2022 Legislative Session Wrap-up
The 97th State Legislative Session is officially wrapped up! Veto day was March 28, and it resulted in no Governor veto overrides. This year, we had a very high volume of bills, 553 policy bills, and 246 of them passed.
The Governor vetoed four of those legislative passed bills. After more analysis and dialogue over the next year, some or all may be back with improved language updates to implement the best policy for the state of South Dakota.
Veto day did offer the opportunity to re-visit long term care funding in South Dakota. SB213 was proposed. In the Fiscal Year 22 Supplemental Budget, we were able to set aside $10.1M in one–time money for long term care supports based on Medicaid utilization. It was later determined that if we adjusted our focus to increase the payments to all nursing homes consistently throughout the fiscal year, we could maximize the match of federal funds, resulting in $30.8M in total additional funds sent to nursing homes in South Dakota. SB213 was overwhelmingly passed in both chambers with the enhanced funding going out in April – June of this year. While it will certainly help, at the time of this writing, I learned that Avantara Ipswich has announced their closure later this spring. We know the impact that nursing home closures have caused in both Mobridge and Selby, with the Selby community working so hard to re-open and provide stability for their nursing home. Last fall, Monument also announced their closing of the Custer nursing home. The industry is really struggling, and this additional support will hopefully stabilize some facilities in the short term.
In session wrap-up, I want to highlight a few policy and spending bills that impact District 23. Since I serve on Appropriations, I will start with some spending policy. We passed a 6% increase for teacher pay, state employees and health care (plus the additional one-time for long term care), workforce housing infrastructure – $200 million in grants and loans that benefit our state well into the future through a self-replenishing revolving fund, enhancing broadband –$50 million to ensure strong internet access to rural and hard-to-reach areas of South Dakota, critical water projects – a major, forward-looking commitment of $660 million providing funding for clean drinking water and waste water projects throughout the state, county and township infrastructure – $25 million for local infrastructure roads, bridges, and other assets.
In addition, significant investments were made in university education, including the Northern Business and Nursing - Lincoln Hall building- providing an educated workforce in Northern South Dakota for years to come! The cybersecurity cyber ag partnership with SDSU and DSU, expanding the USD research park and the nation leading DSU cyber program expansion! And at the technical schools, Lake Area’s Manufacturing Lab, Mitchell Tech’s Ag & Diesel Power space, and Southeast Tech’s medical simulation center. We consistently hear workforce, workforce; these investments position South Dakota residents strong for the future.
Regardless of our personal opinion, Marijuana was supported by the voters in 2020. I was asked to chair the Medical Marijuana Summer Study, and 23 bills were proposed by the study to improve the new law for South Dakota. We were able to pass 19 of those bills, providing safety in this new environment for us all. I am pleased with the work this summer study did, but the work is not done. After we begin to see the impact of the new law, we will be able to adjust the laws surrounding this new industry for years to come, to continue to make South Dakota the safest state and the area we are proud to call home!
Additional spending bills that were passed include courthouse security, two conservation district support bills, firefighter recruitment and training, adoption home studies, and many other very worthwhile programs supporting areas of public need.
There were several bills to address county jails and state prisons, including a county sales tax to support county projects. In the end, none of these passed, but we were able to put away $17M in FY22 and $70M in FY23 toward an incarceration project fund. And, a jail/prison summer study is being proposed to learn more about sentencing, programming, funding of county jails, the need to update the state prisons, and the relationships that we can all participate in to support this role of government. Expect significant work in this area over the summer and good legislation proposed next session.
With gratitude, thank you for your phone calls, emails and text messages this year. There are two sides to every bill, but your responses help me to support legislative policy, thanks for your feedback and support during the Legislative Session. Legislators worked hard for you and hopefully this investment will have a positive impact for generations to come.
As always, I can be reached at bryan.breitling@ sdlegislature.gov. I look forward to continued conversations!
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