Proposals for 2025 legislative session begin to appear

The upcoming 2025 legislative session is beginning to take shape.

Proposals and bills are starting to appear on the Legislative Research Council’s website.

Carbon pipeline regulation, eminent domain reform, education reform and property tax relief—these are just a few of the top issues the 100^th South Dakota legislature will address when they convene later this month.

Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish, is the incoming House Majority Leader. He said he's also hearing from Republican lawmakers a large appetite for oversite on spending in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

He said there’s also concern in the Republican caucus about the cost for a $825 million men’s prison near Sioux Falls.

“Who are from the area where the prison is going to be built who are just as adamant in the other direction—that they say, ‘It’s a boondoggle. Why is it out in the middle of nowhere? We still have to build the roads to access the location. It’s all maximum security,'" Odenbach said. "You’ve heard examples of what other states have done in building their prisons for similar size, but for less money.”

The Noem Administration wants lawmakers to authorize the sale of a portion of the South Dakota Developmental Center—a facility that provides services and housing for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. DHS officials say that part of the campus is no longer being used.

One Republican backed bill would prohibit municipalities in South Dakota from declaring themselves sanctuary cities.

Senator Casey Crabtree is the prime sponsor of the bill. The former Senate Majority Leader visited the US southern border in the summer of 2023. He said the proposal is a state’s way of tightening up border security.

“The state as a whole isn’t a sanctuary state. So, having local governments or local districts set up policies that are not in conjunction with the Trump Administration’s federal immigration policies creates some major difficulties, not only for that local district, but, especially, the law enforcement officers that serve that area," Crabtree said.

The proposal comes as Gov. Kristi Noem is Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the US Department of Homeland Security. That department will oversee border enforcement and deportation.

South Dakota Republican lawmakers also want to ask the voters to make changes to Medicaid Expansion, again.

In an announcement on Thursday, Senator Crabtree and others want to allow the legislature to make changes to the program if the Trump Administration cuts funding to Medicaid.

He said the constitutional amendment will allow the state to stop offering Medicaid to the expansion population if the federal match goes below 90 percent.

“For every percent that we go below the 90 percent that we voted on, that’s $2 million bucks to the taxpayer extra for their match," Crabtree said. "It’s kind of falling in line with Iowa and some of our other neighbors who’ve done this, which is should this go below 90 percent we just have some flexibility to consider how Medicaid expansion works, how it’s implemented and how we pay for it.”

In 2022, voters approved expanding Medicaid benefits to low-income individuals by constitutional amendment. In November last year, voters approved work requirements for the benefit.

About 28,000 South Dakotans are enrolled in Medicaid because of expansion.

Lawmakers must also craft a budget for the next fiscal year. The primary revenue generator for the state, sales taxes, are coming in lower than anticipated.

The annual legislative session starts January 14^th.

This story has been updated related to the South Dakota Developmental Center. Only a portion of the campus is being sold, which officials say is no longer in use.