This week was full of good and bad bills again. Many were defeated in committees, but some live to see the House Floor for votes by the whole body! We now only have a week left before crossover day so the pace will continue to stay very hectic. It is amazing how many visitors I have in the Speakers Office. The discussions will vary from soliciting support on certain legislation, asking which committee a bill will be sent, advice on different legislation, when a bill will be voted on, if a vote can be delayed and occasionally just a visit.

I have had a tremendous amount of emails, I can tell you that I do get to read them all, but I have not had time to respond the way I would normally do. I do have an intern, but I realize that it would not be the same as a personal note from me. Since some emails need to be responded to I will indeed use my Intern to do some of the replies, my apologies. I do appreciate all the advice and concerns expressed in the emails. Our job this year is extremely difficult and not very popular.

It is unfortunate that as things get tough people want to blame someone, like me, for the situation we find ourselves in. The National economy meltdown was something that the legislature could never have predicted and has very little, if any, recourse to correct. As the National Government decided to adopt the plan to offer stimulus money, the Governor and the Legislature thought it prudent to accept the money in hopes that the tough cuts could be avoided and the economy could recover, we were wrong. Then the second stimulus was offered, we again accepted the stimulus with the same hopes in our sights, that our economy would recover, again that did not work. We were now 2 years down the road of no return and now we also had a major revenue source for the state, bank franchise tax, finding the rules changing for them and their profit margins disappeared leaving us with a $26,000,000 dollar over payment that needed to be paid back. We are now faced with the decisions that we were trying to avoid 2 plus years ago, not to mention our revenue levels have now shrunk to the 2008 levels. With 47% of the State’s general funds budget going to Education, 37% of the general funds going to providers and 12% of our general budget going to protecting people, our budget, without revenue increases, needs to have some cuts to these departments or we cannot balance our budget.

I have heard that a petition has been circulated around Milbank asking for support to encourage the Legislature and the Governor to consider a $150,000,000 million dollar tax increase. I will certainly share that information with all, when it is made available to me, but it will be a hard sell with the current makeup of this legislative group to pass such a measure, but I do appreciate the efforts and the support many are giving me as we try to figure out just how to balance the budget. I share the frustration that a solution that seems so easy will be so hard to obtain, if obtainable at all. I continue to look for ways to soften or lessen the proposed cuts, but we need every suggestion we can get, so please send them to me. The Superintendents, from home, have been working very hard to give us suggestions, as well as our administrators of our long term care facilities. We need all to help bring South Dakota through this unfortunate economic crisis.

Again my contact info is rep.rausch@state.sd.us or valrausch@hotmail.com. Or call and leave a message at 605-880-5015.

Sincerely, Speaker Val Rausch

As the days slip by and the work loads increase I can feel the tension and anxiousness increase throughout all of State Government. Many are still trying to find support for the legislation they are carrying, trying to persuade others that their view or idea is worth supporting.

In State Affairs committee this week we had a number of bills that were offered that would try and change the way our legislative districts were established and who made up the committee to decide the districts. This is the year that the legislative districts need to be redrawn, with the new census completed and the population shifts accounted for, the districts need to be redrawn so the population in each district is as equal as possible. This process will take place over the summer and a final plan will be presented to the legislature in October. The bills that were brought to change the way that process has been done in South Dakota all failed, most on a party line vote.

We also had some bills to restrict who people can make campaign contributions to and to restrict where people could hold fundraisers, also a couple of bills that would have changed how the general appropriations bill is handled and what amount of money could be spent, all attempts, in my opinion, to be political in nature and all these bills failed.

In Local Government we heard bills that would change how some appointments are made, mostly clarifying language. The Secretary of State also had a bill to establish the date in which absentee voting could begin. It seems that it was not uniform throughout the state, this bill will make it uniform. The most significant legislation that passed out of committee was a change on how contracts can be awarded when there is no competitive bids and the local contractor is a member of the governing body. I think this change will allow for more rural areas to keep business local and use the businesses in their community to provide the services necessary.

This last weekend, Gary and Estelline, held cracker barrels for the local legislators. The focus in the meetings continues to be around concern for the budget and the affect it would or could have on area schools and area care providers. It is nice to see so many citizens attend the events. It is unfortunate that it takes a financial crisis to inspire them to come. Many in attendance feel that raising taxes is the way to fix the problem, it would certainly provide more revenue for the State to spend, however, a tax increase would require a 2/3rds majority vote and at the present time, those votes do not exist. We are continuing to search for ways to balance the state’s budget in a way that will create the least amount of hardship. I continue to ask you to send your ideas to me as we work through this crisis.

Again my contact info is rep.rausch@state.sd.us or valrausch@hotmail.com. Or call and leave a message at 605-880-5015.

Sincerely, Speaker Val Rausch

Week 3 was a very difficult week for me. I was the unfortunate victim of the flu. Not very much fun, if you have not received a flu shot you may want to think about it. I was able to make it to the Speakers Podium and committees, but I looked like I should have been in recovery.

As the session continues the bill count continues to climb, 250 bills will probably be the number we finish with for the House this session. Our average would be over 300, so not too bad, but a busy finish to the rest of the session. Several of these bills are, what we call, place holders or vehicle bills, designed to allow us to follow the rules but have a way to work on the final wording for the bill, without having to suspend the rules to do so.

As the session starts to take shape it is obvious that the discussion will center around the budget. The Governor’s budget is still the working document we are using to move through the legislative process. The Appropriations committee continues to look through the agency budgets in hopes of finding a few additional cuts that will help us balance the State’s budget. It will be a few weeks yet before we will be able identify just exactly what will be needed in cuts or in increased revenues to make the budget work. With the Governor promising to veto any tax increases it puts a lot more pressure on us because our options now require a 2/3 majority support or consensus on making the cuts, two tough choices.

