February 1 is the last day for lawmakers to introduce individual bills and joint resolutions.
The 93rd legislative session is already known for the number of bills brought forth. The number of bills and joint resolutions for consideration already surpassed last year, and are still trickling in.
If you tuned into last week’s end of the week press conferences with legislative leadership from both chambers, republicans and democrats, as well as the governor -- one key theme emerged.
There’s a lot of legislation this year, which runs the gambit from election statutes to alcohol distribution, cleanup language for the trust industry to demolishing a building on the Dakota State University campus.
While the final bill tally for this session is still uncertain, one thing is – lawmakers have a ton of ideas this year. And the rule in South Dakota is every bill is guaranteed a hearing.
While the legislative load is larger than recent years, Republican Representative Tim Rounds says the number is not unprecedented.
“I’ve been here a long time,” Rounds says. “I think, about ten years ago, we had some pretty good numbers closer to 500 than 400. But, this year I think we’re going to get really close to 500. I think we set the over/under at about 510… That includes joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions, resolutions, etc.”
Rounds says it’s hard to determine the main issue the legislature will take up.
Jason Hancock is director of the Legislative Research Council. He says points to a large freshman class of lawmakers getting comfortable in their second year as a reason for the increase in bills.
"The lawmaking process is a learning process, too,” Hancock says. “So, as these new legislators become familiar with that process, more proficient as legislators and get a better sense of what they want to do and how they want to do accomplish it. You’re starting to see them become more engaged.”
The result of that engagement is lawmakers already surpassing the numbers of bills from last year, and they’re still trickling in.
There are nearly five times as many house joint resolutions this year as well. Many of those could end up on the November ballot.
However, many of the legislators carrying the most bills are seasoned legislators.
“I think I’m one of the legislators that carries the most bills,” Republican State Senator Stace Nelson says. He is the prime sponsor of 14 bills in the Senate.
That doesn’t include house bills, concurrent resolutions and joint resolutions.
“Any good legislator who is out dealing with the public is going to get bill requests. I’ve got a lot of constituent bills. That’s what we’re brought up here for,” Nelson says. “We’re not overworked. We can deal with every issue every South Dakotan has and want to be dealt with in their legislature. I don’t want anyone getting the idea that we are overworked. We have plenty of time to have as many debates on the floor as possible.”
In previous sessions many of those debates are on a central issue, either generated by a pressing dilemma or under direction from the governor’s office.
Republican State Representative Elizabeth May says that’s missing this year.
"We’ve been driven by certain things over the years. Teacher pay came as a result of the Blue Ribbon task force. Most of the session was based around that. Last year was IM22. This year I haven’t really seen anything yet that is a driving narrative for the legislature as a whole,” May says. “I haven’t seen it yet. I’m not saying that it won’t happen.”
May says her focus is looking out for bills that could grow the state government. She says when the legislature is consumed by a main topic, other legislation goes unnoticed.
“You get so focused in on those that a lot of times some of the smaller stuff with either get put on the back burner or slide through without notice. So, I don’t like it when we get focused in on one big issue.”
May says she prefers these types of session.
For Representative Julie Bartling, she says it’s been a relatively calm session. She says that could be because of an important date later this year.
“At least as of right now we’re not seeing a lot of controversial bills coming through, now that’s not to say they won’t still be coming, because a lot of bills recently dropped of course," Bartling says. "I think it’s a relatively easy going session and that could be because it’s an election year.”
Bartling says stale revenue collections also contribute to this type of session.
“Maybe that has something to do with just not seeing the bills that really want to push to give more funding to education or funding for the Medicaid providers or things of that nature," Bartling says. "I think that’s the face of it this year.”
Lawmakers won’t know until about two weeks how December sales tax collections turned out. If they’re anything like on the national scale, that could mean good news for a potential legislative pet project down the road.