Weekly Recap - Week 3
This week will be number four of session. This is the last week a bill can be introduced by an individual. So far, there have been 194 House bills and 164 Senate bills introduced. We are working our way through a bunch of bills that we call clean up bills. They remove outdated references to statues, change the wording to reflect today's speech, or get rid of statues that no longer apply. Last week, in the Senate Taxation Committee, we removed the word milk from a statute (SB 94) that required Municipalities to hold public hearings and have an ordinance in place for milk production. Those times have changed.
We are having more discussions on the marijuana Constitutional amendment and IM 26, medical marijuana. Some bills have been introduced already, with more to come. Representative Ernie Otten has introduced two bills I have signed onto that pertains to packaging and sales. SB 143 revises the penalty for ingestion. SB 119 is an empty bill waiting for language, and SB 35 will make an appropriation to implement provisions concerning the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana. Right now, the amount of funds being appropriated are $4,026,253 to the Department of Revenue and $135,249 to the Department of Health. HB 1095 establishes criteria regarding marijuana, this bill is also a shell waiting for language. This list is not comprehensive by any means, there are more bills out there, but it shows the amount of legislation needed to comply with the Constitutional Amendment and IM 26 when they passed. Personally, I supported medical marijuana but did not support the recreational use of marijuana, and I still think it's a bad idea with more long term consequences than we realize, but the voters of District 6 approved it with their vote, and I will support making the changes necessary to make it happen. There has been talk of delaying IM 26 to allow time for Departments to get the proper rules in place and allow for statutes to be created or revised. That is a good idea, but I'm not sure what the voters think of that because I believe they will think the Legislature is just trying to ignore the will of the voters.
If you voted for the measure, please give me your feedback if you would want to allow for another year to implement the measure to make sure there are no unintended consequences and the laws reflect the will of the voters. Please email me at herman.otten@sdlegislature.gov with your thoughts and concerns about this or any other bill. Please be courteous in your correspondence, some emails are starting to have a nasty tone, and they are not received very well.