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SD Legislature Floor votes Monday on HB 1043 (lithium tax) & SB 14 (expand hunt coyotes w/ snowmobiles)
January 22 @ 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Below find alerts on bills related to environment on the floors (Senate & house) Monday
**Senate Bill 14,
Would permit taking of coyotes by invitees of landowner from snowmobiles in certain conditions – hunting from snowmobiles is currently not for any species except for coyotes & then only by landowner. PHAS OPPOSES THIS BILL. .
In Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources on Thursday 1/18/24, 10 am CT. This bill passed out of committee with an amendmen by a unanimous vote and was placed on the consent calendar. The amendment added was to prevent harassment of coyotes before being shot.
It was expected on the Senate floor on Monday the 22nd but was delayed till Tuesday. It passed with 3 votes against. Folks needed to ask their senators to remove it from consent calendar. Visit our web site https://phas-wsd.org/sd-legislature/ for list of all Senate members.
We object to this as cruelty to animals & indiscriminate coyote hunting doesn’t work to reduce the population.
The current law forbids snowmobile chasing or driving coyotes (or any animal), but the proposed new law does not prohibit those actions for landowners/lessee and invited guests with coyotes.
Here is a link to our letter against that explains issues with the bill: https://www.scribd.com/document/700546391/Please-Remove-SB-14-From-the-Consent-CalendarF .
Here is a link to a discussion sheet for arguments against indiscriminant coyote hunting – https://projectcoyote.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/PC_SAB_Coyote-Facts_FINAL_2020_08.pdf
Senator Nesiba got it removed from the Consent Calendar. The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday with 3 Senators voting against it – see vote: https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Vote/78751
We did not start notice & working on this bill soon enough. It still has to go to the House and would likely get sent to House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee (but that hasn’t happened yet) so we ask you to contact folk in the House..
**HB 1043, https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/24879
**HB 1043 would classify lithium as a precious metal for the purpose of taxation and to authorize a new tax. PHAS SUPPORTS, House Agriculture & NR Comm, passed amended, It will be on the House Floor on Monday the 22nd after 2 pm. The bill passed out of the House 57 to 9 and is sent to Senate Energy and Commerce Committee
Last year a similar bill made it out of the house but was killed in the Senate – in 2023 it was alleged bill needed to be rewritten for technical reasons . This passed the House floor, with a strong vote in favor, but last year a similar bill passed the House
but was killed in the Senate, alleged to be due to technical issues with writing of that old bill.
If you go to our web page on the Legislature, you can learn about bills there.