PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — With their 2025 session now behind, South Dakota lawmakers are already preparing for the next one.
The Legislature’s Executive Board has chosen as study topics an analysis of initial and re-entry incarceration, emergency medical services, and efficiencies in services to developmentally disabled persons from community support providers.
There also will a liaison group to work with the South Dakota Department of Education to consider impacts from the possible closure of the U.S. Department of Education.
Those four panels are in addition to the property tax task force that lawmakers established in House Concurrent Resolution 6003.
Each of the interim committees will meet three times. Some board members questioned during the meeting last week whether the incarceration analysis was too much to accomplish in that time.
Democratic Rep. Erin Healy didn’t think so.
“We have many felonies that pass year after year. This gives us a really good opportunity to look at other states and what they’re doing to keep their incarceration rate low and what we could potentially do in order to keep people out of prison and give them the positive support that they need in order to live a life out in the community,” Healy said. She added, “The goal is to keep them in our community and out of trouble.”
Republican Sen. Randy Deibert thought that adding the re-entry portion would be too much to get done in three meetings. “If we have too broad a focus on a summer study committee, you don’t accomplish your goals,” he said.
Republican Rep. Greg Jamison defended adding re-entry to the analysis. Jamison said re-entry is a major issue that needs to be solved.
“So when we’re looking at the initial entry of why people are coming to prison, we think we can probably figure that out relatively simply, based on they’ve committed a crime that we’ve required them to go to prison. But the bigger question probably remains on what’s causing them to come back. What are we not doing that’s keeping these people coming back? The revolving door has to stop in some way,” Jamison said.
The re-entry addition resulted from conversations with Republican Rep. Jeff Bathke, who work during 12 years for the state Department of Human Services focused on substance abuse, including five years he worked at the State Penitentiary.
Republican Sen. Tom Pischke asked whether Jamisonn thought both could be accomplished. “I do have that fear as well as Senator Deibert that that’s a big bite at the apple that we can accomplish that in three meetings,” Pischke said.
Jamison answered, “I certainly wouldn’t want to overpromise and under-deliver. I don’t think any of us want to do that. But obviously knowing some of the differences we have with our sister state North Dakota and that we fall outside the normal parameters of some other states, it isn’t just about the entry to prison, it is what’s causing them to come back, and what we do here can address all of that.
“Is it too comprehensive?” Jamison continued. “I don’t believe it to be so. If we should fail at that, we’ve begun a path that is probably worthy of discussing. If we fail, you know, we have still uncovered probably a tremendous amount of information about what’s causing the revolving door. It’s one of the bigger issues I hear about in Sioux Falls, being the home of the prison, and what’s causing all these people to just keep going through, police officers talking about what’s causing these guys to get released and then they’re back.”
House Speaker Jon Hansen and Republican Sen. Chris Karr were the prime and lead sponsors in their chambers of the property tax task force. They serve as the Executive Board’s chair and co-chair.
“We know how hard it is to come up with property tax relief ideas and multi-faceted during the vacuum of session,” Karr said. “That’s why this House concurrent resolution was brought, so we could take on this comprehensive task during the interim, put in the time, the effort — make it a task force, so it’s a joint legislative and executive branch, so hopefully look at all those different facets to come up with real solutions for property tax relief that are meaningful and long term.”
The Legislature passed one package of property-tax changes that were developed by the governor, his administration and a group of 10 legislators.
Sixteen of the task force will be lawmakers appointed by the Legislature’s leaders, but the resolution also calls for seats for state Finance Commissioner Jim Terwilliger as well as Gov. Larry Rhoden or his appointee. Rhoden said he plans to have Republican former Rep. Kirk Chaffee, a former Meade County director of equalization, serve in his place.
Rhoden told reporters on March 31 that he wants the task force to consider allowing county governments to charge a half-percent sales tax, with the revenue to replace the county property tax levy on owner-occupied homes. Any excess would next be applied to reducing county levies on agricultural and commercial properties.
Next steps call for asking legislators which studies they’re interested in, followed by the Executive Board’s leadership making the assignments.
Karr suggested the Education-liaison group.
“This is not a formal summer study but it does create a group of legislators to stay in contact with our Department of Education to get updates regarding the United States Department of Education – the impacts of funding, maybe per student, special education and the standards testing, items such that may be impacted by the closure of the USDOE,” Karr said.
“And I think back to something we did similar during COVID when we created a liaison to stay and work with the executive branch. We basically at that time were looking for updates on for example COVID (aid) dollars and the regulations and how we could use those COVID dollars and guide us,” he continued.
“So very similar, they would be available on call as this information flows down from the USDOE – make sure that we’re ready to start the next school year and also prepare for the next session,” Karr said. The group would provide updates to the Executive Board throughout the interim so that the board members could keep the rest of the Legislature apprised.
Karr said the number on the liaison panel hadn’t been determined yet. “Just as we haven’t determined how many committee members are on some of the other summer studies at this time,” he said. “Just want to create, establish this so that we can put together a clear scope and size, and again, it has to be in context with our other summer studies, because we only have so many people, so many resources, and we already have interim committees like GOAC, E Board, the prison reset, Appropriations. So it probably would not be large. It would probably be fairly small.”
