(South Dakota Broadcasters Association)– There’s a lot of hurry-up and wait going on under the Capitol dome in Pierre today (March 8, 2023), the 36th of 38 legislative days.
The House and Senate have considered some business and then broke for recesses several times. Expect more of that as a conference committee and, presumably, the Governor’s Office work on a compromise in some kind of sales tax decrease.
The House and Senate have been squabbling back and forth over the makeup of the Medical Marijuana Oversight Board, SB 134. The Senate changed the membership to include four instead of two legislators, kept law enforcement and medical providers and removed patients and medical cannabis representatives. They passed the conference committee report 21 to 12. However, the House refused to concur. Some members complained that the conference committee did not take public testimony on such a significant change and only met for 40 minutes. The House voted 49 to 20 to reject the conference committee’s report– which the Senate adopted– and to appoint a new conference committee.
Yet to be decided is the big issue: What, if any, tax savings South Dakotans might see coming from Pierre.
Going into the session in early January, the state reported a $423 million surplus. Much of those funds will be spent on one-time projects with money left over.
Some legislators are worried, however, that despite the robust state economy, South Dakota’s sales tax collections have benefited from the highest inflation in 40 years and massive infusions of federal money for the coronavirus and infrastructure projects. Some legislators believe the economy will continue to grow. Others are concerned that bad times are sure to come, as well as increased spending requirements because of Medicaid expansion and staffing and running new correctional facilities in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.
In the meantime, there’s a lot of starting and stopping as key legislators work out compromises on taxes and other pending measures where the two houses disagree.
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