South Dakota

Legislative Update from the South Dakota State Capitol

Published

11 months ago

March 27, 2025

Legislative Update from the South Dakota State Capitol

Yes, the legislative session is over—except for Veto Day on Monday, March 31. We are grateful that Gov. Rhoden has signed almost all of the bills we worked on, except for HB1169, which he recently vetoed. As a result, we urge you to contact your two representatives and your senator and ask them to support HB1169 by overriding the governor’s veto.

HB1169 is a bill that would require signatures on an initiated petition for a constitutional amendment to be a representation of each of the 35 legislative districts. It should be difficult to make changes to our Constitution. The Constitution outlines the structure of government and is not intended to reflect the whims of current ideas. Once an article of the Constitution is amended, it isn’t easy to revert to the original article. Take, for example, the institution of video lottery in 1989. This was introduced through a change to the South Dakota Constitution in November 1988. Since then, we have attempted unsuccessfully several times to repeal video lottery.

In our recent 2024 election, attempts were made to amend our Constitution to make unfettered abortion legal in our state. Amendment H would have also installed “open primaries” into our Constitution. Thankfully, these measures were defeated.

HB1169 will prevent those seeking signatures on petitions from getting them only in and around Sioux Falls or Rapid City. Petition drivers will be required to obtain signatures from the less populated areas as well to gain a full representation of our state.

HB1169 passed with a veto-proof majority in the House 63-6; we are hopeful that these representatives will retain their Yes vote. However, the Senate vote of 19-15 is not veto-proof. We need 24 senators to submit a Yes vote.

You have until March 30 to make your voice heard.

ACTION: Contact your state senator and urge them to vote Yes to override the Governor’s veto on HB1169. Click here if you don’t know who your state senator is. Inform them that changing our Constitution should be a difficult process. Please also contact your two representatives and thank them if they voted Yes and/or urge them to vote Yes again on HB1169. Please let your representatives know that you are being kept informed by Concerned Women for America of South Dakota.

PRAYER: Father, Thank You that You are able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think. We are grateful for the many bills that were passed and signed by Gov. Rhoden. We thank you for our South Dakota Constitution and the freedoms we enjoy and ask that this final bill be passed and put into law. We are humbly grateful for the freedom we have in Christ who blesses us with His grace and salvation. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Thank you for your consistent prayers and actions on behalf of the bills we have been updating you about, as well as the many kind words that have been expressed as we lobbied, attended meetings, and testified before committees at the state capitol every week. We are grateful!

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South Dakota

How a ‘South Dakota kid’ became one of only three kickers to reach football immortality

Published

4 hours ago

February 6, 2026

Press Room

How a ‘South Dakota kid’ became one of only three kickers to reach football immortality

Karen Guregian’s football analysis is sponsored by Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, a Leading Boston Personal Injury Firm.

SAN FRANCISCO – Adam Vinatieri, the man with ice water in his veins with the game on the line, the kicker who chased down All-American sprinter Hershel Walker, said he was a bit nervous heading onto the stage to join this exclusive club.

Hearing his name, learning that he was headed to the shrine that honors the NFL’s very best, brought Vinatieri, arguably the greatest kicker of All-Time, to tears.

After getting a disappointing call last year and learning he wasn’t getting his ticket to Canton, the Patriots legendary kicker wasn’t sure how to feel this time around when he was a finalist for the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

“So this year my expectations, I try not to have any, you know, I really was sitting there going, well, maybe it happens, maybe it doesn’t,” Vinatieri said. “Just being nominated and being in the finals with these guys, I look at that list and I go, ‘My gosh, how do you cut that down to 4 or 5 guys because it’s it’s a pretty amazing list?’

“So when I got the knock on the door. I will be the first one to admit I got teary eyed, and choked ‘em back a little bit because, just because of what it means, you know?”

It hit Vinatieri, especially after hearing his name announced with fellow inductees Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly, and Roger Craig. He said it was all incredibly “surreal” the wave of emotions he felt Thursday night during the NFL Honors ceremony.

“Even when the Hall of Famers came up and shook our hands and said congratulations, you know, joining the club, I mean, there’s just no feeling like that,” Vinatieri said after the Hall of Famers were announced.

