The South Dakota legislature lasted for 38 working days and adjourned on March 30th. During the session, Governor Larry Rhoden (R) signed 240 bills into law and vetoed two bills.
In his State of the State address at the beginning of session, Rhoden shared an agenda of keeping South Dakota “strong, safe and free.” This session is Governor Rhoden’s second session as Governor and he operates under a Republican trifecta. He vetoed two measures this year. The first veto was for HB 1077 which would have placed a permanent ban on lab grown meat, and instead signed SB 124, which was seen as a compromise to HB 1077, and only paused the sale of lab grown meat for five years. This veto was consistent with Rhoden’s style of governance and his philosophy of not trying to over-regulate.
The other veto for this session was for HB 1138, which would require training and background checks for all non-medical home care workers. In his veto letter, Governor Rhoden saw the measure as too broad in scope and did not want to risk a loss of services or providers in rural areas of the state. The veto was not overridden by the legislature on March 30 when the legislature returned for veto reconsideration. The sponsor, Representative Melissa Heerman (R), intends to reintroduce the bill if re-elected in the next election.
DATA CENTERS
SB 135 creates the “Data Center Bill of Rights”. This measure requires data centers with peak electrical use of 10 megawatts or greater to cover any costs associated with meeting their power demands, including costs if the data center leaves. This measure also prevents the state from preempting local laws limiting, banning or regulating data centers. This measure received bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.
Also signed by Governor Rhoden was HB 1038, which allows the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission to require companies to pay for a study related to the provisioning of electric service to a customer that is a data center with a peak demand of ten megawatts or greater.
BUDGET
On March 12, the House and Senate passed a $7.5 billion state budget, which was signed by Governor Larry Rhoden (R) a week later. The Budget will go into effect on July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year for South Dakota. Along with more funding for new positions in the South Dakota Treasurer’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the Public Utilities Commission, the budget included:
- $10,241,383 for South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
- $854,000 to the Department of Social Services for a partial restoration of benefits for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to the levels seen before the benefit reductions approved by the Interim Rules Review Committee on July 15, 2025.
- $3,681,239 to the Department of Health for Tobacco Prevention.
- $1,104,893,296 for Department of Education.
WHAT’S NEXT
There is no outstanding legislation awaiting action from Governor Rhoden. In the fall, elections will be held for all three branches of State Government. Governor Rhoden is currently facing 3 Republican challengers for the nomination this fall. The frontrunner in polls currently is US Representative Dusty Johnson (R). Johnson has been campaigning on property tax and sales tax relief, with one of the highlights of his campaign being a 2 year property tax abatement for first time homebuyers. If no candidate wins at least a 35% vote in the June 2 primary election, the top two advance to a runoff eight weeks later.