From Capitol Hill - Senate Report

2021 Legislative Summer Activities

by Bryan Breitling

The 2021 summer is going by quickly! This past month, we were able to celebrate a wonderful wedding of our oldest son, Mason and his new wife Emily! The legislative calendar continues as well, with both monthly appropriations meetings and the marijuana summer study.

As for appropriations, we heard from the State Economist and the Legislative Research Council Chief Fiscal Analyst on the year-end report. While there are some end of year entries yet to come, the state fiscal year ending June 30, appears to be $85.9 million dollars ahead of the approved state budget. This will give us flexibility to continue to prepare for the upcoming years without federal stimulus enhancing our economy.

We continue to be updated on the latest stimulus, whereby the state, each county, and each city will be receiving American Rescue Plan Act stimulus dollars. The ARPA is much more restricted than the CARES act, with focus on supporting public health expenditures related to COVID, addressing negative economic impacts, and investing in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure. As more clarity on the detailed use of the funds becomes clear, we will be planning accordingly.

As stated in an earlier report, I had the privilege to be appointed chair of the Legislative Marijuana Summer Study committee. We are challenged with operationalizing both IM26 - legalizing medical marijuana, and Constitutional Amendment A - legalizing adult use marijuana as approved in our SD constitution. Constitutional Amendment A is currently being challenged in court and is awaiting a South Dakota Supreme Court decision. IM26 went live July 1, as statues 34-20G, Medical Cannabis. The voted in law has scheduled dates for the South Dakota Administrative Rules to be completed by October 29, and the medical card process set to open by November 18.

After our first marijuana summer study meeting, we broke into two subcommittees, medical use and adult use. The medical marijuana subcommittee toured the Iowa Medical Marijuana cultivation, manufacturing, and dispensaries, as well as those facilities of the South Dakota Santee Sioux Tribe in Flandreau. The adult use committee is scheduling a tour of the facilities and processes in Colorado.

With our last meeting, on August 4, we heard from the SD Dept of Health on the new proposed administrative rules to operationalize medical marijuana. We then organized workgroups to devote focused attention on the medical marijuana statutes and corresponding proposed administrative rules, for the operationalizing this new industry and from the view of public safety.

We will be meeting again in early September to review the workgroup summaries and determine future direction on any proposed changes or updates for this new industry.

As always, I can be reached at [email protected]. I look forward to continued conversations!