Legislative Review 2008 -- Getting Our Money's Worth?

With the big rush of the final week of the Legislature, many of us seem to have gotten wrapped up in political horseraces and who's being snarky with whom (Johnson v Kirby, Clinton v Obama, Powers v Sibson...). Maybe it was just a little Pierre fatigue... maybe you don't have to actually be there to catch it!

But with our legislators all back home now, safe and sound, where they can catch up on their work, catch heck from their constituents in person, and blame Governor Rounds for as much as possible, let's take a look at some of what they achieved. Here in no particular order are some bills that caught our interest during the session:

HB 1184 would have created tax incentives for all sorts of renewable energy projects: wind, solar, hydroelectric, hydrogen, biomass (cow poop! landfill gas!), geothermal, and even recycled energy (i.e., making electricity from unused waste heat from other processes). The bill went nowhere fast.

Wind power did catch a break, though, catching the new breeze blowing across the South Dakota tax landscape: productivity tax. HB 1320 changes the tax system for wind farms so that instead of paying taxes based on land value, wind farms pay taxes based on power-generating capacity and gross receipts. That's one small step for wind power, one giant leap toward income tax.

Farmers get an even more giant leap away from property tax and toward income tax with HB 1005. Starting July 1, 2009, farmers will pay taxes based on "agricultural income value on a per acre basis." The professors at SDSU have 15 months to come up with their magic statewide productivity formula (I wonder if I'll have to pay $350 to get a copy of that study).

In the "Anything for a Buck" category:

SB 174 railroads individual property rights, making it easier for railroad companies to take your land for their profit.

Sen. Kloucek's SB 138 would have required proof of financial responsibility from TransCanada and other oil companies seeking to run pipelines through the state, kind of like we citizens have to do when we drive our cars to the store for milk. Mostly killed in committee, smoked out, really killed on the Senate floor.

Sen. Nesselhuf's SB 196 would have imposed clear and tough regulations on oil refineries, like the proposed Hyperion project at Elk Point. It got hoghoused down a couple of times, until there was nothing left but a statement that South Dakota reserves the right to impose environmental regulations of its own more stringent than federal standards, as it sees necessary to protect its natural resources. It passed the Senate, but even that imposition of local control and responsibility on the oil industry was too much for the House Ag and Natural Resources Committee (funny, the committee's name doesn't include "Oil"), where everyone but Rep. Dave Gassman (D-8/Canova) voted to kill it and keep Big Oil free and happy. (You tried, Dave -- thanks!)

On open government:

We get a state Freedom of Information Act, sort of, with SB 186, which creates a formal process by which we can request state government documents when the folks in the office just won't be neighborly and go get them for us.

We also get a new state website where we can look up any and all state financial information, thanks to HB 1233. Expect Sibby, PP, and the rest of the SD Blogosphere to melt down that server in the first week.

In other news:

HB 1179 gives the State Fair another subsidy, this time of $768,004.

While the Legislature found money to keep Huron's tourist economy afloat, it could not find money to reverse the Governor's $2-million cuts to the Highway Patrol budget. SB 172 floundered and spawned some unpleasant Republican bickering (keep it up, kids -- you'll be sorry when Gerry Lange becomes House Majority Leader!).

HB 1124 was going to enhance education by establishing a wild new three-tiered teacher salary system, plus a statewide minimum teacher salary of $30,000. The bill had the state paying for the tier increases; where the minimum salary was going to come from (and how it would be enforced) was anyone's guess. The bill got hoghoused to read in its entirety as follows: "Section 1. Education in South Dakota is hereby enhanced." That's all. And in perhaps the dorkiest vote of the session, the House and Senate actually passed it.

The Legislature did manage to pass education funding in SB 187. Per student state aid is increased, with a requirement that school districts use the money to boost teacher pay and benefits. HB 1087 managed to find $3 million more for education by cancelling the planned third-year expansion of the Classroom Connections (laptops in HS classrooms) program to 20 more schools (what could be more fun than watching the Legislature unite to increase education funding specifically by cutting one of the Governor's pet programs?).

HB 1076 was going to shift Internet costs from the state to the schools and keep more money in Pierre for the promulgation of further foolishness by the State Department of Education. It got hoghoused last Wednesday into a bill dealing with consolidation, but the House let it die. (So as I understand it, last year's much touted consolidation mandate still has no teeth.)

HB 1291 would have added dyslexia to the list of problems officially eligible for special education services in South Dakota. This bill seemed perfectly innocuous, until a friend of mine noted that it might actually have ended up denying kids services they can already get under federal rules. The House passed it, but the Senate Education Committee killed it.

HB 1261 was a snarky swipe by legislators at the Board of Regents, which had asked for legislation banning guns on campus and ended up with a bill banning the BoR from banning guns on campus. We had a brief flurry of Second Amendment bluster, and then the Senate imposed reason and killed it.

And vanity plates have lived to agitate and amuse for another day. SB 185 offered a comical list of potentially offensive messages to be banned from the official parts of your bumpers. SB 20 would have banned vanity plates altogether. Both measures died cold, lonely deaths in committee in January.

The Legislature continues to practice medicine without a license with SB 88, guaranteeing women seeking abortions the "opportunity" to see a sonogram of the fetus before the operation. We can at least take solace in the fact that otherwise, our legislators manageed to stay away from abortion politics this time around.

So, did we get our money's worth from our legislators this time around? I guess we'll get our chance to say so in November. But feel free to offer your say-so here! How'd the Legislature do in your book? What did they miss? What did they do too much of? And what did they do right? Your comments are welcome.