Here's your non-exhaustive round-up of Crossover Day wins and losses in South Dakota

PIERRE — While blizzard conditions set in at the state Capitol Wednesday, House and Senate members gathered to cast votes on bills to get them out of their house of origin and into the other body. And although Crossover Day has lasted into the late evening hours in past years, the House recessed before 6 p.m., while the Senate ended the day much earlier.

Throughout the afternoon and into the early evening, the debates ranged on a number of items such as education, funding long-term health care providers, providing a tax cut to South Dakotans and establishing a taskforce for Native American children.

Not all bills passed like SB 201, which would have brought down the felony penalty on ingestion or HB 1070, to create a Center for American Exceptionalism at Black Hills State University.

More:Effort to create Center for American Exceptionalism at BHSU failed two-thirds vote in House

At the end of the day, House members congratulated themselves on a job well done and celebrated with birthday cake, since it was House Speaker Hugh Bartels's 70th trip around the sun.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of some of the debates the Argus Leader watched unfold throughout the day:

Passed the House, 67-3: Lowering the overall state sales tax to 4.2%

Should HB 1137 survive the Senate, this session will be known as the one where lawmakers passed the largest tax cut in state history.

Rep. Chris Karr's bill, which would lower the overall sales tax rate and eliminate the albatross around the Legislature's neck known as the Partridge Amendment, passed out of House Appropriations Tuesday 8-1, over Gov. Kristi Noem's proposal to cut the overall state sales tax on grocery. The bill sailed through the House, 67-3.

Karr, R-Sioux Falls, who provided data to the House to show the Legislature could indeed afford the cut, which would return $104 million to tax payers, said the state could lower the tax rate and continue to pay for its obligations.

"There's still organic growth. We can sit in debate about that and economists love to do that, but there is that growth," Karr said. "We know that South Dakota has one strongest economies... It's a broad tax cut that will minimize the market disruption."

Rep. Linda Duba, D-Sioux Falls, who voted against the bill in committee and again in the House, said the bill accounts for $2.23 a week for each South Dakotan.

"I will tell you, it's hard for me to say this, but I think it needs to be said: We need to fund the government," she said, adding it might be too soon to vote on the cut before the state budget is set.

More:Gov. Kristi Noem's proposal to cut sales tax on groceries dies in House committee

Passed the House, 44-25: Fully funding long-term care facilities

In possibly the most emotional debate on the House floor Wednesday afternoon, members debated the state's obligation to fund health care providers, and among them long-term care facilities for those who cannot take care of themselves.

Long-term care providers set their rate based on Medicaid methodology, and it's up to the state how much they'll reimburse based off that rate.

"Now is the time to be a voice for the vulnerable of our state," Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls, said. "Funding these agencies at anything less [than 100%] will continue to lead to facility and service reduction despite the growing need."

More:South Dakota lawmakers introduce bill to create Medicaid expansion fund

While Karr and Mulder talked about the importance of fully funding these facilities, some of which have been "underfunded for decades," according to Karr, Rep. Marty Overweg, R-New Holland, drew from personal experience.

Overweg, whose brother was autistic and whose grandchild is also autistic, reminded legislators they had a constitutional duty to disabled South Dakotans.

"There's challenges out there for these families," he said. "They're looking to us."

Overweg implored legislators to talk to parents of developmentally disabled children, who when they turn 21, age out of certain facilities and can't be placed at others, because of capacity issues.

"It is our responsibility to take care of these handicapped people just like we would — I hate the word normal — but just like we would any other person or kid in in a regular school," he said.

More:Live updates: Sioux Falls schools closed Thursday as blizzard continues

Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls, had concerns about putting the 100% funding into state law, saying it could create a precedence for other state-funded entities.

"Before lon,g we've tied ourselves in knots and we don't have enough money to do anything," he said. "This is why we have a budget process. This is why we have a Legislature."

Failed in Senate, 17-18: Changing the felony penalty for ingestion

Sen. Michael Rohl's bill, SB 201, would have brought the felony penalty for ingestion down to a misdemeanor and required those charged with ingestion to get addiction counseling. Only if a person had been charged three times or more with ingestion would they have been penalized with a class six felony, according to the bill's language.

"I think it's important that we tackle these obstacles in a way that is promoting an outcome that ends with these people getting off of the drug," Rohl, R-Aberdeen, said. He added a majority of people in prison had felony ingestion charges. South Dakota is the only state in the nation to have a felony penalty for drug ingestion.

However, the bill was roundly criticized by senators who said it had been hoghoused and opposition was unable to testify in committee.

"The only testimony was from those who had advanced knowledge and that was the marijuana lobbyists and the defense lobbyists to support this change in law," Sen. Helene Duhamel, R-Rapid City, said, after she read aloud a statement from the Attorney General's office, which opposed the bill.

Rohl said there was a 12-hour window between the time the hoghouse amendment published online and the bill had its hearing in committee.

Passed in Senate, 22-12: Creating a taskforce to examine the wellbeing of Native American children

Sen. Red Dawn Foster's, D-Pine Ridge, bill would create a two-year, 17-member taskforce to examine the wellbeing of Indigenous children in South Dakota's foster care system.

"This issue deserves another look. This is an opportunity for South Dakota to be on the forefront in standing for the protection of family values," Foster said.

Currently, nearly 60% of children in South Dakota's foster care system are Indigenous.

More:SD lawmakers push to actively reunite Indigenous children with families after abuse cases

While opponents of the bill said the taskforce could impede work already being done by the Department of Social Services on the issue of foster care and that the scope was too broad, Sen. Shawn Bordeaux, D-Mission, applauded Foster for forcing the Senate to have a difficult conversation.

"We've got to wrap the framework around this, so that we can't keep kicking the ball down the road for somebody else to do. We've done that too long," Bordeaux said. "It's probably the most important thing that I could ask you that we do here."

House bills will now head over to the Senate for debate, while Senate bills will be heard in the House during the last three weeks of the 2023 Legislative session.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Crossover Day ends with legislative wins and losses across the board