Hello District 4,
This week were legislative days 30 through 33.
Good news for the week, we were honored to have WWII vet Maynard Ortegren celebrate his 100th birthday during the 100th session. Not many of those ol' boys left. He is Mellissa Heerman's grandfather, she is a representative from Brookings.
I was happy to carry SB 174, SB 179, and SB 14 over the finish line. These were bills I carried on the House side this week. These bills are now on their way to the Governor's desk to be signed. SB 174 and SB 179 were bills brought to me by Senator Wheeler and dealt with abandoned vehicle titles and trade show vehicle sellers. I was fortunate to get both on the consent calendar and both are on their way to the governor's desk for signature. SB 14 was brought to me by Senator Crabtree. SB 14 puts more teeth into penalties for ag-terrorists. It passed the house 67 yay, 2 nay, and 1 excused. I was pretty happy to see that result.
The House continues to chew through bills we've received from the senate. These are bills the senate has passed from their side and are now being considered by the House.
Of contention was HB 1235. I voted no on this bill on 2/25/2025. This was one of many "property tax" bills we have or will be dealing with. I voted no as it shifted the burden away from our larger populations centers and onto ag. This scheme would have crippled our rural counties of district 4. Thank you to all who reached out regarding this. It will be considered in the senate as it passed in the house. You will see, next week, additional "property tax" bills. These include SB189, SB216, and possibly HB1019. I favor Tony Venhuizen's scheme he developed last summer. This shifts some of the tax burden away from property tax and onto sales tax. I've always believed I should be taxed on what I spend and not what I earn. This plan does that. It is not a huge expense, 3¢ on a loaf of bread.
Additionally, I voted no on SB100. This was the college campus gun law that created a way for students to legally keep their pistol in their dorm room. Again, I voted against this. I was a college student a long time ago. At that time we could store our firearms under lock and key in an armory. I see no benefit to allowing this move to dorm rooms. Our young people have enough stress in their lives. And a heads up regarding this- watch the postcarding crew chew me up for doing this and that I'm opposed to the 2nd amendment. This is simply not true. I've been an NRA member longer than most, and I have an enhanced concealed carry permit. This bill was problematic for several reasons. Responsible gun owners know the rules, and it's not a difficult rule set.
Committee meetings have wrapped up for the most part. My two committees have completed our work for the legislative session.
As usual the big government types re-supplied the pipeline with additional bad and/or redundant legislation. Ambitious, they are, and big fans of creating felons. This is the same vein of legislators that continue to be willing to criminalize librarians. Let's not talk about parents, kids, books or schools: just off to jail for librarians. I understand their drive, but being busy just to be busy is a waste of time. Odd that this same group is opposed to building a prison. Regardless, we'll have well managed libraries for our prisoners as our felonious librarians will undoubtedly proudly continue their careers while "puttin in their time".
Observations on my time there, there is a hyper-progressive move to collapse the sacred into the secular. I fear this would sacrifice the sacred to the secular. This has been tried before: communism. It is currently being tried: Islam. It was ash Wednesday this week. Christ tells us to render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is His. Christ tells us to follow him and attempt to perfection. This is because we are not perfect. In our less than perfect attempts at perfection, the imperfect human toils. My belief is Christ would admonish us at our attempts as we tend toward fundamental totalitarianism and not towards perfection.
As always, reach out if you're so moved.
Comments