This session is finally halfway done with, but activity in the capital is at an all-time high for me. The chronological recap of the week began with House Education Monday morning where we debated a $109M+ school choice/voucher bill in HB1250, while at the same time down the hall I was pitching my primaries vs convention bill in HB1198 in House State Affairs. On Tuesday, my legislation that creates a new definition in state code to address “multi-passenger bicycles” to better reflect the pedal pub businesses you find in downtowns made it out of committee and will be heard on the House floor this coming week.
Just prior to my election in 2022, I began researching the issue of school lunches. What’s the history of school nutrition? Why don’t we feed school kids even though we force them to be there? What’s the most appropriate role and response of government? Oh yeah, and how would we pay for any expansion of assistance? The history points to the Great Depression era in the 1930’s where so many in America were malnourished and couldn’t qualify for military service leading into WWII. It was a national security and humanitarian issue that caused the feds to get involved. So, after many months of research, discussion, and brainstorming, I brought forward legislation that would create a “state-reduced” category (185-209% FPL) to help provide some assistance for breakfast and lunch to those families on the bubble. It impacts working families that are trying their hardest and who make just a couple hundred dollars a year too much to qualify for “federal-free” (0-130% FPL) and “federal-reduced” (130-185% FPL) meals.
FACT: South Dakota has the highest child food insecurity rate in the region at 13%. (Source: https://www.sdnewswatch.org/more-south-dakota-students-going-hungry-after-federal-free-meals-program-ends/)
HB1238 gained support of most of my colleagues on the House Education committee and will now go to appropriations to weigh the ongoing costs. The estimate is around $1.5 million annually to help feed thousands more South Dakota families who are trying. I think it’s a small price to pay to have a big impact for those low- and middle-income families who are just trying to get by.
Check out the SD Searchlight Story by clicking the image below:
The biggest and most controversial bill debated this year was my HB1198. This bill is an act to allow gubernatorial candidates to select their lieutenant governor running mates and to change the way we select party nominees for the offices of Attorney General and Secretary of State. This bill passed the House State Affairs committee Monday by a vote of 10-3. It was hotly debated on the House floor Tuesday and then after a procedural hurdle was debated some more on Wednesday. I’m still scratching my head as to why it’s deemed controversial by the vocal few.
Today’s process allows you as a registered voter to select your party’s nominee in a primary for the offices of Governor, U.S. Senator, U.S. House Rep, legislature, and all county positions such as sheriff, auditor, register of deeds, and even coroner just to name a few. However, for Attorney General – the chief law enforcement officer and chief attorney of the state, and for the Secretary of State – the chief administrative officer and election official of the state, you have to let a few hundred party delegates decide for you at a party convention. Literally hundreds of thousands of South Dakotans don’t get to vote on who they want as their party’s nominee for these important statewide offices and instead let 430 or so party insiders make that decision for you. That’s what’s baffling to me!
One of my colleagues articulated it best this week, “what if we viewed this from the other side of this equation. What if we were debating taking your vote away and instead going to give it to a few hundred delegates at a convention?” I don’t think the voters would be too fond of that proposal. On the GOP side, ten counties out of 66 in South Dakota had zero delegates at the 2022 convention. Totally disenfranchised. That means 15% of South Dakota counties had zero say in choosing the GOP nominee for Attorney General, Secretary of State, and the other statewide offices elected at convention.
Now don’t get me wrong. This process was strengthened in the 1990’s and worked well for the first couple of decades but has slowly drifted further and further away from “We the People.” In response, I thought it was time to have the debate of letting the voters decide these positions going forward. From my engagement with thousands of folks from across the state, I firmly believe a supermajority of people – Republican, Democrat, or otherwise – agree with me on this. Unfortunately, those few hundred party insiders are nervous about having to share their power with you and spammed legislator inboxes with fear rhetoric throughout this last week. And although we couldn’t convince a majority of the House members to send this idea over to the Senate, I’m proud of the discussions we had. We got many of the extreme wing of the legislature on record admitting there is a problem and that both parties should address changes internally. Unfortunately, this is the same talk – no action we heard last year and from what I’m hearing from inside the State GOP, status quo is their preference. At the end of the day, I’m happy to have led the conversation and be on the side of the people. If having to choose between party bosses or the people, I’m choosing the people every time.
This week’s recap is already too long, but I want to end on a high note. Some of the best parts of serving in Pierre are seeing friends and guests visiting their state capitol to provide updates. I ran into many of my local government friends at the annual SD Municipal League events early in the week and had lunch with the Sioux Falls Youth Council on Wednesday. We also ended the work week with USD Day at the Capitol, with a visit by the Civil Air Patrol cadets, and with a “Report to the State” by the Boy Scouts of America. Seeing these young people learning and leading gives me exciting hope for the future of our state.
If you want an extended breakdown on things you’re seeing or hearing from Pierre, just give me a call or shoot me a text. 605-610-8884. I appreciate you!
-Tyler
Well said! Thanks for sharing.