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Thursday, April 1st, 2010Governor Rounds finally gave his approval to House Bill 1155. This is a bill that I had drafted to address the issue of anemometer towers which are hard to see by our crop duster pilots. Truly a work in progress from the beginning as this bill was first tabled by the Commerce committee. In the
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Proof that HB 1190 is signed by the Governor
Monday, March 29th, 2010House Bill 1190 the bill I prime sponsored with Sen. Russ Olson is officially signed by the Governor as referenced by this picture: Thank you to Mark Wilson the Director for the Office of Career and Technical Education for his work in ensuring that HB 1190 contained the necessary information to balance the needs of
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Status of Career and Tech Education in the Opportunity Scholarship
Thursday, March 18th, 2010The following is a notice I sent to my fellow agriculture education teachers in South Dakota: First off, HB 1190 is the law of the land in SD. CTE is now an option in the elective category with world languages for the requirements of the Opportunity Scholarship. Sen. Russ Olson of Madison was the Senate
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Timing is Everything in the Legislature – Weekly Legislative Update
Thursday, March 11th, 2010 A year ago I remember very clear when the buzz around the State Capitol building was the federal stimulus money flowing into South Dakota. Officials from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget working with the legislative branch prepared various amendments to our general appropriations bill to ensure the state would benefit from the
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Repealing oil pipeline tax breaks is alive again!
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 Yesterday in the State Senate Sen. Dave Knudson amended House Bill 1060 to include the language from my bill HB 1246 which repeals the tax breaks for oil pipelines. I appreciate the support in the Senate for this amendment and I think it only makes the bill better. Hopefully throughout the conference committee process this
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Final Week of the Legislative Session
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Conference committee is a common combination of words during this final week of the 2010 Legislative Session. Various bills that originated in the Senate are receiving their final disposition on the floor of the South Dakota House of Representatives. Today on the floor of the House we debated Senate Bill 65. This bill will delay
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Weekly Legislative Update: Major Project tax refund gridlock
Thursday, March 4th, 2010Lobbyists, state bureaucrats, the Governors Office, legislators, and staff continue to debate how much contractors’ excise and sales/use tax should be paid by large project companies. The Governors Office organized a bi-partisan meeting with all of the interests dealing with the issue of repealing the tax breaks for major projects involved in energy processing or
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Welcome to the Roslyn Government Class
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010The Roslyn Government class visited our State Capitol today. Joining them on their trip is their teacher Carol Gaikowski and her husband Pat. This is especially an important day because Roslyn will be dissolving their school district this summer. The reason for their permanent closure is due to the arbitrary minimum number of students required
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Action needed to preserve the requirements for the Opportunity Scholarship
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010Yesterday the Governor signed HB 1190 which will update the Opportunity Scholarship requirements to include the option of CTE in the elective category with Foreign Language. There are also other details of the bill that ensure working together between the Dept. of Education and the Board of Regents. Yes, we would like to celebrate the
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HB 1190 Career and Tech Education for the Opportunity Scholarship signed by the Governor!
Monday, March 1st, 2010The following press release was just issued today on House Bill 1190 that I was proud to work with Senator Russ Olson to get strong approval from both the House and the Senate and now the Governor has agreed with us! Career and Technical Education has a level playing field for the requirements of the
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