Legislature Plans Hearings to Prep for Special Session on Coronavirus Relief Spending

Senator Reynold Nesiba (D-15/Sioux Falls) offered the bright idea yesterday that, instead of sitting around waiting to see what Congress might do about the deadline for spending coronavirus relief funds, Governor Kristi Noem could mobilize a team to come up with ideas to put that money to work sooner rather than later:

State Senator Reynold Nesiba is a Democrat from Sioux Falls. The economics teacher at Augustana University says those federal programs, like paycheck protection and additional unemployment benefits, have run out.

He says the state should have been proactive in creating a plan for the CARES Act money. He says the state doesn’t have one.

“The CARES Act was passed as a stimulus. The point was the money was moving from the federal government down to the state level so that states could administer and direct those funds to their best purposes,” Nesiba says. “But it’s not a stimulus if it doesn’t get spent.”

Nesiba says the governor could appoint a taskforce comprised of lawmakers and community members to come up with grant opportunities for affected industries [Lee Strubinger, “Noem Wants Deadline to Spend $900 Million Extended,” SDPB, 2020.08.31].

While Governor Noem sits around anticipating considering a Special Session (and I understand how hard that is for her, because a Special Legislative Session dealing with nuts-and-bolts budget matters doesn’t fit into the culture-war storyboard Corey Lewandowski has drafted for her to keep rapt her salivating national audience—they want rodeo pics, not budget analyses!), Senator Nesiba’s colleagues are swinging into fact-finding action:

A majority of the Legislature’s Executive Board agreed that five policy committees should gather data from the public at hearings September 14-18 about COVID-19’s effects and send recommendations to the Interim Committee on Appropriations.

…The vote was 10-5. The proposal came from Senate Democratic leader Troy Heinert of Mission. “We have to give people a chance to let us help,” Heinert said. All of the board’s House Republicans supported him, while all but one of the board’s Republican senators opposed the idea, preferring instead that the 18 appropriators come up with ideas.

House Speaker Steven Haugaard, a Sioux Falls Republican, said the work could lead to a 2- or 3-day special session later this year. “The clock is ticking and the time is now to act on this,” he said [Bob Mercer, “S.D. Lawmakers Lay Plan for Special Session,” KELO-TV, 2020.08.31].

Mercer reports the Executive Board will empanel committees on agriculture and natural resources, health and human services, commerce and energy, local government, and education. They’ll meet online so we all can participate without crowding into a cootie-prone room.