The South Dakota Senate is aiming to be 100% more productive than the House today. Today’s Senate calendar has eight bills compared to the House’s four.
Worth noting on today’s Senate calendar is Senate Bill 16, which strikes the statute requiring municipalities to build ramps according to Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines from 1992. But don’t worry: we’re not getting rid of ramps. Bill Nevin of the Department of Transportation told Senate Transportation last Friday that the 1992 guidelines are out of date and that we’ve been following updated public right-of-way guidelines for ramps from the United States Access Board.
However, the USAB hasn’t been able to officially implement its updated guidelines because of Donald Trump. Last year, Il Duce ordered every federal agency to cut two regulations for every new regulation it implements. The USAB is having a hard time identifying any rules intended to help Americans with disabilities get around that ought to be cut.
Nonetheless, SB 16 appears to pose no threat to small-wheelers trying to hop curbs.
Senate Bill 22 runs somewhat counter to the Trump/Daugaard push to make it easier to remove regulations from professional licensure… if you consider truck drivers professionals. SB 22 caps the number of tries aspiring truckers get at the commercial driver license test at three every six months. (Hint: The answer to Question #47, “When can you dump toxic dirt from an oil spill in a ditch?” is D: Never!)
Senate Bill 44 could make us some money. It creates a new license for manufacturers and distributors of “associated equipment” for our casinos. Senate Bill 43, the no-cheating-at-the-casino bill, defines “associated equipment” as “any equipment or any mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic device, component, or machine, or any combination thereof, that is used remotely or directly in connection with gaming or any gaming device.” License price: $500 for the first year, $250 for each annual renewal.
Senate Bill 57 looks at first glance like another moneymaker, but it’s really just code clean-up. The text removes language that appears to exempt power generation facilities from the contractor’s excise tax. As Doug Schinkel of the Department of Revenue explained to Senate Taxation Friday, SB 57 simply strikes an obsolete reference to statute repealed in 2015. “If this bill passes,” said Schinkel, “there’s not going to be any change to our policy, our practice, or our procedure.”
The Senate has more bills on today’s calendar, but arguably less of import. Still, today’s slate of Senate bills looks 100% passable, while the House’s first substantive daily calendar is only 50% passable.