In committee this week we heard a variety of bills, some in Local Government included changing requirements to be eligible to qualify as a voter in a water district, to provide deadlines for Auditors to file election results, to change requirements for Auditors to help find abandoned mobile homes in the county and finally to kill a bill that would let the state set salaries for the county commissioners.

The committee on State Affairs heard bills dealing with employers being forces to allow employees to respond to emergencies while they are at work, a bill requiring the State to approve all purchases of land by the Game, Fish and Parks over a certain acreage and also a bill requiring land purchases to be approved by the State Senate, none of these ideas passed. The biggest bill we addressed would have been the constitutionalilty of the Federal Health Care Bill to force the residence of the State to purchase insurance. The bill would have nullified the federal law. This idea, although very popular, was not supported, for several reasons. The main reasons were that we are already in a lawsuit with the federal government so no need for this bill and there was no place in code to put this bill, with no instructions for as to who would enforce the law and to whom it would be enforced against. In the end it was defeated 13-0.

I did attend the cracker barrel in Clear Lake this weekend and the conversation centered around the budget and the crisis that a 10 percent cut would do to the Deuel School system. Several suggestions were offered as to how to resolve the lack of revenue for the state. All of the suggestions to increase revenue would require a 2/3 vote and that task will be very tough to accomplish. We will continue to work on finding common ground that will lighten the burden for schools and providers and still allow us to balance our budget. Thank you to all who participated and offered suggestions to help solve our States problems.

Again my contact info is rep.rausch@state.sd.us or valrausch@hotmail.com. Or call and leave a message at 605-880-5015.

Sincerely, Speaker Val Rausch

Well this week was very anticipated and then extremely sobering. Tuesday Governor Daugaard presented his budget address to the Legislature and the State, it was both very well delivered and informational, to levels we usually do not receive. I thought he did a very good job in illustrating the challenges we have before us. Now the tough job comes in deciding if he is totally correct or if other options can get to the same end, a balanced budget.

The Governor laid out a plan that would require a 10% cut to almost all corners of the State’s general funded budgets. He proposed a 10% cut to the Education system, the providers reimbursements, the Judiciary, the Governor’s office will offer up more than 10%, all constitutional offices, the Legislature, etc., all of the budget! He said the only way to do it right is for all of us to share in the pain and work through this tough time together.

With Education making up 47% of the budget, taking care of people using 37%, protecting people making up 12% and all the rest of state government being only 4% of the budget it will be impossible to balance, if the revenue can not be increased, without cutting some from all these areas, 10% as proposed from the Governor.

Raising taxes seems like an easy way to take care of the revenue problem, however, the Governor has said no new taxes. The election just 2 months ago seemed also to support cutting rather than raising taxes and just this week I heard the Minority Leader saying the Democrats are not for raising taxes either and with a 2/3 majority vote needed to pass any tax increase our options are limited.

We will continue to look for ways to support the schools and the providers, but it will be very difficult, at best, to prevent cuts from happening. We will also look to ease restrictions and barriers that would allow the schools more flexibility in using the funds they have in reserves. It will be very challenging to find any relief from pain.

The amount of bills, this year, has been very low, but the amount of activity at the end of the week was brisk, so I think the bill load will climb quickly as the this week unfolds.

The visitors continue to come and see the capital and invite us to their functions. This week we had the Tourism Banquet, which was well attended. We also had Specialty Hospitals, ALEC, Brookings Day, Beer Wholesalers, and many smaller groups that also have smaller receptions. Always good to see the faces from back home.

Again my contact info is rep.rausch@state.sd.us or valrausch@hotmail.com. Or call and leave a message at 605-880-5015.

Sincerely, Speaker Val Rausch

As week 2 comes to an end I cannot say that it was better than week 1.  On Thursday the Governor gave us the updated budget.  It was very hard to see all of the cuts that are necessary to balance the budget.  The job ahead of us will be very difficult and painful.

With all the cuts proposed and fee increases presented I’m sure the e-mails and phone calls will be overwhelming.  We will continue to look everywhere we can to find new revenue or other areas to cut.  The Governor has presented a balanced budget so if we do not agree with a cut we must find a different cut or a new source of money to keep the budget in balance.  The same is true with the fee increases.  If we do not agree with a proposed increase we will then need to find another cut to keep the budget in balance.  As every area is affected every person will have a good but different reason why their portion of the budget should not be cut.  With the amount of cuts needed to balance the budget, $130 Million in total, I think everyone will feel the pain.  A new tax will be the last thing I look at to balance the budget.  The tax that we have available is a sales tax and that will hurt the low income the most, I’m not ready to do that.

The committee work this week was fairly slow, with only a few bills to be heard in most committees.  My 2 committees, State Affairs and Local Government, each had a day off this week because the bills are just not turned in yet.  I think most people were waiting to see what the new budget would bring before they commit to proposing new laws.  I have heard that over 500 drafts were being done, so we could end up with a very busy remainder of the session.

My Speaker Pro Tempore duties have been filling the slow time.  I find myself with meetings daily with leadership of both the House and Senate Majorities and also with the Governor and his staff.  My office has also had many Legislators and Lobbyists stopping by to ask questions or trying to find support on different legislation that is being considered.  The Speaker and I meet often during the day and at times I feel like his shadow as he has me follow and learn the job, it will be a great experience and an awesome responsibility.  On Wednesday the Speaker actually gave the gavel to me to run the house for 4 bills.  I was surprised at how nervous I was.  For my first time it didn’t go too bad but I’m sure practice will make better.  The Speakers platform is by far the best view in the House.

