The latest Rapid City legislative crackerbarrel meeting was held at the South Dakota School of Mines today. The recently voted down education tax increase was the dominating topic at the gathering.

A few years ago, a Democrat sponsored a bill to provide taxpayer-funded health care to pregnant illegal aliens. That bill failed, but since then, Republicans have been duped into picking up this dirty flag and flying it the past couple of years. Like sour milk that keeps coming up the gullet, it’s back again this year in HB 1110.

Some of the bills being considered by the South Dakota Legislature on Feb. 16 include one to channel video lottery revenue to teacher salaries, expanding tax incentives for nenewable energy projects, criminal sentencing, the transgender “bathroom bill” and more.

It’s curious to me that we only criticize greed when it manifests on the personal level. Can’t we see what is right before our eyes in America; we have a civil government drunk on greed. It never has enough, not enough of our hard earned money, not enough of our possession, and not enough of our land. 640 million acres illegally and unconstitutionally held by the federal government is not enough, they want to steal all the land. That’s what the ranchers out west are facing.

Several important bills being considered by the South Dakota Legislature today include a repeal of the death penalty in South Dakota, a new bill calling for drug testing of welfare recipients, a new sales tax, a resolution dealing with affordable electricity, the Keystone XL pipeline, and more.

Important bills being considered by the South Dakota Legislature today include those dealing with abortion, refugee settlement, sales taxes, religious liberty, gun rights, land rights and more.

The South Dakota Legislative Research Council has officially filed Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s education reform bills which are now online for the public to view.

During the second legislative crackerbarrel meeting in Rapid City today, a question was asked about HB 1076 to drug test welfare recipients; this bill was killed in committee earlier this week. Responding to the question were Rep. Kristin Conzet, Rep. Jacqueline Sly, the prime sponsor of the bill, Rep. Lynne DiSanto, and Rep. Chip Campbell, a co-sponsor of the bill.

At the legislative crackerbarrel meeting in Rapid City today, a question was asked about whether the legislature might consider creating a corporate income tax to fund education and teacher salaries. Answering the question were South Dakota Rep. Jacqueline Sly (who served on the South Dakota Blue Ribbon Task Force on education), Senator Craig Tieszen, and Senator Phil Jensen.

South Dakota Rep. Lance Russell of District 30 was one of the featured speakers at the second Rapid City legislative crackerbarrel meeting today at the South Dakota School of Mines. Russell spoke about the discussions dominating the legislature concerning education funding, and specifically increasing teacher pay.