuesday, March 10 was a memorable day for me during the Legislative Session. Rep. Mark Kirkeby, R-Rapid City graciously handed the gavel over to me to serve as Chairman for the House Local Government Committee. As a Democrat, I didn’t expect to chair a committee during this Session, but it sure was fun!
During this last week of Session, I have been fortunate to serve on two joint Conference committees. These committees consist of three Senators and three Representatives. Senate Bill 115 is the bill to clean up the process for landowners in a zoning district to petition the planning and zoning board for a public hearing. In the conference committee it was decided to reduce the 30% of the landowners needed to sign a petition down to 20%. It was also decided that religious organizations, and any other landowners who wouldn’t have an interest in the zoning process, would be removed. This agreement in the conference committee did not solve the problem of having out-of-state landowners included in the total number of landowners required to petition for a public hearing. I hope we can fine-tune this issue over the summer and fix this problem.
House Bill 1281 is the other conference committee I served on. This bill is an effort to increase the fees on billboard advertising. In the conference committee we adopted a proposal to slightly increase the fees on smaller billboards, but on the larger signs, we doubled the fees. I have been against the increase in fees that would burden South Dakota consumers. On this particular issue, many of these billboard owners are out of state corporations who continue to change out their displays.
On Thursday, March 12, I had the opportunity to meet with Governor Rounds about my Bill that was defeated and opposed by his Staff on using E30 in State vehicles. The Governor was very cordial, and we had some good discussion. I would like to see our State’s standard automobiles use more ethanol, and I asked for his approval. Governor Rounds is somewhat hesitant to challenge the EPA on this issue. I am confident that we as a State should challenge the EPA, because using higher blends of ethanol is obviously CLEANER FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT!
I enjoy serving you and I would like to hear your thoughts on the issues. Please send me an email at rep.frerichs@state.sd.us. I also provide legislative updates on my website: www.jasonfrerichs.com. Feel free to give me a ring anytime at 949-2204.
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