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(2/24/2007)

Contraception, Preschool and Taxes at Rapid City Cracker Barrel

These topics generate most animated discussion during legislative forum

By Bob Ellis

DAKOTA VOICE

Saturday's cracker barrel in Rapid City was emceed by Eileen Fleishacker of the Rapid City Chamber of Commerce at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

In attendance Rep. Ed McLaughlin, Rep Brian Dreyer, Rep. David Lust, Senator Dennis Schmidt, Rep. Mark Kirkeby, Senator Tom Katus, Rep. Mike Buckingham, Senator Jim Lintz, Senator Bill Napoli, Rep. Gordon Pederson, Rep. Jeff Haverly, Rep. Alan Hanks, Rep. Gordon Howie, Rep. Don Van Etten, and Senator Mac McCracken.

Four featured legislators spoke for about ten minutes each before the question and answer session began.

Senator Dennis Schmidt of Dist. 33 said he wants to maintain the values that brought him back to South Dakota after living several years out of state. He spoke of the great work ethic of South Dakota graduates and said the legislature is working on helping state schools maintain the environment that produces a great work ethic.

Schmidt also said we need to find solutions to the meth problem. He said he had spent about 11 years in law enforcement but meth was the worst drug he had ever seen.

He also said internet pornography was very dangerous and something must be done about it. "Meth and pornography don't have a home here in South Dakota," Schmidt concluded.

Rep. David Lust (Dist. 34) said the House Judiciary is looking at 91 bills this session. The 24/7 program is intended to reduce prison population through monitoring the drug use of offenders after they’ve been released. Lust also spoke favorably of drug court as a way to help stem the tide against meth and other drugs.

Lust mentioned that some bills can be lengthy, complex and hard to understand. The uniform anatomical gift act, he said, had been called a "body snatching bill" by some. He said he spoke with a reporter who had called it that, and the report printed a "retraction" after their discussion.

Rep. Brian Dreyer (Dist. 32) said he voted for HB 1207 in committee and against it on the floor, but switched his vote because the bill required midwife applicants to attend 40 births before they can receive their license, and he felt that was insufficient.

Dreyer also spoke favorably of SB 108 to allow college students to stay on their parents health care plan. He said this would help keep down the number of uninsured.

He said he became very acquainted with the meth problem when renters living in a house he owned were found to be making meth in the home. Dreyer said that upon inspection the home was found to have absorbed so much of the chemicals that they had to completely gut the house.

Dreyer also addressed SB 187, a bill requiring health care professionals to tell rape victims about emergency contraception. He said he doesn't view this is an abortion or pro-life issue, but an information issue. Dreyer says it was smoked out on the House floor yesterday and he feels the information should be available to women.

Rep. Gordon Pederson (Dist. 30) said while he normally supports education funding, he didn't vote for HB 1082, dealing with K-12 funding, because he disagreed with how school "sparcity" was calculated. The critical difference, he said, was because measuring "as the crow flies" is often very different when the layout of roads and geographical conditions are considered.

A member of the audience, Linda Grass, had a question about SB 115, a bill which would authorize standards for preschool. She said it was a "family unfriendly" bill in that it imposes regulations for preschool and adds additional education expenses to the budget. She asked if South Dakota was a state that opposed parents making their own choices with regard to pre-kindergarten children. Rep. Jeff Haverly said he opposes the pre-kindergarten component of the bill, and he will oppose the bill when it comes to the House floor. Haverly said as he understands it, the governor wants to use "future fund money" for the preschool program, and Haverly is opposed to this. He said there are cheaper and more effective ways to help children than this bill.

Rep. Lust pointed out that it was a tie in committee last week, and said that although he agrees with the goal of the bill, he doesn’t believe this bill is the way to do it.

Senator Napoli said he checked the records and found that when South Dakota started the kindergarten program, it was voluntary. The time it took for it to change from voluntary to mandatory was 12 years. He said we were starting the same way with this bill, and predicted a mandatory preschool in about the same time frame. "The handwriting is on the wall," said Napoli. "This bill needs to be defeated."

Another audience member asked Rep. Van Etten why he had voted against SB 187, if it would prevent future abortions, and if he thought birth control was wrong.

Rep. Van Etten said of the Planned Parenthood contention that emergency contraception doesn't cause abortions, "That's a lie." Van Etten also gave a lesson in what he called "Pregnancy 101" and how emergency contraception, or Plan B, can cause an abortion by prohibiting the implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus. "A lot of people believe a fertilized ovum is a person," said Van Etten.

Van Etten said the Catholic hospitals did testify about all the information they provide to rape victims, and that they provide the correct information.

According to Van Etten, the legislature passed HB 1166 in 2005 to provide information about abortion to women seeking abortions, but Planned Parenthood challenged this bill and it is currently caught up court action and an injunction was placed, preventing the bill from going into effect.

