Jon Hunter and I agree: the South Dakota State legislature starts too early and too slowly.
State law requires the governor to submit a budget to the Legislature by the first Tuesday after the first Monday of December. The state constitution calls the Legislature to start work on the second Tuesday of Janaury. That timeframe provides legislators a good month to read and digest the budget and formulate their budgetary positions.
But the last couple years, we've seen the governor issue a mostly meaningless December budget address, trumped by an updated January proposal after the Legislature starts. The problem is compounded in inaugural years when we transition to a new governor.
Hunter writes that one lobbyist thinks this session is off to one of its slowest starts. Let's compare sessions:
- In 1997 (the earliest session available on the LRC website), the State Senate gave first reading to 82 bills on its first day, January 14. That same day, the State House read 54 bills.
- In 2003, the first year of the Rounds administration, opening day saw 54 first readings in the Senate and 47 in the House.
- In 2011, opening day saw first reading of 53 bills in the Senate and 35 bills in the House.
So at least by this comparison, we are seeing fewer bills in the early days---good news if you're a do-little libertarian like Senator Russell Olson, but bad news if you believe the Legislature always has issues to confront and clear from the table early so it can focus on the budget without rushing later in the session.
The legislators have plenty of time in December to play get-to-know-you. They should have a proposed budget from the new governor on their computers at least a couple weeks before they start work.
I thus propose two changes:
- Change SDCL 4-7-9 to fix the due date for the governor's budget as no later than the second Tuesday after the first Monday of January.
- Amend Article 3, Section 7 of the state constitution to fix the opening day of the Legislature as the first Tuesday after the first Monday of February.
A January budget date allows the governor to propose the budget on the fullest revenue data available for the preceding year. It relieves the lame-duck governor of an exercise in political theater and puts the incoming governor fully in the driver's seat of the first budget he/she will own. A corresponding February session start date gives legislators the time intended by current law but denied by current practice to propose and dispose with due deliberation. And even if they start in February, the legislators can still wrap things up by the end of March in plenty of time to go home and plant corn.
Let's change those dates, make better use of the first week of session, and give legislators more time to think. Heaven knows some of them need it.
It's with a sense of frustration that I watch the legislature (and Congress too) not deal with the budget FIRST. The budget is the most important piece of legislation that they have but they push it through hurriedly to the last day or two of the session.