A letter to Senator Voight objecting to Senate Bill was shared with me from one of his District 33 constituents today – and I was excited to share this, because he has some pretty good bullet points on the complete ridiculousness of the measure.

In hunting terms, it’s good ammo for those seeking to put Senate Bill 16 in their crosshairs, and to bring the measure down:

Dear Senator Voight,

I am writing to express my opposition to SB 16, which would require guides to pay a fee and become licensed by the state.  I am a constituent and business owner in your district.

My opposition begins with a core principle: good government is small, restrained government. This bill may appear modest on its face, but licensure is rarely a one-time action. First comes the license, then a board to oversee it, followed by staff, rulemaking, enforcement, and ongoing administrative cost. Once created, these structures rarely shrink or disappear, regardless of whether the original problem ever materializes.  It feels a lot like GF&P staff may have “suggested” this bill to you.

Second, I see SB 16 as a solution in search of a problem. I would respectfully challenge you to identify a specific instance where a member of the public was harmed by a guide in a way that would have been prevented or meaningfully mitigated by state licensure. Existing laws already address fraud, negligence, and misconduct. Creating a new licensing regime without a documented pattern of harm sets a concerning precedent.

Finally, the proposed license fee is inordinately high, particularly when viewed in the context of other professional licenses in South Dakota. Many guides are part-time or seasonal workers. In practice, this fee would almost certainly be passed on to lodges, meaning an additional regulatory burden on agricultural producers who are already facing rising costs, labor shortages, and regulatory pressure from multiple directions.

For context, here are common professional license fees in South Dakota today:

South Dakota – Common Professional License Fees

• Physician (MD/DO): $450
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA): $50
• Registered Nurse (RN): $100
• Real Estate Salesperson/Broker: $100–$200
• Cosmetologist: $45
• Barber: $50–$100
• Electrician: $50–$150+
• Plumber: $50–$150+
• Architect: $100–$300+
• Professional Engineer: $100–$300+

When a seasonal guide license approaches or exceeds the cost of licenses held by highly regulated professionals, it raises serious questions about proportionality and legislative intent.

For these reasons, I respectfully urge you to reconsider SB 16 and its long-term implications for limited government, rural businesses, and South Dakota producers.

Sincerely,
Chris Hipple

Well, when Senator Voight proposes charging more for a fishing guide license than the state does for a doctor or an electrician, it makes you wonder where his sense of proportion is. And Chris makes a number of good points on what happens after the license.. a board to oversee it, followed by staff, rule making, enforcement, and ongoing administrative cost.

I just don’t see where there are many South Dakotans who are demanding to sign up for all that new government.

Thune: Working Families Tax Cuts Provide Bigger Paychecks, Permanent Relief

“The good news for the American people as they start their new year is that they’re going to have, on average, $3,700 more money in their pocket as a result of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act that we passed this last summer.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke at a press conference with Senate Republican leadership:

Prairie Chickens must be in season. Because someone chickened out on one of the most controversial bills offered before session has started.   Senate Bill 16, the bill to license hunting and fishing guides in South Dakota appears to have lost one of the people who brought the measure earlier.

Voight is a first-term lawmaker who serves on the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, where the legislation likely would be assigned for its first public hearing.

So far, the legislation has one co-sponsor: Republican Sen. Carl Perry of Aberdeen, the Senate’s assistant majority leader. 

Read that here.

Senator Carl Perry, the Senate Assistant House Majority Leader, was one of the sponsors of the measure which would charge resident licensees more to be a fishing guide in South Dakota than the state charges a doctor.. to well, be a doctor in this state (I have more coming on this). And as of today, Perry’s name has been magically removed from sponsoring the measure.

Should legislators get to remove their names from bills they deserve to take heat over?  Should Senator Perry get to bravely run away?

And if it’s that bad, why hasn’t Voight withdrawn the measure himself?

Session starts a week from today. Stay tuned.

Attorney General Jackley Announces Former State Employee Arraigned On Five Counts of Falsifying Investigative Reports

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that a Spearfish woman has been arraigned on four felony counts and one misdemeanor count of falsifying investigative reports while an employee of the South Dakota Department of Social Services’ Child Protective Services.

Nova Collins, 56, was arraigned Tuesday in Lawrence County Circuit Court. The crimes occurred in early 2025.

Collins is charged with one felony count of Forgery, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one felony count of Offer of Forged or Fraudulent Evidence, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one felony count of Falsification of Evidence, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, one felony count of Offering False or Forged Instrument for Filing, Registering or Recording, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, and one misdemeanor count of Falsification of Public Records by a Public Officer or Employee, which carries a maximum sentence of one year in the county jail.

The case is being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office’s Public Integrity Program, which is part of the Division of Criminal Investigation.