Please send me your concerns about the budget and individual legislation that you are following and thank you to all the visitors who have been to Pierre, always great to see faces from home.

God Bless,  Val Rausch

What a week.  The first day of session starts with the Oath of Office for the entire Legislature, then the elections of the Speaker of the House, Speaker Pro Tempore and the Chief Clerk of the House.  All of the appointments of the staff, interns and pages all follow and then the arrival of the Governor and the State of the State address.   Normally I see these events as formality as we ready for the work at hand, but this year was a little different, I was elected as the Speaker Pro Tempore of the House.  What an honor.  I will now be working with the Speaker and must be ready to take over if the Speaker needs to be absent for any reason.  It is really a speaker in training position and in 2 years, if re-elected, I will be Speaker of the House.  Still hard to believe.

The Governor’s State of the State address was hard to hear this year.  The Economy was the main topic and we all know what that has been doing nationally.  We found out that the State, although not as bad, is in tougher financial shape than we thought when the Governor gave us the budget in Dec.  Enough has changed since then that the Governor took back his proposed budget and is redoing it.  He will give us the new budget on Thursday of this week.  The Governor is warning us that it will be a much tighter budget than originally proposed.  He has already indicated that fees and exemptions will be very strongly considered for adjustments and increases.  We must wait until Thursday and then the Governors recommendations will be fully known.

With my new role in the House I have also received new committee assignments.  Because of the extra demands of the Speaker Pro Tempore serving on appropriations was no longer possible.  The Speaker has appointed me to House State Affairs and House Local Governments.  I will be the Vice Chair of House Local Governments.  The change in committees will also be a new experience, but one that I look forward to.  The State Affairs Committee will handle the most important or most controversial bills because this committee is made up of the Leadership of both the Majority and Minority parties.  The Committee for Local Governments will handle just that, local government issues.  With my experience as Mayor of Big Stone City for 6 years, I felt that I would understand many of the issues that will come before this committee and I look forward to those challenges as well.

As this session gets underway I again want to encourage your participation in the legislative process.  Please let me know if you have concerns with certain bills and let me know what they are and which bill #’s they have so I can track them and respond to your concerns.  We will be struggling with the budget and I’m sure that will take most of the press, but many other issues will surface.  Things such as a smoking ban, property tax reform, sales tax, license fees for cars and drivers, gas tax, ethanol, wheel tax, school funding, and many others.  So please contact me with your concerns at the earliest possible opportunity.  Again my contact info is rep.rausch@state.sd.us or valrausch@hotmail.com.   Or call and leave a message at 605-880-5015. 

Thank you again for the privilege of representing you in Pierre.  I never see it as anything less than a great honor.    Sincerely,  Rep. Val Rausch

Hello again from Pierre.

What a final week! Very busy then slow then busy then slow and finally on Friday it was very crazy!! At least in the Appropriations committee. At the very end of session is when all of the bills that have spending in them are voted on by both houses and the conference committees then have the task of negotiating the differences between the House version and the Senate version. If they can come to an agreement we get to either approve or disapprove of that decision. If we do not agree the bill fails. Once all of the conferences are decided then the general spending bill can begin to plug all those numbers in and also make the amendments we’ve seen necessary after listening to all the agencies budgets. The whole process takes awhile, about 4 hours, and with 71 proposed amendments a lot of changes are made to the general bill. When we finally finished with all the amendments and passed the general bill out of committee it then needed to be printed with all the changes, about 3 hours. The House finally voted on the bill at 10:30pm and we were able to adjourn at about 11:00pm. A very long day.

As things usually go many are not satisfied with the final results. The Highway patrol budget was reduced by $2 Million dollars even though many tried to have the money put back in. The conference committee was not able to find a happy medium and the bill died. The Sec. of Public Safety, Tom Dravland said he can manage with out the money and would probably not spend it if he did receive it, so he got his wish in the end, sort of. State employees did receive an additional ½%, which brought their increase up to 3%, the care providers were also raised for 2.5 to 3% and finally the Education K-12 funding was increased from 2.5 to 3%. The .5% increase to be directed towards enhancing teacher salaries. In order to do these increases it will take almost $5 Million from our reserve accounts. If the economy goes into a long term slow down the money in the reserve accounts will not last very long, as it was we needed to use $11,000,000 to balance this year’s budget. Thank God we had the reserves to use. The Technical Schools received a $3 Million dollar increase for programming and maintenance and repair of their facilities. These 4 schools will be vital for the workforce necessary to tackle the major proposed projects in our near future, such as, Big Stone II, Hyperion Oil Refinery, Oil Pipeline, power plant by Mobridge and the possible building of the D,M & E rail line across the state. They will be working with these companies to develop the programs that will best fit these needs.

The overall budget for fiscal year 2009 will be $3,548,708,486 of that $1,207,785,260 will be General funds, $1,430,724,904 will be Federal funds and the remaining $910,198,322 will be from Other funds. It is a lot of money!! Hopefully we are spending it wisely.

March 17th will be VETO day and our last day of this session. The Governor has 14 days to consider the bills that were passed and if he vetos any of those bill we, the legislature, have an opportunity to override his veto. If there are no vetos then we will take care of the final reports and be done.
It has been my pleasure to serve you, District 4, these past 4 years and I hope you will support me again as the re-election process starts again. If you are not registered now is a good time to do so. Get registered and exercise your right to vote.

As always please contact me with any of your legislative concerns at 605-880-5015 or valrausch@hotmail.com or rep.rausch@state.sd.us Thank you and God Bless, Val

Hello again from Pierre.