"I'm getting tired of Planned Parenthood saying on one hand we should inform people, and on the other we shouldn't inform people," said Van Etten.

Rep. Mark Kirkeby spoke in favor of 187 and criticized Van Etten stating, "Not one single time did he mention the fact it was a rape victim involved here."

There was considerable disagreement about SB 173 and tax assessments when a member of the audience asked Senator Lintz about the bill. Napoli said that while about one third of Lintz' bill was good, the portion that deals with agricultural property, the remainder is bad because it returns South Dakota to the situation it was in prior to the implementation of the "150% rule" 10 years ago. "It takes us back to a broken system," Napoli said.

Rep. Alan Hanks, however, contested Napoli's statement that the 150% rule would be going away. He said that was not the case for most homeowners.

Audience member Donna Fischer asked Senator Schmidt about his support of HB 1293, the abortion ban, and asked Schmidt to give specifics of bills he had supported that provide for the "economic, health, and educational well being" of "living" children and their families.

He said he votes for things that will help children. He tries to be conscious of spending money the state doesn't have, but wants to help children. He said he has concern for all life, and that, "I believe there's life inside the woman as well, and it's innocent life."

Norma Thompson asked about the state library and sought an overview of what's happening with the reorganization of the state library. Lust said the library wants to move in a direction that reflects where technology and the rest of the country is going. He said this means it would be moving away from a central repository function to a higher technology one.

Audience member Pam Murray said she was there on behalf of her daughter and granddaughter, and asked what programs were being implemented to eliminate unwanted pregnancies. She made a point of asking to hear from supporters of HB 1293 and opponents of SB 187, specifically men. However, the moderator said the topic had already been discussed, so asked for questions on an issue that had not yet been covered.

Mike Derby asked Gordon Pederson about "hoghousing" and how it should be related to the original bill, but in practice can be substituted with anything. (To "hoghouse" is to gut a bill and replace most or all of the original language with new language).  He asked when this practice allowing little or no connection to the original bill developed. Pederson jokingly said the word "the" is sometimes determined to make it germane. Pederson said he believed 1982 was when that practice developed.

Bill Napoli was asked about the proposed purchase of land for a minimum security prison in the West River area. Napoli the question was probably better directed to Haverly since Haverly was more involved in the effort. Napoli did say about 11 sites had been looked at and now consideration was down to about three. He believes they will find a site that stays out of neighborhoods and away from schools, in favor of a commercial area that allows room to expand. He said it might take until next year to come up with the appropriations to make it happen.

Napoli referenced media coverage some time back about South Dakota's distinction of locking up more people than any other state. He said he wants this facility to be more than just a prison, one that helps solve the problems of people with addictions.

Haverly said if a site isn't determined for the prison in time, it will have to wait until next year.

Karen Hall asked Rep. Dreyer about renewable energy and asked if the state's utilities should be encouraged to diversify our energy resources. Dreyer responded that wind power is being promoted on the east side of the state. He said the state is producing more power than we use, so we are exporting power to other states. But, he said South Dakota doesn't have the capital to lure big wind power producers to come into the state. Katus also said South Dakota lacks the transmission lines to seriously pursue wind energy.

Karen Miller asked Mark Kirkeby a follow up question about SB 187, stating that Van Etten hadn't answered the earlier question about birth control. She asked if there had been any discussions during this session about curbing unwanted pregnancies.

Kirkeby said he was unaware of any new programs to keep unwanted pregnancies from occurring.

Dreyer said he wanted to respond to what the legislature is doing for young people. He said he was a strong supporter of the HPV vaccine bill HB 1061. He said there is some moral opposition to it, but the majority in the House came to the consensus that it's a good bill.

Michelle Cohn asked about efforts to prohibit second hand smoke in restaurants, and why casinos are exempt from smoking rules? Katus said this came up on the floor of the senate and Senator Theresa Two Bulls has been diagnosed with cancer even though she's never smoked; her husband has been a smoker. Regarding the casino exemption, Katus said the law had taken a pragmatic approach to protect as many people as possible at the time.

Kirkeby then said, "SB 196 needs to die. It's an absolutely stupid bill when you can impose your morals, your values on private enterprise. A business should be allowed, if they want to have smoking in their business, they should be able to have that. And if you want to, as a non smoker, want to go into a business that allows smoking, that is totally up to you. I will certainly vote against it in committee."

Van Etten said SB 196 would be in the Health and Human Services on Monday, but it didn't look like it was going to pass.

Napoli said incredulously that, "You all just voted for a tax [on smoking] to put $40 million into our base budget, of tobacco money. Now we're passing a bill that further restricts people from smoking, that means less tax. Now that's going to be in our base budget. Do you know who's going to make up that loss? You are."

The cracker barrel was sponsored by the Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce.