Jensen For Senate

Week 6 Legislative Update                                                Representative Kevin Jensen

In week six the CO2 seemed to displace the oxygen in the room. SB201 passed out of Senate Commerce and Energy with a 7-2 vote and a room packed full of farmers and others testifying against the bill SB201. This bill removes any local control over CO2 pipelines. As I reported before “A county, municipality, township, or other governmental unit, including governmental units chartered under S.D. Const., Art. IX, § 2, may not pass or enforce an ordinance that regulates, restricts, or prohibits a gas or liquid transmission line or an electric transmission line which requires or holds a permit under chapter 49-41B, including without limitation any requirement or restrictions as to routing, setback, construction, operation, maintenance, and zoning permits.” The second part of that section states “This Act preempts any local law, ordinance, or regulation that conflicts with any provision of this chapter or any policy of the state implemented in accordance with this chapter and, notwithstanding any other provision of law, a governmental unit of this state may not enact or enforce an ordinance, local law, or regulation conflicting with or preempted by this chapter.”

In my testimony against the bill I stated that I was not going to refer to corn, ethanol or pipelines. While I am concerned about the problems this caused for counties and townships regarding the pipeline, I have just as much concern for the precedent this bill sets in the future. If this language becomes law, it opens the door for wind  and solar farms to come here, and using this precedent, override the county and township control over any aspects of those projects. The greater problem is, with all the efforts we make to maintain local control, this potentially eliminates local control for any pipeline or electric project the state wants to push. This bill now moves to the Senate floor.

Here are possible tactics that could be used to pass this bill. SB201 has an emergency clause, which means it must have a 2/3 majority vote;  in the Senate that equates to 24 of the 35 members. An emergency clause means the law takes effect as soon as the governor signs it. If the Senate believes they have the 2/3 majority on the floor they will pass it to the House. In a house committee it takes a simple majority of the committee to move it to the floor. If the bill passes to the floor of the House it would take 47 votes to pass it with the emergency clause. If they canvass the vote and do not believe they have the 47 votes, it will be amended to remove the emergency clause which then  it will only take a simple majority of 36 votes. If it is amended it would then likely got to a conference committee which is comprised of members appointed by the leadership. It should be noted, current leadership are sponsors of the bill. The committee would most likely ask both bodies to concur, which simply means to agree, and the simple majority of both houses can pass the bill. Tactics like this are used every year on tough bills. 

You may recall my update about HB1198, Tyler Tordsen’s bill to move all state level office elections to a primary rather than the current system of selecting them at the Republican Convention. We defeated that bill, along with 5 amendments, with a 31-36 vote. If you consider this a republican issue as I do, removing the democrat votes means the republican vote was 24- yes and 36 no votes with one more ‘no’ vote absent . It was soundly defeated. However, the Senate hog housed SB13 and amended it read exactly the same as HB1198. The only reason to do this is if they believe they have flipped enough votes in the house to pass it, otherwise it is a waste of everyone’s time. 

I am continuing to work on the prison issue. Out of respect to the newspapers that allow us allotted space for our updates,  I have more information about the prison funding on my website and FB pages. The information you likely have been seeing is misleading at best. If you believe “the prison” in Lincoln County will cost 700 million dollars or more, you have not seen the actual proposed budget. The Lincoln County prison itself  is less than 350 million, the rest of the money is in 17 other related projects across the state. If you believe they are shutting down the old prison site, you would be wrong there too. Please go to my website for current information on the prison. I will have more detail in my next legislative update. I will have more information here next week. 

If you have questions or concerns please contact me at kevinj605@gmail.com, my website JensenforSenate or on my Facebook pages. It is encouraging to see so many District 16 people getting involved in the issues. I am honored to help and be part of those efforts.