This week in appropriations we heard the economist’s projections for the revenue that they feel will be available for the 2009 fiscal year. The Bureau of Finance and Management and the Legislative Research Council each made a presentation and then a sub-committee of the joint appropriations met to try and decide which, if either, we will use for the general bill’s projected revenue. I was appointed to sit on that sub-committee and the future is not bleak or doom and gloom, but the revenue stream has slowed and finding extra monies to increase the Governor’s recommended budget will be difficult at best. The final number from the Sub-committee for the revenue number will be revealed on Monday.

The Governor recommended in his budget that for the 2008 budget we would need to use $29,000,000 from the reserves to cover all of our commitments, things such as flooding, wildfires, energy savings loan fund, etc. He also thought we would need to use $5,000,000 to cover our budget for 2009 fiscal year. So now with the revenues slowing a bit we will need to use even more out of the reserves. We will continue our work of looking for things that can be cut or cut back and reviewing the requests still waiting to see if they can be funded. A lot of work to be done yet in our last 5 days.

There will be a lot of debate next week on several bills, some of which include eminent domain, liquor license, education funding, state employee salaries, health provider fees, public safety, well you get the idea. Always a challenge to make everyone happy and often times we do not accomplish that goal. I’m sure this year will be no different.

With the end of session coming soon, the associations have started to become fewer and fewer. Even some of the lobbyists have been able to go home with their work done for the session.

The legislature had a visit this week from the Madison 4th Grade students, they are our little legislators. In their classes they elect all the positions in the House and Senate and actually practice passing bills. They also adopt us and write us letters. Then as a finale to their project they come to Pierre and visit with us and then watch us during session. What a great experience for them and a treat for us. Many school groups have been to Pierre during session, but this is the only one that gets to come on the floor and visit with us.

If you are in Pierre, please look me up, I love to meet with those who make the trip.

As always please contact me with any of your legislative concerns at 605-880-5015 or valrausch@hotmail.com or rep.rausch@state.sd.us Thank you and God Bless, Val

Hello again from Pierre.

This week was a very busy and exciting week. All of the bills had to leave their House of origin and be either voted up or down and then sent to the other House for their consideration. It gives all the bills that are still alive about 2 weeks to find their final form and then to find their way to the Governor’s desk for his final consideration. The bills that will see the most changes will be the remaining education bills. I have already received numerous e-mails and comments and I encourage and welcome the feedback. It must be known that a majority of the members must agree before anything becomes law. So a lot of work to be done yet for sure. The 2 education bills would be HB 1124 & SB 187. Please review these bills and relay your feedback as soon as you can. I’ll be interested to see the responses.

Appropriations finished the week by clearing all the House Bills, as I’ve mentioned before, some of the bills had the money removed or reduced to a $1 so the bill could stay alive until we can see the revenue projections, which should be Wednesday or Thursday, and try and determine if and to what extent they can be funded. We started hearing the Senate Bills this Friday and will continue with them next week. We now will decide if the House and Senate agree.

The property tax bills 1005 & 1006 have now passed both houses and are being delivered to the Governor’s desk for his consideration. These bills will change how property tax has been figured and evaluated. The delayed implementation date will allow the calculations to begin and any necessary fixes to be made before it actually take affect.

There will be some very interesting debate coming in the next couple of weeks on issues such as Liquor License, minimum hunting age mentor program, changes to open meeting laws, open records laws, eminent domain laws, etc. You get the idea, lots of fun yet!!

There has been some flu and other bugs floating around the capitol and I managed to catch one. I was able to make all my meetings and votes, but I need to apologize if I missed some visitors this week. I’m feeling better and hope to be in full form again soon. My wife, Paula, did join me in Pierre for Valentine’s Day and also to attend the SD National Guard Dining Out. It is a black tie affair to thank and recognize our servicemen and women for all they’ve done and continue to do for our State and Nation.

If you are in Pierre, please look me up, I love to meet with those who make the trip.

As always please contact me with any of your legislative concerns at 605-880-5015 or valrausch@hotmail.com or rep.rausch@state.sd.us Thank you and God Bless, Val

Hello again from Pierre. As I report about the activities and legislation of the week I can’t help feeling so blessed. As I check my e-mails and messages I found that Miles and Holli had sent some pictures from their honeymoon. If we accomplish little this session I will always remember that the 2008 session was special for me and mine. Welcome to the family Holli.

This week found the hours in session lengthening and the debate on the floor impassioned. We even had some after hour caucus meetings to address the biggest issues and to try to reach some consensus as to how they can be resolved. With 50 members in our caucus that can be an impossible job. I can assure you we will spend all the money that we have available, hopefully where it’s needed the most.

We have finished listening to all the agencies and departments portions of the general bill and are now concentrating on the individual requests in the form of House Bills. We will need to make all our decisions by Tuesday at the very latest if we don’t amend the bill. Wednesday is cross over day, this when all the House bills must be out of the House and all the Senate bills need to be out of the Senate.

As we continue to look for ways to fund the special requests we will, in order to give us more time, amend the dollar amounts requested to as little as a dollar. This allows us to meet cross over deadlines and ensure that the bill will not be killed. The Senate will then amend the money back into the bill, if it can be found. Then the House will need to agree with the changes before it can be sent to the Governor. Several bills that were approved with the $1 amendment were the Technical School bills, 5 bills in total.

Other bills that came through appropriations included funding for the State Fair and the annual Omnibus Water bill. The water bill funds the special projects such as Lewis & Clark Pipe Line, Southern Black Hills Water System, etc. Although deadlines are approaching it doesn’t mean the final decisions have been made on the bills still alive. So please continue to follow the bills of interest to you and let us know which ones they are, we can still influence some of the results.

