BROOKINGS – Their freshman year was challenging, a baptism by fire with a steep learning curve.
But Republican state representatives Tim Reed, District 7, and John Mills, District 4, are back for round two as the 2018 South Dakota legislative session begins Tuesday.
Reed came to the state House of Representatives with 13 years of service on the Brookings City Council, eight of them as mayor, on his resume.
He said the biggest difference between state and local government is the breadth of things that you have to take into account. There are many more issues to deal with at the state level.
“Your city issues, … you usually have four or five balls in the air,” he said. “As a state representative, I couldn’t even count the number of balls that are up in the air.”
His learning curve was eased somewhat by experience in policy making and working with six fellow city councilors to pass ordinances and legislation
“Now, being in the House, you’re working with 69 others,” Reed said, smiling. “That’s a big difference there.”
But he knew how to discuss policy and had “lobbied as a mayor. I was part of the Municipal League, so I had background with it.”
“But there’s a lot to learn,” he admitted. “It’s a fire hose (drink) that first session.”
Reed serves on two committees: Judiciary and Local Government. He wanted Judiciary because “of the problems we’re having with meth and just to expand my knowledge”; and Local Government, because he has “some expertise in that area.”
One unique assignment Reed has is membership with representatives of 22 other states on the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board that is looking to “simplify and modernize sales and use tax collection and administration in the United States.”
A major goal of the board is an online sales tax, a nationwide revenue source that would benefit both local and state governments.
Reed said such a tax has been estimated to be capable of bringing more thana $60 million to state and city coffers in South Dakota. That could bring some relief to our already revenue-strapped state. During this legislative session state lawmakers will again focus on where the revenue is coming from and where it’s going.
“We always have to continue to look at sales tax exemptions,” Reed said. “That’s getting a little more discussion there this year again. Is there something we have to do there?
“We have to have good growth just to match the nominal growth that you have with government services.”
But what if that revenue can’t keep up with the nominal cost of government services growth?
“The cost of the other side of raising more revenue is do you start to take whole programs away,” Reed asked.
“It gets tough. We either have to figure out a way of making sure that our economy is growing fast enough where we’re taxing at the base, … can we actually grow the sales tax base enough to keep up with what we need for government or are we going to have to cut government (programs)?”
Looking ahead into his second year and beyond, Reed said he will run for re-election in 2018 but “just hasn’t made the formal announcement.”
Mills: Budget job No.1
Mills, a rural Volga resident and construction and real estate developer in the Brookings area, also came to the state House with some past service in an elective office – sort of.
“I was elected to the Conservation District a couple times,” he said, laughing. “It’s one of those elections where there’s only one person. You get to check the box.”
He has found his first year in state government “eye opening … very interesting.”
“There’s a huge learning curve,” Mills said. “The range of issues that you deal with goes so far beyond your own personal experience. The most important thing is to figure out who’s in the room and what is their background and what do they know that I don’t.
“Who do you have confidence in when they speak, because they know that issue. You’re looking for that. You need guidance on every issue, because they run the entire gamut of society.”
Mills said he was surprised “by the extent of our government and its involvement in our lives.”
He explained, “I tend to think of what we need government for: we need government for police and fire protection; we need it to build roads; we need it to do all those things that we cannot do individually on our own.”
“The government gets into a whole lot of other stuff,” Mills said, laughing. “That was a bit of an eye opener.”
He sees the budget as job No. 1, “a concern for everyone.” And he’s grateful that “in South Dakota we do the hard work. We balance the budget every year, and it is a struggle.”
Mills praised the hard work and long hours put in by Sen. Larry Tidemann, R-Brookings, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and co-chairs the Joint Appropriations Committee, and committee members.
“They put in extra hours above and beyond the rest of us,” he said. “They really work hard to hold the government accountable for where they spend the money.”
Mills sits on the Commerce and Energy Committee and the Taxation Committee. He believes most of the hard work gets done in the committees; so he focuses most of his time and energy on his committees.
One issue that his constituents have brought to his attention is water: Lake Sinai in particular as it relates to the perplexing issue of “meandering waters” and “non-meandering waters.”
Non-meandered waters are waters that weren’t specially designated during government surveys in the late 1800s.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard wants the state’s lawmakers to extend a sunset law that expires in June that governs the recreational use of lakes on private land. At present Lake Sinai appears to be a gray area.
“Lake Sinai is one of a few bodies of water that were sort of overlooked by the legislation,” Mills explained. “Legally Lake Sinai is a meandered lake.” It’s been owned by the state since the late 1800s.
“My thought is that lakes like Sinai should be treated in the same way that we treat the non-meandered waters.”
Mills admits that it’s a complicated issue and “you have to be into the details to understand it.”
Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.
