February 20, 2008

Below are the bills that NLA is tracking in the South Dakota Legislature. NLA has partnered with South Dakota Retail Association relying on the excellent work of their government affairs department to monitor all legislation and we thank them.

HB 1122 Raising the Jurisdictional Limits in Small Claims Court
On February 19, the Governor signed HB 1122 raising the allowable amount to be heard in Small Claims Court to $12,000 from $10,000. As soon as we have the effective date, we will publish the information in the Northwestern Scene newsletter.

SB 145 Increase the Training Wage for New Hires
Under both South Dakota state Labor laws and federal labor laws, employers may utilize a subminimum training wage of $4.25 per hour for the first 90 calendar days of employment for workers under the age of 20.

SB 145 seeks to change the state law to allow employers to pay employees under the age of 20 a training wage that would be set at fifty cents an hour less than the minimum wage. With the minimum wage currently set at $5.85 per hour, that would mean that employers would have to pay newly-hired employees under the age of 20 at least $5.35 per hour.

SB 145 was passed by the State Commerce Committee. The bill’s prime sponsors are Sen. Gil Koetzle (D-Sioux Falls) and Rep. Larry Lucas (D-Mission).

To read SB 145, click here http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2008/145.htm

HB 1005 and HB 1006 Revamping the Method of Valuing Ag Land
These two bills, which were passed by both the House and Senate, are of concern because changes made in agricultural land valuation may adversely impact commercial property by putting the burden on it to make up the shortfall. There are two main schools of thought of how agricultural land should be valued for taxation purposes:

1)On the basis of production, meaning how much income a parcel of land generates; or
2)On the basis of market value, or what that land would sell for on the open market.

To read HB 1005, click here http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2008/1005.htm
To read HB 1006, click here http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2008/1006.htm

HB 1031 Revise the Definition of Workers Comp Injury
The House approved HB 1031, which was introduced at the request of the South Dakota Department of Labor.

Testifying before the House Commerce Committee, South Dakota Labor and Management Director James Marsh explained that sweeping workers compensation reform legislation was enacted in 1995. He said the centerpiece of those reforms was a provision that work should be a major contributing cause for an employee’s workers compensation claim. Prior to the 1995 reforms, Marsh said the standard had been that the work need only be a contributing factor to the claim for an employer to be liable.

In a recent court case, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that work need only be a contributing factor to an injury for it to be considered work-related. The Court said the “major contributing cause test” only applied to the conditions resulting from an injury, not the injury itself. Noted March, “In our view, that ruling turns the clock back to the pre-1995 law, and the mess that the law was.” He said HB 1031 makes it clear that a major contributing cause test applies to both the person’s injury and the condition resulting from it.

HB 1031 now goes to the Senate Commerce Committee for a hearing.

To read HB 1031, click here http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2008/1031.htm

Regards,
Paula Siewert, CAE
President
Northwestern Lumber Association
800-469-9078