Some of the groups that visited the Capitol this week included SD Physical Therapists, SD Voices for Children, SD Nurses, SD Veterans of Foreign Wars, AFL-CIO, SD Municipal League and other individual city and civic groups. Also this week some legislators had shadows. The shadows were part of the CTSO’s in our high schools. They included FBLA, FFA, DECA, PAS, PBL, FCCLA, & SkillsUSA. I had 2 shadows Mary Remily of Doland and Ethan Remily of Aberdeen. They are 1st cousins and Ethan is also my Nephew. It was great to have them as shadows, I hope they enjoyed their day at the Legislature, I sure did.

As always please contact me with any of your legislative concerns at 605-880-5015 or valrausch@hotmail.com or rep.rausch@state.sd.us Thank you and God Bless, Val

Hello again from Pierre. It is hard to believe that another week has passed, but with the 4 day work week it probably should be expected. I hope the High School Juniors were able to read the articles that my daughter Molly wrote reflecting on her experience as a page. Hopefully it will inspire them to join us and enjoy an experience of their own.

This week the Appropriations committee continued our work of inviting the agencies and departments to the hearings to present and defend their portions of the general budget. The departments included the Board of Regents (8 hours of testimony) and the department of Human Services (4 hours of testimony) and then on Friday we had individual bill hearings for the House Appropriations committee. Most of the bills that we heard had to do with money that comes from either special funds or gifts, so will not affect the general fund dollars needed to run needed items in the state.

In session this week the activity has picked up and the number of bills that we voted on has increased. Many of the bills are still task force bills or agency bills trying to make changes in current laws that they feel would be better or a fix to arising concerns.

We heard from our Investment Council about the status of our Health Care Trust Fund and the Education Enhancement Trust Fund. The funds are healthy and continue to provide us with a good return to use as revenue for the state. The council also warned that we need to be careful not to spend more than absolutely necessary so the funds can keep pace with inflation and maintain it’s purchasing power. The desire to spend those funds is very real, but keeping them healthy and strong is the best for the long term health of the state. Not all agree with this and so we debate it every year.

We also got information on the property taxes and a couple of proposed changes and how they would affect the residents of our state. The meeting lasted about an hour and no specific bill was talked about, but the information was appreciated and hopefully will help us make informed decisions on the property tax bills that will be voted on this year.

Visiting the capitol this week included the Towns and Townships Association, County Commissioners and Officials, SD A.B.A.T.E., SD Newspaper Ass., SD Healthcare Ass., Community Health Care, Community Mental Health, just to name some of them. It is great to have the calls and notes to let me know when people from Dist 4 are here. It is great to see and visit with you, thank you for your efforts.

I need to keep this short because I’m off to my son, Miles, wedding. A great way to spend a weekend, welcoming another Daughter, Holli, into my family.

As always please contact me with any of your legislative concerns at 605-880-5015 or valrausch@hotmail.com or rep.rausch@state.sd.us Thank you and God Bless, Val

Hello again from Pierre, I will have Molly finish her report and get it to the paper as soon as possible. We are in the short session and with a 4 day work week, we have Friday off this week, so Molly had to go to school, so her final week’s report will be soon to follow.
The pages really had a great time and especially for me a very proud week!

The Appropriations committee met for an additional 22 hours this week, we continue to listen to the Departments defend their portion of the Governor’s budget. The departments that appeared in front of us this week included the Public Utilities Commission, Bureau of Finance and Management, Dept. of Tourism and State Development, State Treasure, State Auditor, Dept. of Transportation, Dept. of Revenue and Regulation, South Dakota Retirement System, Secretary of State, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources, Dept. of Public Safety and the Dept. of Agriculture.

When the Dept of Public Safety was testifying we had a chance to hear how the Highway Patrol will be handling their proposed $2,000,000 cut. Many were concerned that their response and ability to patrol would be hurt or slowed. They assured us that the public safety will in no way be put in jeopardy. Their plan would mainly include controlling overtime and delaying or extending their car replacement schedules. Col. Mostellar assured the committee that, although the cuts were unwelcome, the services the public has depended on would be able to be met.

The Dept of Agriculture was happy to inform the committee that the State Fair has had a good year, exceeding their projected revenue. They were able to use the excess dollars to do some very necessary repairs and improvements to some of the buildings located on the fair grounds. The Governor has included the State Fair state money in the regular budget. Normally it has been issued through a special bill that goes through the legislature. I believe the Appropriations committee will insist we continue to give the state fairs’ money in the same fashion and remove it from the general bill and offer a separate bill to accomplish the same results. Sec. Even also said they will be hiring a new fair manager soon.

With the slow down in the State’s revenue most of the budgets are very similar to last year with only the necessary changes being proposed. It will be interesting to see if the rest of the Agencies and Departments carry on with the same trend.

The 4 day work week is having an effect on the committees that normally meet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There seems to be a larger number of bills this year and with those committees losing one day every week they have started hearing bills as early as 6:30am. Serving on appropriations leaves me little sympathy for these committees, but it is nice to have the extra company in the early hours at the capitol.

