PIERRE, S.D. (KELO.com) — Monday, March 9 is the 33 rd legislative day of 37 scheduled. There have been 479 bills introduced. Four more days and then the legislature returns March 30 to consider any vetoes. While there are still a few issues to be concluded in the 2020 legislature, the issues directly affecting Broadcasters are essentially over.
Bills of interest that are alive:
House Bills (HB)HB 1065. Revise drone surveillance protections. To House Judiciary. Amended. Do pass amended 8 to 4. Deferred by the House. Amended. Passed the House as amended 60 to 6. ToSenate Judiciary. Amended. Do pass amended 7 to 0. Deferred by the Senate. Amended. Passed the Senate as amended 34 to 0.
Brought by Dave Johnson (R-Rapid City) to ensure that drones aren’t used to trespass or violate individual privacy, it originally affected all business users by how it defined a violation. When the sponsor learned of its shortcomings he allowed it to be fixed. It’s been amended a couple of times, but in its current form, any trespassing restrictions will not apply to drones used“for a bona fide business or government purpose” essentially exempting any impact of the restrictions to those who use drones for business.
Senate Bills (SB)
SB 151. Define critical infrastructure and revise certain crimes for the trespass or damage to critical infrastructure. To Senate Commerce and Energy. Amended twice. Do pass amended 5 to 2. To House Commerce and Energy. Amended by the Senate. Passed the Senate as amended 34 to 1. To House Commerce and Energy. Amended twice. Do pass amended 12 to 1.
Introduced by Rep Jim Stalzer (R-Sioux Falls), the bill defines a wide range of public facilities as“critical infrastructure” within the criminal statutes. The list is large and includes electric, water, natural gas, petroleum, hazardous waste, communication facilities, ethanol, pipeline, railroads, mines, and others. It adds critical infrastructure to the existing trespass law-making entering or remaining in those facilities a Class 1 misdemeanor. It amends existing law related to the interruption or impairment of emergency response and utility services to include interruptions at critical infrastructure sites. Those are a Class 6 felony. It adds new language making it a Class 4felony for anyone to cause a physical injury or death at a critical infrastructure facility. It provides victim rights to the owners of critical infrastructure sites. It also allows a person found to be a conspirator in crimes committed in this chapter to be fined ten times the penalty prescribed for the crime underlying the conspiracy.
SB 157. Revise certain provisions regarding the county zoning and appeals process. ToSenate State Affairs. Amended. Do pass amended 6 to 3. Amended by the Senate. Passed the senate as amended 24 to 11. To House State Affairs. Do pass 10 to 3.Introduced by the Governor, the bill makes several changes to existing law related to county conditional permits. It adds new language to define what it means to be “aggrieved” by conditional permit decisions. It specifies that action be taken by majority vote and not two-thirds. It allows county boards to recover attorney fees, compensatory costs, and damages from a non-prevailing party. And it states that approval shall not expire for two years following any final appeals.
Bills of interest that have died (tabled or deferred to the 41 st day):
HB 1071. Revise provisions regarding surface water quality complaints. To House Ag and natural Resources. Deferred to the 41st day 12 to 0.
Current law requires that a complaint to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources about surface water pollution be signed by the individual making the complaint. Hugh Bartels(R-Watertown) is trying to ensure that the proceedings are confidential, but the bill as drafted may allow anonymous complaints to be considered. The bill was killed by farm groups concerned with anonymous complaints and at the request of the DENR who were able to demonstrate to the committee that the process of making complaints is quite transparent.
HB 1213. Preclude the assignment of exclusive broadcast rights for certain high school interscholastic activities. To House Education. Do pass 9 to 5. Passed the House 38 to 30.To Senate Education. Do pass failed 3 to 4. Deferred to the 41st day 5 to 2. Reconsidered. Amended. Hoghoused. Do pass amended 6 to 0.
Brought by Rep. Spencer Gosch (R-Glenham) who has a long-standing frustration with the high school activities association, the bill states that the activities association authority “does not include the authority to grant or assign exclusive broadcast rights for state-level events to a media contractor”. It would certainly affect their contract with public television/radio and also the rights that they’ve assigned to their national association. Those are his intended targets. Its effect on any local agreements between a school and a station is less clear. After the bill failed in Senate Education it was hog housed (amended in its entirety) and is being used by something else.
HB 1241. Revise requirements for legal newspapers. To House Judiciary. Re-referred toHouse Local Government. Do pass failed 3 to 9. Deferred to the 41st day 9 to 3.For legal newspapers, the bill removes the requirement that legal newspapers maintain a price of not less than fifty percent of their published price and that such a price is paid by fifty percent of those to whom it’s distributed. If passed, it would allow “weekly traders” to seek status as a legal newspaper.
HB 1271. Establish certain provisions regarding the rural broadband fund. To HouseCommerce and Energy. Tabled 12 to 0.Brought by Appropriations Chairman Chris Karr (R-Sioux Falls), the bill establishes a rural broadband fund, provides rulemaking authority, and then provides certain criteria by which rural broadband money is given to grantees. The Administration is resisting as GOED currently provides such funds with less outside scrutiny. Much of the language is taken from a similar program in Minnesota.
HB 1274. Establish the Tax Revenue Study Task Force to study tax revenue in this state. To House Taxation. Do pass failed 2 to 7. Deferred to the 41st day 7 to 2.Introduced by a group of Democrats the bill does just what the title states. Representatives appointed by the legislature, Governor, the State Chamber of Commerce, and the education community would “make recommendations to the Legislature on how the state tax structure could be improved to ensure a stable revenue base that is adequate to fund the needs of the state, better facilitate economic development, and impose equitable tax burdens.”
HB 1284. Create a road improvement priority fund, to provide for the distribution of the fund, and to repeal certain sales tax exemptions. To House Taxation. Amended. Re-referred as amended to House Transportation. Do pass amended 11 to 1. Amended. Deferred to the41st day 8 to 4.Brought by Rep. Caleb Finck (R-Tripp), in its original form, it removed the sales tax exemption for advertising and gave the proceeds to the counties for use in their road and bridge fund. It was amended in the House Tax Committee at the request of the sponsor to remove any references to the advertising tax.
HB 1292. Make an appropriation to expand rural access to broadband services and to declare an emergency. To Joint Committee on Appropriations. Tabled 16 to 0.Introduced by the Governor’s office, the bill appropriates $5 million to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development for the purpose of “expanding rural access to broadband services”.Tabled while the money is being counted.
SB 153. Prohibit certain social media censorship. To Senate Commerce and Energy. Amended. Deferred to the 41st day 6 to 1. Brought by Senator Jeff Monroe (R-Pierre), the bill would do just what the title states. It would allow a social media website user to bring a civil action against the website owner if the website purposely censored religious or political speech.
(Steve Willard, SDBA, contributed this report.)
