South Dakota Rep. Brian Gosch was one of the featured speakers at the Rapid City Legislative Crackerbarrel meeting today  (video below). Gosch is the House Majority Leader in the South Dakota Legislature.  Gosch said there are 247 bills in the House this year, 171 bills in the Senate, 14 House concurrent resolutions, 2 Senate concurrent resolutions, 2 House joint resolutions, and 4 Senate joint resolutions.  Gosch explained that resolutions have no force of law and only make a statement, and concurrent resolutions affect both chambers.  Joint resolutions can be used to refer matters to the ballot. The deadline for action on bills is Tuesday for every bill to be through committee, and Wednesday for every bill to have been voted on in its originating house before it can advance to consideration by the other body of the legislature. This is known as “crossover day.”  There are three weeks to go in […]

At the Rapid City Legislative Crackerbarrel meeting today, South Dakota Rep. Scott Craig was one of the featured speakers. Craig used his time primarily to address his change of heart on HB 1182, the education tax increase.

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.

The Student Physical Privacy Act (HB1008) passed in the Senate Tuesday afternoon with a vote of 20-15. It now sits on the desk of Governor Dennis Daugaard. “Boots on the ground” in Pierre are telling us that the Governor’s phone is ringing off the wall (so to speak) from those across the country who don’t want to see this bill signed into law. To say that there is enormous pressure to veto would be an understatement.

We are pleased to report that HB1008, the student privacy bill, passed in the Senate yesterday afternoon with a vote of 20-15. HB1008 now heads to the Governor. Urge him to sign HB1008, the student privacy bill.

An open letter to the South Dakota Legislature on transgender policies that allow boys to use the girl’s restroom/locker room and vice versa. A bill dealing with this issue is scheduled to be voted on in the South Dakota Senate today.

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.

This is only sensible. Everyone knows that males and females have different anatomy and that these differences call for the longstanding, legitimate privacy precautions we see in society when people must be in a state of undress-such as when they are using a restroom or locker room.

It’s amazing how closed-minded the supposedly “open minded” can actually be. We got an example of that from the South Dakota Legislature last week as the Senate Education Committee looked at SB 83 is intended to assist teachers in “helping students understand, analyze, critique, or review in an objective scientific manner the strengths and weaknesses of scientific information presented in courses.”

Several bills were heard in the South Dakota Legislature last week dealing with homosexual and transgender issues, as well as the religious liberty being targeted by the Left’s sexual agenda.