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meanor conviction. That bill passed out of committee 10-3 and awaits deliberation on the House floor this week.
• HB 1100 was an interesting bill that sought to allow gold or silver to be used as legal tender in business transactions. Utah has passed a similar bill. Under the proposed legislation, nobody would have been compelled to accept gold or silver coins, but they could have. Throughout the question & answer portion of the testimony, a few mis-speaks by one of the proponents seemed to cloud the issue a little bit. The legislation was clear that nobody, including the SD Dept of Revenue, would have to accept gold/silver to settle debts or taxes owed them, but one of the proponents struggled to answer questions when hypothetical situations were presented. The bill was not intended to be anything sinister or convoluted, but it did fail in committee.
• On the floor, we took up HB 1113 which sought to clarify that certain electronic correspondences between elected officials may be subject to "open-meetings/open-records" statutes. There were many questions as to whether certain e-mails or text messages or even correspondences via social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter would be considered to be open to the public. Ultimately, the bill failed 35-34. Bills need to garner a majority vote of the total number of members-elect. Thus, in order to pass, a bill needs 36 votes on the House side. The next day, there was a motion to reconsider, and that vote failed 34-35, with a few people switching their votes from the previous day, but ultimately not enough voting "Yes."
• Finally, SB 70 is the judicial/public safety bill that has received a fair amount of media attention. This bill married a number of issues together into one large, omnibus bill. There were many good elements contained within the bill, but in the end, I was one of a handful of legislators who voted against the bill. There were a couple elements of the bill that I disapproved of. Since the legislation was brought as one bill containing at least ten different elements, rather than each one being brought separately, I was forced to vote for all-or-nothing. I have learned from similar bills in the past--most recently the omnibus education bill (HB 1234) from last year--that when you marry several issues, although many may be meritorious, I only have one vote. If I have concerns over one or two elements in such a bill and cannot be convinced otherwise, it is best to vote "No."
• Until next time, I wish you God's richest blessings!