House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach’s plan for the legislature to study how to limit growth through new laws and potential taxes via an interim committee (House Concurrent Resolution 6010) met massive headwinds once it hit the Senate today, failing in Senate Ag & Natural Resources committee on a 4-3 vote.
The measure had flown through the House of Representatives on a relatively easy 60-9 vote a couple of weeks ago.. but then people started reading it, and realized what it proposed to do.
It wasn’t helped by Odenbach’s recent column in the Black Hills Pioneer citing that whether it’s “mining severance tax for Lead or Deadwood gaming revenue, we need to balance east-river levels of growth with preserving the Black Hills way of life..”
State Senator Randy Deibert led public opposition to the measure, after representatives of every county in the Black Hills, and several cities started contacting him, and he found himself joined by Elevate Rapid City, Black Hills Tourism interests, the South Dakota Cattlemen, the City of Lead, and a plethora of other organizations who showed up to the Senate Committee Hearing to slap the measure down hard. Two legislators who had voted for it in the House, Mike Derby and Steve Duffy, upon reflection now found themselves on the opponent side, and testified as to their opposition to the resolution.
I’ll recap this a bit more as committee minutes and audio are posted, but suffice it to say that the House Majority Leader was not happy in his rebuttal to the massive wave of opposition testimony his bill slammed up against, because he recognized that even with allies on the committee, his resolution was not headed in the right direction.
In committee discussion, Senator Helene Duhamel had led opponents and noted that in recent days, the Senate Judiciary Committee had disposed of a measure which also sought to use the resolution process to circumvent the regular interim committee selection process, just as Odenbach’s measure was attempting to do. After Senators Jensen (I believe) and Marty moved for the resolution’s passage, Duhamel and Davis came in with a motion to send it to the 41st day, where they were joined by Rohl and Voight.
And, HCR 6010 was sent away to the land of the mythical 41st day on a vote of 4-3.
What a blunder by Sierra Club Scott. This will bite him when he runs for gov/congress
Yep. This was an unforced error.
The Lawrence County Leprechaun is taking his lumps for his tree hugging affiliations.
One emotionally stunted and grumpy Leprechaun he is. No rainbows and pot of gold for you!
He’s a German not a leprechaun.
I was fascinated by the child like manipulative behavior by Scott when committee members made two separate comments describing just how bad a bill was and with obvious false outrage responded he did not know how he would vote but being offended he would vote in favor of the bill. Scott everyone in the room including lobbyists and guest testifiers knew how you would vote. The attempt at political theatre failed which reflected on you as a terrible leader and the lack of interpersonal skills.
Scott isn’t a republican. He’s not for the party or its ideals. Scott is for Scott. Always has been. Another note, Sam Marty is really racking up the losses. Siding with idiots at every turn. Backing this is just his latest stupid move this session. Betty Olson is probably furious about how bad he is making district 28 look. She might want to start backing candidates with actual brains next time.