The former Patriot, whose career spanned more than two decades, joins just two other full-time kickers, Morten Anderson and Jan Stenerud, in the football shrine.

It was Anderson who knocked at his door to inform him he had been voted in during his second try.

“It’s a tough position to get in, but, yeah, you know, I never really thought about it too much while I was playing,” Vinatieri said. “I just wanted to keep on stacking, stacking stats, and it was never really about me and what I was doing.

“It was always about trying to help the team win games and how can we get to the playoffs and how can we get to another championship and all that stuff and then I guess once you’re done then you turn around and you look back on it and go that’s pretty awesome.”

Vinatieri started his career with the Patriots as an undrafted rookie of Bill Parcells. He was with the team for 10 seasons (19956-2005), before moving on with the Indianapolis Colts.

He was part of three Super Bowl winning teams with the Patriots, and one with the Colts.

“You know, with these guys, just to say you did it a long time and you did a pretty good job and got to put a couple exclamations on a couple of games was a wonderful experience for me,” he said, “but, those 10 years in New England, there was nothing like it … we built a dynasty, winning a bunch of Super Bowls in a short amount of time. That was a great, great experience for me, and one that I will cherish the rest of my life.”

Vinatieri is the NFL’s all-time leading scorer (2,673 points with an NFL record 599 field goals). He made 29 game-winning kicks in 24 seasons before retiring at age 48.

He will always be remembered for his 48-yard field goal in a blizzard in Foxboro during their first Super Bowl run in 2001, considered the greatest kick of all-time.

He’s now immortalized for all of his clutch game-winning kicks for two organizations.

“I’m just a South Dakota kid, right? I never thought I’d play very long,” he said. “I never thought I’d get, you know, to whatever. So at this point right now, I just pinch myself just thinking that I’m sitting up here with some of the greatest men to ever put a put a football uniform on and to be in the same class, to be, to be bound to these guys for the rest of my life. It’s just, it’s really, really humbling for me.”

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South Dakota

Bill to bring every school district opt-out to an election fails in SD

Published

16 hours ago

February 5, 2026

Press Room

Bill to bring every school district opt-out to an election fails in SD

Thirty-nine legislators voted against a bill Feb. 4 in the South Dakota House of Representatives that would’ve brought every single school district opt-out to a public vote.

After Senate Bill 85 failed to pass, with 29 lawmakers voting for it and two excused, bill sponsor Rep. John Hughes, R-Sioux Falls, said he intended the bill to be reconsidered in the coming days, meaning the bill could’ve been heard again Feb. 5.

But by the time the House reconvened that day with SB 85 on the docket, Hughes didn’t choose to move to have the bill reconsidered.

He told the Argus Leader, in emails shortly after the bill was mentioned on the House floor, that it wouldn’t be reconsidered, and it’s most likely the case that the bill will remain dead. But that other bills affecting opt-outs are pending, and amendments could come forward.

Opt-outs allow school districts to raise additional operating funds beyond what they get in their existing tax levy, and in state aid, by “opting out” of those limitations to collect more taxes from property owners in the district.

“Only time will tell how this issue works itself out and whether a mandatory referral requirement will reappear in some other bill,” Hughes told the Argus Leader.

Bill sponsor skeptical of trust in school administrators

Hughes would’ve had an uphill battle to change minds and flip votes, as many of the legislators who spoke in opposition to the bill staunchly defended education, local control and the financial decisions made by superintendents, school boards and school districts.

Those legislators cited the fact that only 14 districts passed opt-outs over the last year, with five of those being referred to an election, and all five passing.

SB 85 is one of 19 recommendations brought by the comprehensive property tax task force that met over the summer. Sen. Sue Peterson, R-Sioux Falls, brought both the bill and the recommendation, both opposed by the Sioux Falls School District (SFSD). Peterson said it was not a “silver bullet,” but part of the solution to solve the property tax problem in the state.

Peterson has also brought SB 223, which would require petitioners to gather only 50 signatures in 40 days to refer an opt-out to an election. The bill has been referred to the Senate State Affairs committee.

Hughes noted Feb. 4 that last year’s resolution to convene the task force was approved by 64 Representatives.

