Haugaard: Legislators begin work to balance SD budget

There are a couple of political issues dominating the news in the past week. One is medical marijuana and the other is beef production.  

The Department of Health is doing what it must to comply with IM 26. That includes development of rules and regulations to administer the production, distribution and use of medical marijuana. At the same time tribal interests within the state are preparing their own facilities and processes to take part in the industry.

Law enforcement and the judiciary is also preparing their response to the advent of legalized medical marijuana. It is expected that South Dakota will experience the same challenges as the other states which have legalized the drug. That will include an increase in illegal marijuana possession and use as well as an increase in other illegal drugs. The public schools are also preparing to cooperate with the legal use of this drug, and, at the same time, they too will need to be ready to respond to the presence of illegal marijuana and other drugs.  

Monitoring of use in these institutions will create a new level of administration that was not anticipated by the voters and that will come at a cost. The likelihood is there will be a need for medically trained staff to oversee these in-school uses. That will be at the K-12 level as well as the universities and vocational schools. We can expect to see the need for specially trained staff to oversee the use of medical marijuana in jails and penitentiaries. Businesses can expect to see challenges to their employee policies if they do not accommodate medical use. The Americans with Disabilities Act will certainly be a subject of review and likely revision to accommodate this ever-increasing push for marijuana.  

We can also expect to see the need for additional court appointed counsel to assist in Petitions for Habeas Corpus. That means there will be many who have prior convictions for marijuana use, possession and distribution who will seek modification of their sentences in light of this change in what society has deemed to be acceptable. After all, why would we hold someone’s past offenses against them if those same actions are no longer illegal? Taxpayers will be paying the majority of these legal fees.

So, we will now begin to see the cascading effect and costs of IM 26. But the real cost will not become evident for several years. Then we will begin to see how the elementary students of today deal with these issues in their own life. As the saying goes, “What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.”   think we have unwittingly sent the wrong message to our children. 

On to a lighter but very important issue, beef production. The state has allocated a significant amount of time and a lot of money to agriculture issues over the past several years. Most of that is focused on crop production and care. We have also spent a lot of money on enhancing beef production. All of that has been beneficial to the farmers and ranchers, but the price of the commodities remains low when compared to the profits realized by those companies which ‘process’ the commodities. That discussion has been ongoing for several years but is in the news over the past couple of weeks. Some of the federal grant money which has flooded into the state in response to the COVID-19 shutdowns has been sought by beef processors. The larger facilities were doing well without the C-19 money, but everyone saw the effect of food shortages and price spikes over the last year. Those price increases were not reflected in the earnings of those producing beef.  

It is always tempting for ‘government’ to seize upon a real or perceived problem and try to create a ‘government-based solution’. However, low prices for producers is an ongoing problem that has limited the value of the cattle industry in South Dakota. Now is a good time to encourage producers to find ways to increase those profits by bringing the ‘stakeholders’ together to develop their own solutions. I believe that could come in the form of producer cooperatives for the development of their own processing facilities, enhancing marketing, and developing competitive contracts with large food distributors. All of this could be done with wise collaboration AND WITHOUT the taking and arbitrary distribution of additional tax dollars.  

I certainly do support the beef industry’s interested parties coming together to find solutions without creating more bureaucracy. South Dakota has some of the brightest and best beef producers, economists, business analysts, accountants, marketing specialists, and planners. I believe the solutions can be found here at home. If need be, state government can point people in better directions without a new agency and without becoming another impediment to progress.

After the July 4 celebration we will be back to summer legislative activities. So, remember to ‘listen live’ or review at your convenience any of the committee meetings which are taking place this summer. You can go to www.sdlegislature.gov for more information, or email me with your questions, concerns and recommendations at steven.haugaard@sdlegislature.gov.