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It is official: protecting our ground water is up to us
We have a problem in this state. There is no other way to open this blog post. We have three fully allocated aquifers East River, where no more water rights can be granted. Seven more aquifers are...
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Welcome to 2015 – and a hundred bills, ALREADY!
Hello readers! Welcome to the new blog site. There are some new and fun changes this year; most notably, there will be three new voices sounding off about the 2015 legislative session. Meet Tony,...
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Supermajorities, State of the State, and What Goes Unsaid
by Meghan Thoreau FACTOID. The Senate votes by roll call vote, whereas the larger house uses an electronic voting system. TRIFECTAS. This legislative session begins with South Dakota being one of 23...
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SDDOT Offers Added Safety for Non-Motorized Transport with HB 1030 and HB 1032
by Tony Helland South Dakota Department of Transportation is aiming to make non-motorized travelers safer with a couple of early proposals to this year’s legislature. HB 1030 and 1032 are great steps...
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Teacher pay – and the need for additional solutions
by Bill Powers I intend to be following energy and educational issues during the 2015 legislative session. The big issue for education this year is supposed to be teacher salaries. One suggestion is to...
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HB 1029: Altering South Dakota’s State-Owned High Performance Building...
by Tony Helland HB 1029, proposed by the South Dakota Bureau of Administration, seeks to double the minimum thresholds for high-performance building requirements for state-owned buildings. This bill...
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Pushing the cost-benefit envelope?
South Dakota was one of 11 states that made rare use of cost-benefit analyses in policy and budget processes in 2014. Will 2015 be any different?
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Update on teacher pay
by Bill Powers Lieutenant Governor Matt Michels recently (as of Monday, March 1) indicated that in consultation with the legislature’s leadership there is general concern over increasing property taxes...
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The real problem with HB 1201
Join us in continuing to fight for what we know IS the future: diversified, vibrant family farms and ranches (corporate or not) where the seventh generation can come back to clean soil, clean water, a...
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Weekend Special: Small Is Beautiful
The evidence is all around us of how fossil fuels are killing us...attachment to an economy of "more and bigger" puts the carrying capacity of the planet in greater and greater danger.
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The PUC’s Report to the Legislature
As we noted earlier this session, various state agencies give presentations to legislative committees. Sometimes, though, for whatever reason, an agency presentation is given outside the committee and...
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Photo Friday
What a week! Bike bill went down in flames, eminent domain negotiations are moving forward, bad CAFO legislation is up (again), and the pace is finally heating up. Have a good weekend, folks, and look...
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SB 4:Correcting an Injustice in Taxation
by Catherine Carter Senator Jim Peterson (D-District 4) has introduced SB 4, “An Act to provide for the assessment of certain agricultural land as noncropland.” The intention of this bill is to restore...
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The Perennial Issue of Water
by Carl Kline Some years ago, I took a group of twenty from the U.S. to India. Our place of residence was the Kasturbagram Rural Institute in Madhya Pradesh. It was a teacher training institution for...
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Cool, Clear Water…Maybe
by Robin EH. Bagley While uranium mining and the groundwater associated with it aren’t the focus of this year’ legislative session, one only has to read back through this blog to see the lack of...
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Photo Friday – Some Things Never Change
The Legislature deals with a good number of issues every year. And some issues they deal with every year, year after year. This past week we found a 1988 legislative preview, and you can see – some...
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HB 1140: What is it, and why is it bad?
by Catherine Carter (This is the first post in a series that will be posted here throughout the week.) House Bill 1140 is a bill that would change laws governing county and city zoning. HB 1140 affects...
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HB 1140: Taking Last Year’s HB 1201 and Making It Worse
by Catherine Carter (Note: This is part three in a series on HB 1140. Part one is here, and part two is here.) HB 1140 is up for a hearing in House Local Government Thursday, February 11, at 10am CT....
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Eminent Domain Reforms Inch Forward
by Robin EH. Bagley One of the bright spots in this year’s legislative session have been the positive changes to the state’s eminent domain laws. Both HB 1134 and HB 1153 were collaboratively worked on...
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