“One thing we have all seen from the floor vote on SB 85, the House in 2025-2026 thus far is talking out of both sides of its mouth on property tax reform and relief, and the voters should take that into consideration in June and November, if this session continues its present course on property taxes, and that we should just ‘trust the school administrations’ in South Dakota,” Hughes said in a statement Feb. 5.

Sioux Falls was a focal point of the bill

In House debate Feb. 4 and in the bill’s prior hearings, it was clear the most recent opt-out passed by the SFSD Board of Education, and the inability of petition circulators to gather enough signatures to bring the proposal to a vote, was a flashpoint that led to the bill’s creation.

That opt-out for $2.1 million over 10 years — or $21 million — needed 5,490 signatures to be referred to voters, but only 2,302 signatures were turned in by the deadline, in 20 days.

One of the most outspoken petitioners, Misty Furness, noted the cost for the district to hold an opt-out election — $63,000 — is far less than $21 million, and said SB 85 is about giving taxpayers a voice.

Peterson said Jan. 22 in the bill’s first hearing in the Senate Education committee that it shouldn’t be the responsibility of voters to gather petition signatures to prevent districts from spending over the limits that have been set for them.

During the Sioux Falls school board’s work session Feb. 4, shortly before the House started debating SB 85, school board president Nan Kelly said the bill wouldn’t solve the property tax issue “in any real meaningful way,” and said opt-outs have historically been used to fill the gap between what’s available in state and local funding, and what’s needed.

District business manager Todd Vik noted the Legislature increased state aid to education at only 1.25% last year and is proposing no increase this year, and said SB 85 will make it “much more difficult to opt out.”

Kelly said the bill sets a “very dangerous precedent” and could lead to similar legislation being proposed for cities and counties.

That’s something SFSD lobbyist Sam Nelson brought up in his testimony against the bill in the House Education committee Feb. 2, arguing that if proponents believed SB 85 was good for schools, it should be good for all local units of government, including the general bill and special appropriations passed by legislators.

Part of the reason opt-outs are in place is that “for years, we have not adequately funded public education, which is your constitutional obligation to do,” Nelson told the House Education committee on Feb. 2.

He noted that people who disagree with opt-outs or other decisions made by school board members have two ways to deal with it: showing up at school board meetings and making public comments, or “one of the greatest referendum tools,” the ballot box.

Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls, said he’d heard from SFSD that only one person made public comments on the budget cycle, and only two people emailed Superintendent Jamie Nold about the budget, noting that people already have the opportunity to influence school board and district decisions.

Districts ‘glibly ignore spending limits,’ proponents argue

In prior committee hearings, SB 85 was endorsed by lobbyists for the Freedom Foundation and Americans for Prosperity.

Legislators who spoke in favor of SB 85 Feb. 4 largely argued that taxpaying voters need to have a say in opt-outs that school boards want to pass, and that part of “local control” is for local school board voters to be part of decisions in their local school districts.

Hughes had argued that a number of school districts across the state “glibly ignore spending limits.”

In his rebuttal, he said his sons shouldn’t have to go to school board meetings and “plow through budgets” that make “all of us gloss over.”

He also said that in December, Nold gave a “wonderful defense for everything he’s doing to continue, according to the status quo,” and said that if legislators don’t pass SB 85, “we ought to just give everybody a trophy and go home.”

Rep. Terri Jorgenson, R-Rapid City, argued SB 85 is not about schools or education funding, but about taxpayers’ consent. She said there are 79 active opt-outs across the state levying $43 million in excess property taxes.

SB 85 takes tools out of education’s toolbox, opponents argued

In prior committee hearings, SB 85 was opposed by lobbyists for the Sioux Falls School District, Rapid City Area Schools, Associated School Boards of South Dakota, School Administrators of South Dakota, South Dakota Education Association, South Dakota United School Association, the Large School Group and the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce.

Since the petition group in Sioux Falls didn’t gather enough signatures, ASBSD lobbyist Heath Larson said it’s possible local constituents were supportive of the district and trusted what school board members were doing.

Large School Group lobbyist Dianna Miller argued that putting a mandate like SB 85 on schools isn’t “limited government,” and said that the property tax problem shouldn’t be “solved on the backs of school districts” alone, something Rep. Mike Stevens repeated on the House floor.

