Opinion

I have a confession to make. I’m not really a dog person.
Now, don’t all gang up on me at once. Dogs are great. There’s been one or more in my house since I was 6. When my friend is out of town, I check in on her dogs and play with them for an hour before going home. The time my neighbor’s dog got lost, I jumped in my car to go search for him, and we thankfully found him shortly after. And just last week, I played with a newborn Anatolian Shepherd. I’m just not a cuddle up with a dog on the couch kind of person.

I’ve now been Governor of South Dakota for about two weeks. We finally have bills reaching my desk. I just signed my first bill as governor, Senate Bill 7, which bans Sanctuary Cities in South Dakota.
This bill is a strong piece of legislation. It’s a show of support for President Trump’s work to make America safe again. This bill reiterates South Dakota’s respect for the rule of law.

I promised I would give the Black Hills its voice back and let me share with you how that is going. So far this year, I have successfully passed five bills through the Senate.
• SB 75 – Requiring citizenship on drivers licenses and ID cards
• SB 72 – Allows counties to save money by recovering autopsy costs
• SB 91 – Updating the petition format to be more transparent (consent calendar)
• SB 92 – Requiring the Initiated measure process to undergo single subject review just like constitutional amendments (passed the Senate floor unanimously).

When I first wrote this column, it started out as our weekly editorial found to your left titled “Our Viewpoint.” But, I decided not to do that, because I wanted this to have my face and my name on it. It’s something I feel very strongly about. Very strongly about.