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From my mailbox – the Christmas card from Attorney General Marty Jackley.

(Somehow I’m not thinking Annette Bosworth got one.)

Secretary of State Shantel Krebs Certifies Second Ballot Measure

Today, Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced that an Initiated Amendment to the South Dakota Constitution to Provide for State Legislative Redistricting by a Commission was validated and certified to be on the November 2016 general election ballot as a ballot measure that the citizens will vote on. The sponsor turned in 43,198 signatures to the Secretary of state’s office. An Initiated Amendment to the Constitution required a minimum of 27,741 signatures from South Dakota registered voters. Once the signatures were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office, a 5% random sampling was conducted. It was determined that 70.2% or 30,335 of 43,198 signatures were in good standing.

This is the second initiated measure to be approved by Secretary of State. A total of 8 measures were submitted for review. This office will continue the signature validation process of the remaining 6 measures in the order they were submitted to the Secretary of State. A total of 275,000 signatures were submitted among all petitions.

Those looking to challenge the Secretary of State’s certification of a ballot measure have 30 days from the date they are certified. To challenge the validation of to Provide for State Legislative Redistricting by a Commission that date would be January 25, 2016.

Challenges to all statewide initiatives and referendums must be brought within 30 days after the petition has been validated and filed by the Secretary of State (SDCL 12-1-13)

House and Senate bills have begun being pre-filed with the state’s legislative research council, and have now appeared on the LRC’s web site for review and dissection.

A few interesting ones are among the group, most notably House Bill 1006 – authorizing counties to impose sales and use taxes. Such an action would represent a sea change in how counties raise revenue, as they had been restricted from using sales tax proceeds in the past.

Fred Deutsch’s bill – House Bill 1008 – An act to restrict access to certain restrooms and locker rooms in public schools is sure to be one of the early and controversial measures, given the level of discussion the topic usually brings. The act is sponsored by Representatives Deutsch, Craig, Al Novstrup, Partridge, Russell, Schoenbeck, Verchio, and Zikmund and Senators Brock Greenfield, Haverly, Holien, Olson, and Ernie Otten.

If you think about the names on the list, this represents a fairly broad base among the ideological viewpoints of legislators. So it may carry far more weight than you might think.

The list of what’s been filed as of this writing is provided below. Click around, and let us know what you think.

House Bills

Bill	Title
HB 1001	repeal the Midwestern Regional Higher Education Compact.
HB 1002	eliminate certain reporting requirements for the county general fund.
HB 1003	revise certain administrative functions regarding county government.
HB 1004	make form and style revisions to certain statutes regarding counties.
HB 1005	revise and repeal certain fees that are established to compensate counties for services provided by county officials.
HB 1006	authorize counties to impose sales and use taxes.
HB 1007	make an appropriation to revise and update the values and methods used to determine the agricultural land production capacity and to declare an emergency.
HB 1008	restrict access to certain restrooms and locker rooms in public schools.

Senate Bills

Bill	Title
SB 1	revise certain provisions regarding the Executive Board of the Legislative Research Council.
SB 2	revise the distribution of the revenue from the alcoholic beverage fund.
SB 3	revise the income criteria for determining if property is classified as agricultural land for property tax purposes.
SB 4	provide for the assessment of certain agricultural land as noncropland.
SB 5	revise the procedure to initiate a school district boundary change.

There was an interesting comment in another post from State Representative Lee Schoenbeck, which could be a preview of one of the big legislative battles coming up next month in the State Legislative Session:

Lee Schoenbeck – December 23, 2015 at 3:53 pm

good discussion – I am concerned about what this Medicaid/Obamacare expansion will mean for both our state, and our party. If expanding the welfare rolls by adding 10% of our state’s population passes in an overwhelmingly GOP dominated legislature, there will be a lot of us asking: what’s the difference? And that will be a future challenge for the GOP in organizing and recruiting. 

I would really be surprised if it didn’t affect the enthusiasm of the people we ask to go out and organize and sell tickets to our large network of Lincoln Day Dinners.

Read that here.

Lee seems to think the Medicaid expansion represents a line in the sand for the soul of the GOP.  And let’s not forget about possible tax increases for education and county wants. 

Could the 2016 session be a battle royale on the GOP side of the aisle?

Butte County States Atty Heather Plunkett was kind enough to offer the following statement to dakotawarcollege.com this evening regarding her arrest, and today’s court proceedings:

Today I took responsibility for my actions in court but feel that I also owe the people of Butte County a formal apology as well as an expression of gratitude for the patience they have shown me in the last couple of weeks.  At a later date, I will issue a more in depth statement detailing my intentions concerning my position as State’s Attorney.  Additionally, I will be sentenced on February 5, 2015 at 1:30 pm and encourage the public to attend.