Reps. Erik Muckey, Jim Halverson, Tim Walburg, William Shorma, Roger DeGroot, Keri Weems, Stevens and Mulder all spoke against the bill on the House floor.

DeGroot said school districts pass opt-outs because “we’re not doing our job here,” referring to legislators’ power to increase education funding in Pierre. He added the lack of a proposed increase in state aid to education this year “makes absolutely no sense to me at all.”

Stevens said all legislators do recently is “take tools out” of education’s toolbox, and that if SB 85 passed, “there’d be no more tools in that toolbox.” He noted districts must publish public notices and hold public hearings when school boards plan to vote on or pass opt-outs.

Walburg said he trusts his superintendent and school board members, and that the state shouldn’t dictate what they can do. He noted that 57% of his property tax bill went to schools, which he said was about $265 twice a year.

Halverson said one of the superintendents in his legislative district had asked him to vote no and respect local control. Weems also said constituents in her district value what their property tax does for education, and that she voted against the bill and in favor of local control.

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South Dakota

South Dakota’s most romantic restaurants for a memorable date night

Published

1 day ago

February 5, 2026

Press Room

South Dakota’s most romantic restaurants for a memorable date night

Where to take your Valentine? Here are a few restaurants in South Dakota with ambiance made for first kisses and memorable nights.

It should feel like the entire restaurant was made for two.

Some of the most romantic restaurants in South Dakota have barely lit corners for kisses, velvet couches to snuggle into and a good wine list to make your Valentine swoon.

Here’s a look at some memorable, fairy tale dinners. Note: Don’t look at the prices when you make this reservation; the impassioned ambiance is worth the cost for this one.

Minerva’s Restaurant

Cozy booths, sparkly chandeliers and friendly maître d’s make up this historical corner of downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Minerva’s has been open since 1977, but the establishment has been well-known since 1917, when it was first a confectionery and then a creperie. The nostalgia holds strong with a sprawling salad bar today, Santee bison steaks and a decadent chocolate soufflé for two.

Details: 301 S. Phillips Ave., Sioux Falls, S.D., 605-334-0386. Hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 4:30 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 4:30 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit minervas.net.

Parker’s Bistro

Another historic building giving remarkable charm in Sioux Falls, Parker’s Bistro has exposed brick walls like a hug around white linen tabletops, glimmering candles and fresh flowers. (Tip: There’s a flower shop nearby. Stop there first.) It’s very intimate in there, with corner nooks on one side and an upscale bar next door with velvet couches near the windowfront. All of it hints at the first kiss.

Details: 210 S. Main Ave., Sioux Falls, S.D., 605-250-1322. Hours are 4:30 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 4:30 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit parkersbistro.net.

R Wine Bar

Italiano is spelled a-m-o-r-e.

Owners Riccardo and Marybeth Tarabelsi brought a romantic nighttime-in-Florence experience to downtown Sioux Falls with four upscale establishments, including R Wine Bar, Maribella Ristorante, Brix Wine Bar and Trio Jazz Club. If you really want to impress your date, squeeze it all into one date night, progressive dinner style.

R Wine Bar was first to open, introducing a large wine menu featuring Penfolds or Caymus from Napa Valley and an Antinori Tignanello Chianti from Classico, Italy. Appetizers include mussels and ceviche; dinner includes pasta al limone, Champagne chicken or Gorgonzola steak and gnocchi.

There’s always jazz music in the corner.

Details: 322 E. Eighth St., Sioux Falls, S.D., 605-271-0814. Hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit RWineBar.com.

Legend’s Steakhouse

A legendary dinner for a legendary date night. The Legends Steakhouse is on the upper floor of the Silverado Franklin Hotel in Deadwood, South Dakota, and is notorious for its guests like presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Babe Ruth enjoyed the hotel bar, too.

Deadwood has so much kitschy history to love.

At the Silverado, it’s raucous at the casino downstairs, but quiet in the restaurant upstairs with a private dinner vibe, soft music barely there and lobster or steak Oscar for dinner.

Details: 709 Main St., Deadwood, S.D., 605-578-3670. Hours are 7:30 to 11 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit silveradofranklin.com.

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