Governor Kristi Noem is exercising a novel form of pocket veto on the budget and spending bills still on her desk. She signed the FY2021 budget (HB 1294), the revisions to the current budget (SB 38), and some other spending bills yesterday, but she says that, due to the coronavirus-collapse of the economy, she’s not going to spend the money appropriated in those bills:
The impact to our state’s budget is significant. I’m telling the legislators that I will sign bills that we did for the budget and sign them into law, but I’m not going to spend that money. We’re going to probably come back in June and have a special session and make some changes that are very significant to our state budget. Some of these they’ve already passed. I will sign them into law, but I am choosing as Governor to not spend those dollars. I will keep them and hold them knowing that in June we’ll have a better picture of where we’re at when it comes to resources as a state to continue to fight the virus and make sure that we’re doing due diligence and taking care of people and governing over the people of this state [Governor Kristi Noem, transcribed from audio, in “Special Legislative Session on Budget Likely to Take Place in June,” Hub City Radio, 2020.03.27].
That hold on newly approved spending may apply to House Bill 1008, the hemp legalization that Noem signed yesterday. Sections 25, 26, and 27 of that bill appropriate $1.9 million (60% of that for cops) to make sure farmers don’t rotate any smokin’ weed into their crops. HB 1008 included an emergency clause enacting that law on signing (so ladies and gentlemen, start your tractors!).
I know we may have bigger policy doobies to smoke right now, but we should ask: if the Legislature enacts a bill with an emergency clause but the Governor doesn’t want it to take effect, isn’t her only option to veto? By signing a bill into law but then not doing what the law commands, the Governor is breaking that law. At the very least, she is unilaterally amending that bill, striking the emergency clause and saying she’ll enact it when she feels like it, if certain conditions allow. Such an amendment is permissible, but only with formal language amended into the bill and approved by the Legislature.
The Governor had time to issue vetoes to make the Legislature fix one digit in a cross-reference and correct other minor style and form issues. The Legislature has time to consider nine new emergency bills on Veto Day Monday. Surely they would have had time to take back a vetoed HB 1008 and other vetoed spending bills and write into them the discretionary spending delays the Governor is asking to impose on laws duly passed by the Legislature.
Do you know how you can tell if The Dope Queen of Delusion is lying?
Her lips are moving.
The hemp bill is signed.
The DOPE is still in Pierre.
Let the games begin.
Just wait to see the B. S. that the Queen and Ravnsborg come up with
as the Cannabis vote gets closer.
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
All you farming dope fiends of the demon weed need to just chill. Like Mr. H said, you have bigger doobies to smoke right now. Unless you need the hemp cops walking through your fields with a blowtorch, just get out there and plant some “hemp.”
And there you have it folks.
Another delusional position.
Hemp Cops.
Wow.
Mr. Mark, and Mr. H, how does not having money for hemp cops stop anybody from planting? My good friend Bob is out tilling up his hemp garden right now. If the governor won’t let the hemp cops start spending money, all the better for Bob’s purposes.
OK, I grant that she’s down the rabbit hole on the pot issue. I don’t think she’s being delusional on the budgeting issues, though. If it’s a choice between pot farmers or teacher salaries, I’d be for the teachers.
A pol with any vision at all could make room for both issues. But, as Donald Pay says, I’d go with the teachers, too.
Hemp is an economic item and the entire USA needs all the economic help available. That ought to go forward. I can see wanting to wait for the COVID-19 fall out before committing to some items.
I would suggest that if Colorado can
generate 1Billion dollars in revenue
in 7 years because of legally purchased and adult consumed cannabis products, perhaps South Dakota could follow suit and our teachers can be some of the best paid in the country.
I thought all the libbie fellows in the legislatures said the millions for hemp regulation wasn’t needed. Now they don’t have to spend it, and can go plant a couple of rows of ditching weeds. It will save our economy, no doubt.
Sheila Kennedy is smart and thoughtful. As I read today’s post, I thought about Klueless Kristi and perhaps the majority of South Dakotans. What do you think?
“I’ve posted before about my theory that we (i.e. all humans) are in a period of paradigm shift–defined as a time when cultures’ previous world-views are undergoing profound change. The result of that shift is that people who see the world through previous lenses and those who have adopted new ways of understanding reality cannot communicate.
“Just one example: People who see the world as it is and as it is emerging understand that humans are globally interdependent; folks wedded to an older paradigm cling tightly to nationalism, exclusion and slogans like ‘America First’.”
is.gd/sT9fMG
Sheila Kennedy is a very intelligent woman. She is like the bcb of Indiana.
Good analysis Mike.