As you may have seen in last week’s column, by now you know that on Veto Day last Monday, the House only got to see one bill, SB 136, the confusing double taxation bill for rural electric co-operative customers. The Senate handily overturned the Governor’s veto as did the House, with only two dissenting votes on the bill in both Houses. SB100 and SB 159 did not survive their test in the Senate and failed to get the two thirds support needed, and therefore the Governor’s veto was sustained.
Since this is the last time you will hear from me in some of these newspapers for a while, I’ll let you know what’s coming up next. I have requested three summer studies which should guarantee I’ll get one. So far, I have been assured that I am in the short list to participate in the summer pilot project for the Water Management bill as laid out in Senate Bill 2. I was never in favor of forming yet another state agency with taxing authority to manage water. However, I could see the test project was going to happen with or without my vote, so I jumped in the water with both feet and since the bill is taking place here in Northeast South Dakota, I will at least get in on this, go to all the meetings and do my best to represent our interests. I grew up in Big Stone City, and I’m familiar with the Whetstone and the Upper Minnesota watershed and spent some time in Fargo during flooding years on the Red River, so at least when the particulars of the pilot project are discussed, I should have a solid foundation on which to offer some history and background.
The summer studies and pilot project members are going to be chosen at the next executive board meeting in April, and I should know who’s on what pilot projects or summer studies right away. If chosen, I will serve and I will keep our water management decisions as close to home as possible while giving the pilot project every chance to succeed or fail on its own merits, not politics or unnecessary confrontation regarding county, legislative district or state lines.
My first session was a tremendous learning experience. I cannot begin to express my gratitude for your support and willingness to take a chance on a new guy. I believe that the State of South Dakota and District 4 is in better shape than I found it on January 10th. We moved Wind Energy tax reform through, opened up new possibilities for ag development, and paved a better future for South Dakota’s roads without leaving our counties and townships behind.
The Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task force will be meeting this summer and I’m sure we’ll be discussing education a lot more in the next session. Hopefully, with some of the reforms we made this year to some of our other business friendly laws, we will have a much larger pot of money to work with to help addressing the education shortcomings in South Dakota. However the Task Force works out, I hope we can find ways to address getting more money to teachers and sharing services to keep more small schools open and effective. I have a few reservations about the Task Force coming from a predominately small school legislative district. I hope when we open up all old wounds from years of big school versus small school funding fights that we can look at everything that can save schools money, not just consolidation and closing buildings. There are economies of scale that we are not even imagining, like consolidating the purchases of technology and equipment, supplies, paper, and food service that aren’t even talked about before we skip right to the number of buildings that we’re keeping open. I will stay in communication with the task force members and make sure we have every option on the table going forward.
There are other concerns that have arisen; some private matters involving peoples’ businesses in relationship to the State that I cannot fully speak about publicly, but let me say this: If the State of South Dakota is involved in something and you would like answers why they’re doing what they’re doing and how we can change things, please feel free to contact me any time. My mailing address is John Wiik, P.O. Box 95 Big Stone City, SD 57216 and my email is wiikfor4@gmail.com Even though the next session isn’t due to convene until the second Tuesday of January, I am still a District 4 Representative for the State of South Dakota. If your newspaper doesn’t run this during the summer, you can find me at http://www.wordpress.com/wiikfor4 or follow me on Twitter @wiikfor4 or Facebook.com/wiikfor4. Thanks again for your support, and I look forward to hearing from you and answering your questions.
John Wiik
wiikfor4 