Last Immigration Bill Struggles in Legislature, as Does Education Funding

The South Dakota Legislature is cramming to finish its business this week. Here are some highlight's from yesterday Capitol action:

House State Affairs wanted to kill SB 156, which would bust employers for hiring illegal immigrants. I've long thought that if illegal immigrant labor is a problem, the best way to solve it is to whack the demand side. The committee seemed more inclined to soothe concerns about onerous regulation on small business (yes, because it's so hard to make a profit legally) and deferred SB 156 to the mythical 41st day. But then bill sponsor and immigrant-loathing Representative Manny Steele moved the smoke-out, forcing House State Affairs to send the bill to the floor. The committee obliged, slapping SB 156 with a "Do Not Pass" recommendation on a 10&ndash3 vote.

The Senate approved HB 1208, a bill that nibbles around the edges of school mandates to let districts save a few dollars. What could have been a great lifting of costly mandates like compliance with No Child Left Behind and state curriculum mandates has instead grown into a stunted little mass of rules on e-mail, buses, and room and board. The amendment the Senate added yesterday repeals some mileage reimbursement requirements for families who live more than five miles from school. If you live out in the boonies, HB 1208 says its up to the school board to decide whether it wants to help you pay for driving your kids to school. Interestingly, Senate Majority Leader Russell Olson (R-8/Wentworth) was one of only two Nays on this bill.

The House further reduced the state's commitment to education in small towns with passage of SB 133. Instead of raising revenue to honor the state's statutory commitment to support schools in isolated regions, SB 133 allows the state to pro-rate the "sparsity factor" to reflect lower appropriations. District 8's Democrat Mitch Fargen voted to protect this funding for sparse school districts; District 8's Republican Patricia Stricherz joined a slim majority of 37 and voted Aye.

Senate State Affairs tabled HB 1243, which carries out the normal Cutler-Gabriel amendment to keep local school tax levies in proportion to state aid. With the Republicans now playing out the budget kubuki of choosing rosy revenue estimates and revising levies, Senate State Affairs probably had to table this measure to give someone with a slide rule a chance to drop in and tell them what the new levy caps should be.

By the way, while Dakota War College tries to cheer that our legislators have saved the schools from a 10% cut, Senate Appropriations amended SB 152 to increase the cut to the per-student K-12 allocation from 6.5% to 8.6%. The House thought cutting $310 per student was plenty. Senate Appropriations said oh, no, we need to spend $415 less on each of those darned costly children.