Details from District 2: Change in leadership leaves Senate in flux

By: 
State Rep. Steve Kolbeck

Hello,

District 2,

It has been a slow start but picked up this week. As you all know, Governor Kristi Noem was appointed into the Trump administration and resigned this week. Larry Rhoden has become our governor and will pick a new lieutenant governor on Wednesday of this week. I have been selected to serve on the select committee for the Senate which will meet with the, as I write this, unknown to me, replacement candidate. The House and the Senate both must approve the nomination and then the new lieutenant governor will be installed.

This is important to the Senate because the replacement will be the President of the Senate and will be the presiding officer the rest of the session. This has put the Senate in a bit of flux because we started with Lt. Governor Rhoden, now we have Pro Temp Chris Karr, and next week we will have the new person most likely.  It isn’t a huge movement, but there are learning curves to running the Senate and we are all adapting.

Most likely the most public thing the Senate has done to date is pass a bill on the Ten Commandments over to the House. I voted “no” on the bill as it will require Brandon Valley School District to have over 2,000 posters of the Ten Commandments, one in each classroom, and curriculum to teach the Ten Commandments during the school year. Currently schools can post the Ten Commandments if they choose, and curriculum is not required. 

The bill will now head to the House of Representatives. The debate on the Senate floor was respectful and extremely fair. This was the first of many debates we will probably have that split the Senate right down the middle. Hopefully, soon we get down to hearing bills about property taxes and other issues we need to have resolution on.

I’m the chairman of Senate Taxation and hope to have bills looking for ways to get relief to our property owners. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Representatives Kull and Sjaarda are working had, too! We appreciate all your comments and opinions. It’s hard to respond to everyone, especially when we have bots sending us so many emails every day. This week I have over 500 emails on one bill. That, coupled with the fact some get sent to my junk mail makes it hard to keep up, but please know I appreciate you taking the time to reach out.   

Sincerely, 

Senator Steve Kolbeck 

Category:

The Brandon Valley Journal

 

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