With the shortened session the last bills to be entered will be submitted Wednesday, at that point we will know which bills need to watched and either passed or killed. As always please contact me as soon as you hear of a bill that affects you and I will help you get the answers to your concerns. The voting next week will start being on major issues so please keep yourself informed. You can track bills on the internet at legis.state.sd.us/session/2008/ or call me at 605-880-5015 or email me at rep.rausch@state.sd.us. Thank you again for all your support. God Bless

It is hard to believe that it has been a year already since my last report, but session has started and things are getting moving at a fast pace. This session is the short session (35days) and it really pushes legislation to be handed in early and really gets the committee going quickly. Appropriations had already listened to 16 hours of testimony consisting of 7 agencies or departments. But instead of boring you with those details I thought it would be interesting to get a unique perspective on the session, so I asked my daughter Molly, who is my page, to share her experience with you. Hopefully it will be interesting and also encourage other students to consider the page program in future years.

For the first two weeks of session, I, Molly Rausch, am a page for my father, Val Rausch. I have been busy the whole week. From taking phone messages to making appointments, I have had plenty to do.

The legislative session started on Tuesday, January 8th, but the pages were hard at work two days before session began. We had to report on Sunday at 3:00pm. Here we met our page advisor, Val Melmer, and got a tour of the capital. It was a short meeting but very productive.

Monday was our first official day of work. There were still no legislators around, but we were busy all day dumping bill books and getting the capital ready for session on Tuesday. We learned what we were in charge of and got a better understanding of what was expected of us.

The rest of the week was full of activity. Every page is assigned six or seven representatives. We are in charge of getting all their paper work ready for them and getting their mail. If they have a special task for us, we complete it.

What’s a typically day for a page? Well, our mornings are pretty low key. We have to report to the Page Advisor office in the capital by 7:30 every morning. The first thing we do is hand out the daily calendar. Once that is finished, some report to committee meetings and others report to phone duty. I have worked both. In the house, there are two pages working the phones. Because there aren’t a lot of phone calls, we take turns running around and helping our legislators. We take shifts for lunch. The first group eats at around 11:00 and the rest eat at noon. We are allowed to eat where ever we like. For those who want to eat at a restaurant, Pierre offers a large variety of food. For those who want to stay at the capital, there is a little café in the basement of the capital.

After lunch is when we really get busy. During session, the pages are in charge of a row, if any one in our row waves at us, we attend to them. This year has been really neat. Usually they ask us to get them coffee or get a copy of a bill, but this year they are giving us more complicated missions. They are relying on us more, which really makes you feel significant. In the past, they have had the interns do jobs like making appointments and summarizing court cases, but they have been asking more and more pages to do these kinds of jobs. Our Advisor is really impressed with how fast we are catching on and how many compliments the legislators are giving her. She said that they are giving us really difficult jobs, but they are impressed with how well we are doing them.

After session, we wrap up the day by finishing up phones and getting the calendars all laid out for tomorrow. We are usually out of there an hour after session adjourns, but if there are meetings we are in charge of sitting in on them. This week appropriations have met after caucus so we have gotten out of here at about five every day.

I am enjoying my time out here so much. It is an amazing experience. I not only get to see hands on how my government is run, but I also get so see why my dad loves it out here so much. Everyone is really nice, and if we have a question they are more than willing to answer it for us. Being out here is kind of addicting. The energy of government is fascinating. Time is flying out here in Pierre, and I am enjoying every minute of it!

As always please contact me with any of your legislative concerns at 605-880-5015 or valrausch@hotmail.com or rep.rausch@state.sd.us Thank you and God Bless, Val

Hello again,

This will be my final report for the year. Session is officially over and now I get to return to my office and try to find my desk under the mountain of paper work that has accumulated over the last 2 months.

On Monday the 26th was what we call VETO day. We gather for the last day of session to decide if we want to override or uphold the Govenor’s vetoed bills. This year there were 5 bills the Governor vetoed and all of his vetoes were upheld.

Those 5 bills were, booster seat law changes, changes in Brand Board, funding for Conservation districts, new governance for the Tech schools, and tax exemption for nurseries and greenhouses. But they failed.

The conservation districts funding will be increased, but through a different fund, not the unclaimed motor fuel tax refunds. Hopefully it will be a more permanent source for the conservation districts. The other 4 bills will have to try again next year.

Other accomplishments in this years session include. Giving more protection to the elderly who are abused, created a task force to find a solution for health care for all South Dakotans, created new sobriety programs, created new Meth treatment programs, covered tuition reimbursements for health care professionals, appropriated $800,000 for special tax refunds for elderly, clarified end of life health care decisions, reimbursed funding for wildfire protection, increased the state’s minimum wage to match the Federal Law when passed, appropriated $15 Million plus for water and waste related projects, revised authorization of the Public Utility Commission to regulate electric rates, raised the State’s cost share of the Lewis & Clark Rural water project to $19 Million, authorized $12 Million for upgrades and additions in Custer State Park, appropriated $750,000 for the SD State Fair, funded drought tolerance biotechnology research, approved 3 new Ph. D. programs, authorized securing a dedicated internet line for research and use for high speed data transfers, funded the opportunity scholarships, increased funding to the Technical Institutes, extended the veterans’ bonus program, extended deadlines for abatement or refund of property taxes to military personnel, changed campaign finance laws, created a teacher compensation program for teacher pay ($4 M), funded the short fall of the Education Service Agencies ($1.7 M), appropriated $1.4 M for K-12 technology, appropriated $1.5 M for career/technical education, increased state aid to general education by $23.6 M, increased state aid for special education by $594,809.

This is a long list, but it is only a portion of all the things addressed this session. It was an honor to represent all of you again and I encourage you to contact me for any of your concerns that I may help with.

Until next year God Bless and please be safe, Rep. Val Rausch 1-605-880-5015

Hello again from snowy Pierre,

Well this is a first for me, getting snowed in for the weekend. My Wife and daughters think I did this on purpose because of course, they have to move the snow. I did have extra gas for the snow blower, so I’m not totally in the dog house. I hope everyone was able to find a safe haven for the storm. What an event.