Collins’ next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 17. She has been released on a $500 bond. The defendant is presumed innocent under the U.S. Constitution.

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This last weekend, Governor Larry Rhoden and Lt. Governor Tony Venhuizen were in the news explaining how the South Dakota Legislature can ignore the commitments they made to fund education by ignoring the laws they had passed earlier to help education funding keep pace with inflation:

(Governor Larry Rhoden said) “The same people that made the laws can suspend them, if you will,” he said. “And there’s times that it’s been necessary to do so.”

Lawmakers created the mandatory increase law in 1995, with an effective date in 1997. It required annual increases of 3% or inflation, whichever is less — an amount described as the “index factor.”

and..

Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen said the index factor now serves more as a “guideline or a goal.”

“One Legislature can’t bind a future Legislature by statute,” Venhuizen said.

and..

(Former Senator Lee Schoenbeck said)  “Now these people in the Legislature will have to decide if they have the courage to pay their bills.”

Read the entire story here.

What are your thoughts on the legislature failing to provide the inflationary increase they themselves had written into law? It’s not as if the cost of everything hasn’t increased during the same period of time they’ve failed to keep pace with the funding.

Don Haggar launches campaign for South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. Departs from Americans for Prosperity.

Sioux Falls, SD – January 5, 2026 “After eight incredible years at Americans for Prosperity, I’m stepping away to run for the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission,” said Don Haggar. “The policy victories we’ve achieved together—from tax relief and healthcare reforms to protecting free speech and running historic door-knocking campaigns that helped flip Senate seats to the Republican Party have made a real difference in people’s lives. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and grateful to have worked alongside so many passionate advocates. Now, I’m excited to bring that same commitment to fighting for affordable energy, reliable infrastructure, and consumer-focused regulation to the Public Utilities Commission.”

During his tenure at AFP, first as South Dakota State Director and later as Regional Vice President, Don Haggar led transformative policy victories and historic grassroots campaigns that advanced economic freedom, lowered costs for families, and expanded opportunity across the state and region.

Key accomplishments in South Dakota included working on support of streamlining elections by moving all municipal, county, and school board elections to either the primary or general election dates, enhancing voter participation. In healthcare, Don Haggar championed association health insurance plans that saved small family farms tens of thousands of dollars in health insurance costs, scope of practice expansions for certified registered nurse (CRNs), physician assistants (PAs), and dental professionals, and direct primary care legislation that promoted affordable, patient-centered options.

Education reforms under Don Haggar’s leadership expanded the insurance premium tax credit scholarship program twice, opened high school activities to home-schooled children, and implemented campus free speech protections. Economic wins included cutting the state sales tax from 4.5% to 4.2%, passing innovative regulatory sandbox legislation to foster entrepreneurship, and successfully defeating a ballot measure that would have restricted free speech.

As Regional Vice President, Don Haggar directed massive grassroots electoral efforts, including leading teams in Ohio and Montana that each knocked over one million doors to mobilize voters and help elect Republicans to U.S. Senate seats formerly held by Democrats..

SECRETARY OF STATE MONAE L. JOHNSON ANNOUNCES CANDIDATES MAY BEGIN CIRCULATING PETITIONS FOR THE 2026 PRIMARY ELECTION

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office reminds individuals interested in running for public office in the 2026 primary election that candidate petitions may begin circulating on January 1, 2026.

Candidates seeking placement on the 2026 primary ballot must file their completed nominating petitions with the Secretary of State’s Office no later than March 31, 2026, by 5:00 p.m. CT.

Petition forms and filing requirements are available on the Secretary of State’s website at sdsos.gov. Candidates are encouraged to review the requirements carefully to ensure compliance with South Dakota election laws.

Greg Jamison Announcement

Sioux Falls, S.D. Greg Jamison to announce his future on serving Sioux Falls. The announcement will take place at the Falls Overlook Cafe on Wednesday January 7th at 6:30 pm.

What: Greg Jamison Announcement
When: Wednesday, January 7th at 6:30 pm
Where: Falls Overlook Cafe 825 N. Weber Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57103

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Update..  It looks like at least behind the scenes that the cat is out of the bag.

I usually save the looney stuff for a slow Friday afternoon, but I came across this in my junk folder.

So, apparently Mike Zitterich, who has declared that he is a candidate for Sioux Falls City Council, seems to be leaning hard into sovereign citizen and conspiracy territory in a missive he sent out on December 27.

Where in part he declares that birth certificates are permission slips to put kids in foster care, and that he hasn’t paid income tax in 15 years, and if you join him, he believes you can collapse the federal reserve bank and end the IRS. In part..:

Oh my..

Candidates, in your campaigns for office this year, I think the last thing I would be declaring to the world is that you haven’t filed a 1040 or paid income taxes in more than 15 years.

Somehow, I don’t think such declarations traditionally end well.