As noted in the immediately preceding post, Heather entered a plea of guilty today to possession of marijuana, less than 2 ounces, possession of drug paraphernalia, and ingesting substance other than alcohol. All were misdemeanor charges.

Belle Fourche Resident Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges

PIERRE, S.D.- Attorney General Marty Jackley announced that Heather Plunkett, 31, Belle Fourche entered a plea of guilty today to one count each of the following: possession of marijuana, less than 2 ounces, class 1 misdemeanor, possession of drug paraphernalia, class one misdemeanor and ingesting substance other than alcohol, class one misdemeanor.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 5, 2015 at 1:30 p.m. (MST) at the Butte County Courthouse.

(Note: Original release from the AG’s office had both persons pleading guilty today. Ryan Plunkett did not plead today. He had previously pled to the possession of marijuana charge and received a suspended jail sentence.)

Learning Something from Yesterday
By Rep. Kristi Noem
December 23, 2015

It has been an honor to serve you again this year. As we prepare to start 2016, I couldn’t help but reflect on what a year it has been.

I started 2015 with an appointment to the historic House Ways and Means Committee, which handles all tax, trade and economic growth policies. As the first South Dakotan to serve on this committee, it’s been a tremendous opportunity to make sure our priorities and values are reflected in the nation’s largest debates.

Just days into the new year, the House passed the Keystone XL Pipeline Act with bipartisan support. This bill would have allowed work to begin. While Republicans and Democrats in the Senate also agreed to the legislation, the President vetoed it. In doing so, he deprived South Dakota of good jobs, millions of dollars in revenue for cash-strapped counties, and congestion relief for the roads and rails.

This was one of the first of more than 300 bills the House would pass throughout 2015. We also voted on a permanent repeal of the death tax, a bill to hold sanctuary cities accountable, and measures to rein in federal regulators. Although none of these items on our conservative agenda received the President’s signature, there were a handful of areas where we found common ground with members from both parties.

Over the last few years, I’ve advocated for legislation to combat human trafficking. On May 29, we earned a major victory when the President signed our bipartisan Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which included provisions I wrote with the needs of South Dakota and our children in mind.

We also passed a bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority bill, which put tools in place to hold the Obama administration accountable for meeting the trade objectives set by Congress. This legislation is already making an impact. Because of it, the public has full access to the pending Trans Pacific Partnership before Congress can act on it. That gives everyone time to review it and make sure it’s a good deal for America.

After more than 13 years under No Child Left Behind, Congress also overhauled our federal education policy, finally getting us away from the federal government micromanaging local classrooms. In the bill, we gave states more flexibility, empowered parents, modernized the Impact Aid program, and stopped the federal government from pressuring schools into adopting specific academic standards, like Common Core.

Additionally, I helped drive forward the first long-term highway bill in a decade to make sure South Dakota farmers, businesses and families would continue to have access to a safe and reliable infrastructure. With 80,000 miles of roadway, 6,000 bridges, and thousands of miles of railways in South Dakota, it was critical that we give state and local governments more certainty, control and flexibility when addressing infrastructure problems. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act accomplished that.

Finally, we passed legislation to protect hardworking South Dakotans from pending tax hikes. In the package, we made improvements to 529 college savings plans, offered a permanent deduction for certain classroom expenses teachers take on, and permanently extended Section 179, which is important to many farmers and ranchers. The package also included an extension of the biodiesel tax credit through 2016 and stopped Obamacare’s medical device tax from taking effect until at least 2017.

Beyond legislative initiatives, I’m proud of the personal impact our office has made in the lives of many South Dakotans. We’ve assisted more than 600 constituents who faced problems when trying to adopt a child, pay their taxes, receive veterans or Medicare benefits, and more. We’ve also been able to show more than 130 South Dakota groups around the U.S. Capitol and made more than 170,000 calls to constituents to make sure you knew what I was doing.

There is much more to be done, but as John Wayne said, “Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.”

Thank you for the opportunity to serve South Dakota. Have a happy New Year!

from KELO:

The state Public Utilities Commission denied requests Tuesday to throw out the pipeline project. Opponents argued that President Barack Obama killed the pipeline in November.

William Taylor is an attorney for TransCanada Corp. He says TransCanada remains committed to the project, which could be revived under the next president.

Read it here.

Just like CBS’ Survivor – outwit-outplay – outlast. The Keystone pipeline might just yet prevail against difficult odds, no matter how much Obama has stacked the deck against it.

United State Senator Mike Rounds’ Christmas Card hit mailboxes yesterday, in case you wanted to see….