We've moved!
DakotaFreePress.com!

Social Icons

twitterfacebooklinkedinrss feed

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Legislative Quick Hits: Bills of Interest in Pierre

The bills are really flowing now! Here's a quick list of bills that catch my eye:
  • SB 93: This one's great! It would support community-based wind energy development in South Dakota. That's what Rod Goeman and I have been talking about! Reps. Fargen and Lange are co-sponsors. Go get 'em, fellas! (See more wind power legislation at SB 94 and SB 95.)
  • SB 92: This one's not so great: Howie, Hunt (oh! and even my man Lange!) continue to pursue a practical ban on abortion in South Dakota. If they can't win by ballot, they'll just bankrupt Planned Parenthood. Hmph.
  • SB 114: Senator Kloucek and Representative Lange propose to study the feasibility of establishing an "equine processing facility." Mmmm: horseburgers.
  • HB 1135: Welcome to the Internet, South Dakota government! This bill would allow public agencies in the state to designate an official website (pick me! pick me!) where they may post their agendae, minutes, and other official notices. Such online publications could be in addition to or in place of expensive, wasteful print publication, as long as there's at least one library or other place with public Internet access. Sweet! Pat Powers digs it, and so do I.
  • HB 1164 would give township board some leeway (six feet, to be exact) in exempting certain established trees from right-of-way chop-down rules. Who would have thought we had such tree huggers in Pierre? Who would have thought co-sponsor Republican Rep. Shantel Krebs was one of them?
  • HB 1171 seeks to protect small schools like Bison from closing. The bill says if you're the only school in the county, the state can't close you. (Let's see if opponents counter with a county-consolidation bill.)
All bill drafts are due in the Legislative Research Council tomorrow at 5 p.m. Keep those ideas comin'!

6 comments:

  1. No one is safe when the legislature is in session.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Might as well give up on the abortion bill though. Obama plans on passing the fed abortion bill which will allow all abortions, anytime, for any reason, no parental notfication (need parental permission to take an aspirin in school but not to have an abortion!), no help if an 8-mo-old aborted baby happens to survive the abortion, etc. His executive order will get rid of all states rights on this issue, and he will rule by fiat. Will make the pro-aborts happy though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe that 6-foot ROW leeway for townships would allow Lakeview Township to un-vacate 459th Avenue on the north shore of Lake Madison, which would allow Henry Hauck protection for his 22 evergreen trees and keep Matt Larson from ever building a home in the middle of the road on 459th Avenue. Interesting how one issue creates so many other issues.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wish they'd extend SB 94 and SB 95 to cover passive solar, photovoltaic solar, and geothermal energy systems as well.

    As for the schools, how about a requirement that, in order to qualify for the funding aid, students be taught how the system works?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh I see ... SB 95 in effect does require, or at least encourage, educating students as to how the system works. I did a Kucinichism and actually read the bills all the way through, finally.

    ReplyDelete
  6. SB 93, 94, 95. While the SD governor, legislature, and utility-lapdog PUC twittered their thumbs Iowa became the second leading state in wind power. Iowa. It's all about vision, leadership and vision. Grid infrastructure became an inconvenient excuse.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are closed, as this portion of the Madville Times is in archive mode. You can join the discussion of current issues at MadvilleTimes.com.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.