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HB 1001: Fewer Prison/Jail Cost Estimates for Bills and Ballot Measures

The Legislative Research Council didn’t beat Christmas, but they did manage to post the first fifteen bills of the 2017 Session before New Year’s!

The first bill in the hopper, House Bill 1001, amends the laws on prison/jail population cost estimates for legislation. Currently, if a ballot measure, bill, or amendment may cause us to lock up more offenders or let more people go free, the Legislative Research Council or the Bureau of Finance and Management must estimate how much more or less that legislation would cause us to spend on corrections. HB 1001 would restrict those cost estimates to ballot measures, bills, and amendments with felony penalties.

Last Session, LRC prepared 30 prison/jail cost estimates for 29 bills (one bill got two estimates). My quick read finds seventeen of those bills dealt with non-felony activities, most of which concluded with something like, “there will be little to no jail or prison impact with this bill.” Still, those cost estimates each required some historical, statistical, and legal research. Thus, HB 1001 would have cut the LRC’s prison/jail cost estimate workload by 57%.

Of the ten ballot measures that went to a vote this year, only one required a prison/jail cost estimate, Initiated Measure 22, which involved one felony offense. LRC also prepared fiscal impact statements for three other measures—medical cannabis, which didn’t make the ballot, and alcohol and tobacco prohibition, for which petitions weren’t even circulated—all of which involved felony penalties. Still, one can imagine ballot measures involve non-felony offenses which HB 1001 would take off LRC’s cost-estimate plate.

Since HB 1001 reduces LRC’s workload, the sponsors (basically, the Executive Board) assigns responsibility for these cost estimates strictly to LRC and removes the Bureau of Finance and Management from the statute.

The net effect of HB 1001 would be to allow a few bills each Session to move a little more quickly through the process. Ballot measure sponsors don’t have to wait for the prison/jail cost estimates to start circulating their petitions, so HB 1001 does not affect petitioners’ timeline.

I welcome you , dear readers, to check the language of House Bill 1001 (it’s not long: two sections with simple inserts and strikes, one section of new language consisting of just four sentences) for any tricks I’ve missed. But HB 1001 appears reasonable and relatively harmless.

6 Comments

  1. Porter Lansing 2016-12-31 10:02

    South Dakota politophiles … Just as background (sorry to stray from the topic, Cory) why does SoDak Legislature only meet for 40 days? That’s not long enough, is it? Colorado is 120 days and off hand the average looks to be about 75 days in session.

  2. MC 2016-12-31 18:17

    Porter, I would make some SA comment about being a mile high and needing the extra time, but I won’t.

    From what I understand When Constitution was drafted they wanted only part time legislators who work their farms. come March many farmers are getting thing ready for planting, and ranchers are getting ready to move herds from winter pastures. It is spring time and there are things that need to get done.

    Given the recent budget issues that have come up. where the Governor presents a budget and the legislature just get to nibble around the edges, there is talk of expanding summer studies or and even the entire session

  3. Porter Lansing 2016-12-31 18:25

    Thanks, MC. Happy New Year to you and those you value.

  4. jerry 2016-12-31 19:03

    It is Biblical Porter, that 40 days thingy. In the good book, that 40 appears many times. In South Dakota, the wilderness spoken about is a kind of sleight of hand in how many ways they can fail to do anything of significance for the people here, by keeping us all in the wilderness. An example of that 40 days will be spent undoing the good that has been done with initiatives and referendums. In even with more of the keeping us in the wilderness, they will keep denying the alms to the poor while money changing for power brokers in their temple (soon to be surrounded by ramparts).

    In some circles, there is talk of a shadow government. In South Dakota, it lives in those 40 days. 40 days of the year, it lives with the rest being put to good use on how to further tax and spend their way to even more requests from the now Great White Father in the East to faithfully balance that budget. Yes, 40 days of hoodwinking while nodding and winking to one another on how they fleeced us for another year.

  5. grudznick 2016-12-31 19:22

    Maybe it’s worse than that, Mr. jerry. Maybe this shadow government spoken of in some circles lives in the 320 days outside of the when the legislatures are mucking about. Maybe it rules our lives even more than we realize. Maybe only people like Mr. Pay and my friend Sibby and my good friend Bob really understand this shadow government and we haven’t been listening to them enough.

  6. jerry 2016-12-31 19:30

    Yes Mr. grudznick, but what of the 5 days missing from even that, even more intensified schooling on the art of the steal? That could be shadow government 102 instead of the classic South Dakota regime teaching, shadow government 101. Look it up, perhaps on SDGOP for starters.

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