The legislative session is here! First and foremost, I want to thank you for once again allowing me the opportunity to keep working for you in Pierre. This year I was selected by the House to serve as a majority whip, and I’m excited to be able to use that role to continue to fight for our communities and state.

Tuesday, we hit the ground running with Governor Noem’s State of the State of the State address. One of the big takeaways was an update on our economy- we have seen growth across many industries including record revenues from tourism, increased investments in agriculture, and a rapid increase in housing across the state. She added that the continuance of this growth will depend largely on workforce and brought forth several initiatives: increasing support for childcare providers, continuing to invest in housing, and incentivizing economic development. I look forward to hearing more about these proposals to see how we can best implement policies that will benefit South Dakotans.

On Wednesday, the legislature heard from the Chief Justice of the South Dakota Supreme Court to discuss the needs of the judicial branch. Crime continues to be a problem in our state, and he proposed taking steps to working with experts to make sure that our courtrooms are safe, rehabilitating young people, and preventing crime through addressing addiction and mental health. Crime impacts everything around us, so I’ll be doing everything I can to help keep our communities safe.

The legislature has already filed over 100 bills this session. I’ll be working to help get a number of these passed, and here are a couple of the bills I’ll be supporting:

• SB 40: This act would bring improvements to how we elect statewide offices by moving the republican nomination for Attorney General and Secretary of State into a primary like the ones of a legislative race. I believe for these offices all Republicans should have a choice in these nominations, and I’m happy to support it.
• SB35: The Sanford Underground research facility has brought innovative opportunities to our area, and this bill supports resources to expand lab space. I visited this facility recently, they are going to do great things there, and they deserve our support.
• SB41: We need to continue our support of housing in South Dakota so that families can find affordable homes. This bill continues to build on the work we’ve done to establish housing opportunities across our state.

I look forward to the session to come, and value any input you may have on my work in Pierre. if you would like to reach me, feel free to message me on social media or email me at becky.drury@sdlegislature.gov. Have a blessed weekend!

Prepared to Lead, Seizing Our Opportunities and Tackling Our Challenges
By Senator Casey Crabtree

MADISON–The start of a new year brings with it new chapters in our lives and a fresh outlook on the future. As your lawmakers convene in Pierre this January for the 98th Legislative Session, we enter the new session prepared to lead with new members, new leaders and new ideas to improve South Dakota. In 2023, legislators will come together to strengthen our economy, support our communities and improve the lives of our residents.

This year, I was honored to be elected unanimously by my Republican colleagues as their Senate majority leader. As the leader, I will strive to bring my fellow Senators together for the best solutions to our state’s challenges and unite them behind plans for a brighter future. It may not always be easy, but the people of South Dakota elected us to be your voice, your advocates and your representatives to lead our state.

During the next several weeks, we will: balance the state’s budget without raising taxes or spending reserve dollars, protect our individual freedoms, discuss the tough issues like prison funding and rural nursing home closures. We’ll also invest in the long-term strength of our state by supporting students and schools, workforce, housing and infrastructure. And we will accomplish this with principled, conservative leadership.

I value the feedback of South Dakotans and I want to hear your perspective if legislation impacts you or your family, community or livelihood. Your voice matters and I welcome your ideas and feedback.

South Dakota’s future is in good hands and your elected leaders are determined to do what is best for South Dakota in the days and decades ahead. I’m optimistic about the future of our state and I am determined to unite lawmakers to seize opportunities and tackle our challenges.

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Government can’t create prosperity, but it can and should cultivate opportunity. Too often, government stifles opportunity and gets in the way of hardworking South Dakotans. Before Republican-led tax reform five years ago, the federal tax code was doing just that, leaving our economy stuck in neutral. Tax reform played a key role in reversing this sluggishness and fostering a healthy economic environment that promoted growth and opportunity for all. Fully preserving key elements of tax reform and stopping Democrats’ reckless big-government policies are essential to restoring this economic strength.

Tax reform delivered on Republicans’ promise of a pro-growth and pro-worker economy by modernizing the tax system with lower rates and simpler rules. Tax cuts meant South Dakotans, and all Americans in every income bracket, saw bigger paychecks. Businesses of all sizes, including farms and ranches, took advantage of lower rates and a simpler tax system by increasing investment in themselves and their employees. And by reducing our sky-high corporate tax rate, which until tax reform was the highest in the industrialized world, we made the United States a more competitive place to do business, bringing jobs and production back to America.

The effect of these reforms was that our economy was firing on all cylinders. Companies passed tax savings on to workers with increased paychecks and benefits. South Dakota utility companies lowered utility bills in our state. The national unemployment and poverty rates fell to record lows as the income gap narrowed, and lower- and middle-income Americans saw some of the greatest benefits. And the government has even collected record-high revenues while individual Americans are paying less in taxes.

Reversing key elements of tax reform, or allowing provisions to expire, as Democrats have suggested, would reduce opportunity and raise taxes on South Dakotans whose budgets are already strained by the historic inflation Democrats’ reckless spending helped create. To make matters worse, at the beginning of this year, a series of Democrat-led tax hikes went into effect. These new and unnecessary tax hikes will drive energy bills even higher and lead to lower wages and depressed job growth.

In addition to new tax burdens on Americans, the Biden administration will move forward this year with plans to supersize the IRS. Under the Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS was given $80 billion – or almost six times its annual budget – to hire as many as 87,000 new agency employees. With more than half the funding going toward enforcement and just 4 percent going to improve the agency’s lackluster customer service, I’m concerned the only real changes will be increased audits on middle-income families and small businesses.

Stopping this unnecessary expansion of government is a top Republican priority. When the Senate considered the Inflation Reduction Act in August, Republicans offered amendments – which Democrats unanimously rejected – that would have blocked the IRS expansion and protected small businesses and middle-income taxpayers from increased audits. In addition, I have introduced multiple bills to help rein in the IRS and add much-needed accountability. And the new Republican majority in the House has already made repealing IRS expansion one of its first orders of business in the new Congress.

More government is most often the problem, not the solution. When it comes to getting our economy moving again, bigger government, increased regulations, and higher taxes are definitely not the solution. Republicans know that the strength of the American economy is the working families, small business owners, farmers, and ranchers who work hard every day for a chance at their American dream. Tax reform helped create an economic environment that set people up for a more secure future. We should build on these successes and strive to provide more opportunity for South Dakotans, not less.

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In week one of our House Republican Majority, we brought a number of bills to the House Floor to counter the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

A huge win on our second day of voting was the overwhelming passage of H.Res. 11 to establish the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, which is commonly referred to as the “Select Committee on China.” The Select Committee is prepared to investigate China’s influence over our supply chain, COVID-19 origins, TikTok, China’s purchases of American farmland, deceptive trade practices, and much more. We know China poses threats to our national security, food security, and economic security.

On Thursday, we voted on a bill (H.R.22) to prohibit the Biden Administration from selling oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to China. President Biden’s decision to sell oil from our SPR amidst record-high gas prices and inflation has caused the SPR to be at the lowest level in fifty years. One of the recipients of our oil is the Chinese Communist Party, which now has the largest government-controlled oil reserve in the world. There’s no reason, no excuse, to be selling oil from our reserves to our adversaries. H.R. 22 is a great first step, but I believe we should take it one step further—prohibiting oil sales from our SPR to companies that are headquartered in countries such as Russia, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela.

This Congress is off to a strong start in taking a stand against our adversaries. I’m looking forward to seeing what the Select Committee on China uncovers, getting some long-awaited answers, and action steps to protect America and our citizens from the threat of the Chinese Communist Party.

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On unanimous ballots, Marilyn Oakes was re-elected State GOP Secretary and Brett Koenecke was selected to return to the job of treasurer after Justin Bell assuming that role for the last decade.

In the race for Vice chair of the SDGOP, during the last speech, we all heard what a “collundrum” is, and thankfully, Mary Fitzgerald was elected as vice-chair for the SDGOP.

Fitzgerald was elected over Tammy Weis on a vote of 113 to 57.

State Senator John Wiik wins chairmanship of the South Dakota Republican Party on a vote of xxx 103 (correction) to 66 over Tom Brunner

The South Dakota Republican Party is currently tallying ballots for the chairman contest between State Senator John Wiik and Tom Brunner. 

An announcement on the race will be coming shortly.

This morning in the South Dakota Republican State central committee, the group rejected a proposed amendment to remove precinct committee people from participating in the state convention at this time.

Suprisingly, the group held off an any amendments to the precinct proposal, leaving the state’s republican party in the same position as it left the last convention, where concerns were raised over precinct people not representing the voters in their precincts, and not participating after convention.

This may drive further action by the state legislature, who is set to hear Senate Bill 40 in the near future, which is proposed to change how several statewide candidates are nominated for the November election by political parties.

The group did agree to consider further amendments at a later date, with several discussed at the meeting to be forwarded to the bylaws committee.

The SDGOP Winter central committee meeting is approaching quickly in the coming minutes, and it’s already proving lively.

City police had to pop by after being called by the Sgt at Arms to reinforce getting out of the way by some goofy guy with a camera. A bunch of people who have no voting rights at the meeting are carrying signs in the back hall for Tom Brunner.

A little more lively than some of the GOP meetings I’ve been to, but I suspect things will settle down as we get down to the meat of things.