By Rep. Scott Parsley,
District 8
The first week of the 2014 Legislative Session is completed. During the opening session the Governor presented the State of the State and outlined his legislative priorities for this session of the legislature.
The Governor’s priorities include insurance reform which seeks to adopt national standards regarding how insurance companies must conduct business in South Dakota.  The Governor also outlined his plan for work force development. Included in this plan is expansion of Career and Technical Education (CTE) which has been a priority for me and others in the legislature for several years. I am excited that the Governor has outlined CTE and other work force development as a priority this year.
I believe work force development begins with early childhood education and strong preschool and elementary school programs. I am hopeful the Governor will include these programs as part of his work force development plan. Along with others, I will be proposing ideas to begin work force development for our children at their earliest age as part of our workforce development legislation.
The Governor also outlined a plan to revise Bank Franchise Taxes for nine large interstate banks doing business in South Dakota.
We also began to discuss recommendations that came from the Education Task Force which met all summer. The conclusion of their work was a recommendation that state aid to education be raised by 3.8 percent for the 2014-15 school year.  Adoption of this recommendation will result in a state aid to education of $4,805, the same level of state aid as 2010.  As you may remember, the Governor is proposing a three percent increase in aid to education. Along with the State Association of School Superintendents, I believe we need to pass the Committee’s recommendation and increase state aid to education by 3.8 percent. While this is a good start, it still leaves schools with no margin for inflation since 2010.
This week we did act on two resolutions that were introduced by the Education Summer Study Committee. The first resolution encouraged school districts to work together whenever they can. The second resolution congratulated our teachers for the job they do and recognized that as a state, we need to do everything we can to attract and retain quality teachers, especially in rural areas. While both of these resolutions passed, I was disappointed that 18 of my fellow House Members voted no on the second resolution.
We will begin discussion of Common Core Standards next week. After extensive discussions with the schools in District 8, I will be supporting the continuation of the Common Core Standards.
Other issues that may come up next week are non-meandering water, a bill addressing shared parenting and school capital outlay dollars.
Finally, I am still very hopeful that we can adopt Medicaid expansion and provide medical insurance coverage to more than 22,000 of our fellow South Dakotans. In some encouraging news, almost two in every three of you agree with me on this issue according to a survey released this week by the National Cancer Society. This statistically valid survey shows that a little over 60 percent of South Dakotans believe we should expand Medicaid, and I am hopeful my fellow legislators can be convinced to make expansion a reality in 2014.
Until next week.

By Rep. Leslie Heinemann, District 8
After finishing up the first week of the 89th legislative session, the tone seems to be very positive. We listened to Governor Daugaard’s State of the State address on Tuesday. He emphasized the need to develop the state’s workforce and addressed some ways to approach our state-wide problem. Chief Justice Gilbertson addressed a joint session of the House and Senate and gave us a report of implementation of the unified judicial system changes that were made as a result of legislation in 2013.
We are happy to have Senator Chuck Jones join us in Pierre. He has been very diligent in working to learn the details of serving as your Senator in District 8. I look forward to working with him on issues that concern the constituents of our district.
Several topics of interest have come up,  but as of this date, only a few bills have been officially filed. There are still many bills in the stage of research and development. Please go to the LRC Web site www.legis.sd.gov to see what has been filed and what is the content of each bill.
I attended the National Guard breakfast on Friday morning. The 1742nd National Guard unit was mentioned and is the only state unit now deployed. It was quite apparent the pride the legislators have for our military and we pray for them and their families.
I also attended receptions for Big Sioux Rural Water and Sioux Valley Energy and had a chance to discuss upcoming legislation with the various board members.
After hearing the news of the water supply being compromised in the city of Madison, I am glad to see that they have been able to minimize the inconviences created during this situation. Thanks to all who put forth such effort in difficult weather conditions.
Please let me know if you will be out in Pierre so I can plan my schedule to meet and greet you. You can contact me at Rep.Heinemann@state.sd.us or the House of  Representative phone is 605-773-3851.

Right now, country of origin labeling (COOL) is in jeopardy in the farm bill conference. We know that some conferees intend to introduce an amendment shortly that will gut or repeal U.S. COOL.
If this amendment passes, U.S. ranchers will not be able to differentiate their product with a U.S. label and consumer’s will not have the information they need at the point of purchase. The anti-COOL groups and their supporters want U.S. beef to become a generic product of North America.
In reality, there’s nothing more important to a competitive, free market than the ability to differentiate one’s product and that’s what COOL does. There’s nothing more fundamental to giving consumers information about the origin of their beef than COOL.
Why would anyone oppose COOL? We know the truth: we know that opposing COOL has nothing to do with costs because that scare tactic has been dispelled; we know that opposing COOL doesn’t have anything to do with a lack of consumer interest because survey after survey has proven consumers want and deserve country of origin information; we know that opposing COOL has nothing to do with retaliatory tariffs because that worn out scare tactic has also been dispelled.
Giving consumers choices empowers them and allowing U.S. producers to differentiate their product empowers them. Isn’t that what competitive free markets should do, empower both the seller and buyer — that’s the American way.
Now is the time to take a stand for COOL and there’s no time to waste. Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for Rep. Kristi Noem’s office. Rep. Noem is a farm bill conferee. Ask her to pick up the torch and represent South Dakota cattle producers by rejecting any amendment to the farm bill that would alter or repeal COOL and urging her fellow Congressional delegates to speak up also in favor of COOL. Make no mistake about it, the fate of COOL will be decided by those elected officials taking a leadership role.
Danni Beere
Keldron, SD
Danni, along with her husband, ranches and farms at Keldron. She has been an advocate for South Dakota ranchers and consumers and is a Director on United States Cattlemen’s Association Board.