I did have an opportunity to take a look at the new emergency strategy room in action. What an impressive place. It is in the new DCI building that houses our training center for law enforcement, the Attorney General and his staff, and the State Lab. We have had tours of the facility before, but it is nice to see it in operation.

This week has been extremely hectic. It is 6:00pm Friday and we are just finishing for the day. All the bills have been voted on and have passed, failed, or are in conference committees trying to solve the differences the House and Senate have. All the bills except the budget. Now that were in Pierre for the weekend we’ll be working tomorrow trying to get all the numbers crunched so we can here the General Bill Monday on the Floor.

We will need to get the Education bills from the conference committee with the final recommendations for education spending completed and then the picture will be complete. It is still a work in progress with all parts agreed in theory, so just the final numbers will be hashed out. By the time you read this letter it will already be in the papers, so I won’t revisit them here.

The bill that would have changed the way property is valued in the state had a 1 1/2 hour floor debate and in the end it was defeated with a 30 to 40 vote. Next year will be another opportunity to try and deal with 150% rule and non-ag z.

The weather did not stop our Wednesday night House/Senate Basketball game. It is the final event of Kids Voting Week and their fund raiser. It is a lot of fun and probably the funniest sight most people see all year. Out of shape legislators, interns, pages and constitutional officers trying to play a game we couldn’t play when we were in shape. Quite a sight I’m sure. The fundraiser raised about $16,000, so it was very successful. My only regret was my daughter Brenna’s 8th grade class was not able to get to Pierre to present their project for the competition held as part of the activities for Kids Voting. It would have been nice to have them visit the capitol and watch the House beat the Senate.

I will try to get a final article in for next week and recap the year. A lot happens in 40 days and it is amazing how fast the time goes. I appreciate the opportunity you’ve given me to represent your interests in Pierre and I hope I have not let you down.

Until next week God Bless and please be safe, Rep. Val Rausch 1-605-880-5015

Hello again from Pierre,

We are now in our last 10 days of the 2007 session and as everyone is well aware we have a lot of work to do yet, especially in the Education funding bills. There are bills in both the House and the Senate and now the negotiations will begin as to what parts of these bills will be adopted. Many hours of negotiations will lead to an education package that will be passed by both Houses. In the end, I believe it will be a step in the right direction and get additional dollars for our schools for an extended period, allowing our school boards to prepare budgets based on a more predictable future commitment from the Legislature. It will be interesting.

In appropriations we have finished listening to all of the bills with special funding requests, or all but 1 and by Monday noon we will also be done with that one. That will allow us to direct our attention to the General Bill, we will comb through each departments budgets and make our final recommendations as to any changes we feel should be made. We will probably have those decisions made by Friday and then we will be able to send the bill to Houses for there consideration and vote.

This year we have made a big commitment to try and treat or rehab our meth addiction problem. We approved spending for both the Corrections program and the Judicial program. The corrections program is designed to get the inmates off meth and then keep them off. Hopefully never to return to the correctional system again and kick their addiction. The Judicial system will try a program that will keep people out of jail and allow them to go through a very intense program while staying in their homes and keeping their jobs. If both are successful it will save the State millions of dollars in the future.

The abortion bill was defeated in the Senate this week in committee, the Minimum wage bill is still alive and will be coming through the House next week. Bills concerning property taxes are still to come also. The message therapy bill reached a compromise and hopefully the changes will prove to be beneficial for all concerned.

The Associations that visit the Capitol have really slowed, I think it means that they have all been here. It amazes me that there are so many associations. There is an association for everyone. The groups this week included: SD Engineering Society, SD Transportation Providers, Dakota Nation Gaming Enterprise had their charitable gaming night, SD Elk Producers, SD Dietary Managers Assoc. and the SD Elk Breeders Assoc.

Thanks again to all those that make the effort to come to Pierre, it truly is nice to see familiar faces.

If you are following bills and need input from me or have input for me, please contact me immediately. Things will move very fast this week and by all means feel free to email HYPERLINK “mailto:rep.rausch@state.sd.us” rep.rausch@state.sd.us or call 605-880-5015.

Until next week God Bless,

Rep. Val Rausch

Hello again from Pierre,

I’m writing this letter on Friday morning. Friday is cancelled due to the bad weather forecasted for this afternoon and the fear that we would be stranded in Pierre for the weekend so it was decided to change our calendar and add one day to the end. We will now finish the session on Mar. 7th instead of the 6th as originally scheduled. Not a big deal, but please watch the deadline dates, they now have all moved as well, could be very interesting. Our crossover date was supposed to be today (Friday) but now it will be Tuesday. Tuesday will be a very long day, lots of bills on the calendar.

This week in appropriations was very busy as we made decisions on all the House Appropriation bills. Lots of tough decisions, but we only have so much money to work with. Hopefully we made the right decisions. None of our decisions are law yet, as the Senate will now have a chance to agree with our decision or to do as they see fit. It is a good checks and balance, but can be very frustrating.

This week the bill I proposed for a change it the open meetings law will be killed in the Senate. It is not because they don’t like the bill, it is because our Attorney General, Larry Long, recommends we wait a year because there is currently litigation in the courts that may affect what we are trying to accomplish. The AG is recommending we wait till next year and then try again. I agree with him and have asked to have my bill killed.

This week in the House we passed bills to fund the State Fair, to put further restrictions on Abortions, increase funding for our Soil Conservation Districts, approved the Omnibus Water bill, which funds most of the state’s rural water and community water projects, continued the funding for the Opportunity Scholarships, also approved a variety of repair projects to the buildings at our Universities. We also approved a 24/7 sobriety project to help keep people at home instead of always sending them to jail. Hopefully this project will help problem drinkers learn to live at home without drinking, it sounded very promising.

