Weekly Recap - Week 1
Tuesday of last week, we started the 96th session of the South Dakota Legislature, and the first order of business was to be sworn in as your new District 6 Senator; thank you for letting me represent you. Congratulations to District 6's new Representatives Ernie Otten and Aaron Alyward. For the next two years, I will be serving as the Chair of the Senate Local Governments Committee and will also sit on Senate Taxation and the Ag & Natural Resources committees.
On Tuesday, we heard the State of the State from Governor Noem. A couple of things the Governor touched on were the new business and jobs that will be coming to South Dakota in the next year, COVID-19 and the state's response, Ellsworth Air Force base expansion, spending requests, her proposed merger of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and spending priorities.
I would say there are three very large elephants in the room this year. COVID-19, one-time funds, and the proposed merger. I will touch a little on each this week. The state has somewhere between 200 and 300 million dollars of one-time funds to spend this year due to the 1.25 billion dollars the state received from the Federal Government/Cares Act last year. There is a long list of items the Governor and the Legislature have been working on since last summer. The Bureau of Finance and Management has all of the Cares Act, Small Business Grants, and the potential spending information listed on their website. Frankly, there is so much information going on right now it would take a book to write about it all, so please take some time to research the information and let me know what you think. I already have been working with departments on emails and phone calls I have received from constituents.
I attended an hour and a half briefing over COVID-19 with the Department of Health Thursday after session. As of the 12th of January, there have been over 100,000 cases of COVID, over 775,000 COVID-19 tests performed, over 59,000 calls to the COVID -19 hotline, and over 18,000 calls to the Department of Health and unfortunately, 1,457 deaths caused by Covid-19. There have been 39,245 persons who have received the vaccine. I believe there will be another 11,00 individuals receiving the vaccine this week, but there is a ways to go yet.
Last summer Governor Noem announced her intentions to merge the Department of Ag and DENR. According to the State Constitution, the Governor has five days from the start of the session to issue her proclamation with her intentions, which will be filed Tuesday of this week. After 90 days, it will become a reality unless the Senate or House passes a resolution preventing the merger. I would not say there is good consensus among Legislators either in favor of the merger or not. Personally, I do not support the merger. Each department has their own separate duties, and I don't see how having the Department of Ag overseeing DENR permitting and testing/enforcement of environmental laws as a good move for District 6 or the State of South Dakota. We will be getting a briefing Wednesday in the Senate Ag & Natural Resources committee.
If you have any comments or concerns, please send them to me at herman.otten@sdlegislature.gov. Personalized emails with your name and where you live in District 6 are the best. Emails without names or emails that are copied and pasted in mass quantities are not given much credence. Also, check out my Facebook page, Herman Otten for SD 6, for more information/posts as the Legislative session goes on.