Many of the biggest issues will still be coming, such as, education spending bill, property tax reform, education spending and of course education spending.

My page, Joe Brandt, was here these last 2 weeks. He is a great young man and it was a real treat having him as my page. Thank you Joe. Hopefully, he enjoyed his experience and will encourage others to apply next year.

The evening events have slowed down somewhat, but one of the nicest events of the year was last night (Thursday) it was the Military Ball. It was well attended, in spite of the weather warnings, and it was great to see all those dress uniforms from every branch of the armed forces, very, very impressive. It is my favorite event of the session and encourage any that are invited to not miss it, you won’t be sorry. Thank you to all our veterans for all they have sacrificed for our freedoms.
If you are following bills and need input from me or have input for me, please contact me immediately. Things will move very fast this week and by all means feel free to email HYPERLINK “mailto:rep.rausch@state.sd.us” rep.rausch@state.sd.us or call 605-880-5015.

Until next week God Bless,

Rep. Val Rausch

It’s hard to believe we have just finished week 5 of the session.

This week was a little different for me, as we are now in sub-committees and really picking up the work on the individual bills that require special funding. The appropriation bills for special funding total about 40 bills and many millions of dollars, there are many good ideas and some not so good, but by Wed or Thurs of next week we will have to decide which of these bills we will recommend to the rest of the House for their consideration and passage. It will be long mornings and tuff decisions. Hopefully we will be able to find the money for the worth while causes.

By next week, Friday, the House will have to make decisions on all the House Bills, if we fail to act on a House Bill by then it will be dead. The Senate will do the same, from that point on it will be the House’s turn to now decide on which Senate bills we think should be law and the Senate will consider all the House Bills we passed. This is known as cross over day, could be longer sessions late next week as we get through all the bills.

If you are following the bills closely you will see bills passed that will make little sense. This, in most cases, will be to keep the idea (bill) alive, but we still need to work on the details or final amounts. They will be amended in the other Chamber as we get past the cross over day. Bills that usually are in this group would be the education funding & policy bills, property tax bills, the bills for the new tobacco tax revenues, the bills concerning campaign finance reform, and well, who knows. Lots of work left to do.

As always we had a lot of visitors this last week. Some of those groups included SD Pharmacists, SD Physical Therapists, SD Nurses Assoc., Veterans of Foreign Wars, SD Student Federation, SD Insurance Agents Assoc., Missouri River Energy Services, Farm Credit Services, SD Municipal League, Voices for Children, SD Bankers Assoc., Children’s Care Hospital & School, SD Credit Union, SD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and SD Dental Assoc. It really was great to see so many from the District. Thank you for letting me know you are in town. Those visits really mean a lot to me.

If you are following bills and need input from me or have input for me, please contact me immediately. Things will move very fast this week and by all means feel free to email HYPERLINK “mailto:rep.rausch@state.sd.us” rep.rausch@state.sd.us or call 605-880-5015.

Until next week God Bless,

Rep. Val Rausch

We are just finishing up the 18th day of our Legislative Session, almost half way done. It sure has gone quickly to this point. We have reached the end of the bill introductions with a total of 531 dropped, 312 in the House and 219 in the Senate. The committees have been hearing bills regularly and the action in both houses has really picked up.

This week found the appropriations committee finishing the agency portion of the general spending bill. We will now start hearing more special bills for spending that was not included in the Governor’s budget proposal. We will also break into smaller sub-committees to better look into things that were new or seemed to change more than normal.

I was able to pitch a bill concerning a small change in the open meetings laws. The bill I proposed would allow members of political sub-divisions to attend meetings of other political sub-division, a board, a commission, an association, an agency or any other public entity for which public notice has been posted under current law for the purpose of providing information or observing without needing to post it as a meeting. This would allow a little more flexibility especially for smaller governing bodies. It passed the committee on a 12-0 vote and will be voted on the House floor on Monday Feb. 5th. It will be interesting to follow the progress of this bill.

The Senate made their final decision on Sen. Sutton, they decided that the appropriate punishment would be a public Censure and that was done on Wednesday. Everyone is glad to have that chapter now finished and allow business to get back to normal. I have been asked about Rep. Roger Hunt’s case and why we haven’t addressed that problem in the House. My response is that it is a matter of interpretation of the law and a judge is reviewing both, the Attorney General’s and Rep. Roger Hunt’s interpretations and will be making the final decision. When that decision will come, who knows!! The Judge could even rule that the law is too broad and they may both be right and the law needs changing. We will have to wait and see.

We will have many long days coming up as we approach crossover day, this is the day in which all bills that started in the House must be voted on and sent to the Senate and visa versa. Also the content of these bills will include abortion, death penalty, open fields, property tax, education funding, and of course many other things. Should be very exciting.

This last week was again very busy with visitors to the Capitol. These groups included SD Farm Bureau, Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls & Rapid City, Ag Fest, Associated General Contractors, SD Farmers Union, SD Ethanol Producers, Assoc. of Realtors, Homebuilders, & Land Title, SD Superintendents , SD Assoc. of County Commissioners, State Federation of Labor/ AFL-CIO and the SD School Nutrition Assoc. In spite of some poor weather there was a good turnout and again it was nice to visit with those from District 4.

By all means feel free to email HYPERLINK “mailto:rep.rausch@state.sd.us” rep.rausch@state.sd.us or call 605-880-5015.

Until next week God Bless,

Rep. Val Rausch