Saturday in the park, not the legislature.

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Seth over at CCK has an interesting post on the fact that this year, it's unusual where there will not be any Saturday Legislative days.

He calls on Governor Rounds to alleviate this, but last I knew, it's the LRC's Executive Board comprised of Republicans and Democrats that makes this call, not the Governor.

I'd have to check the e-board's minutes, but having to commute to Brookings every weekend, I can appreciate why they don't want any Saturday session days. Not only do you usually sacrifice seeing your family during the week, being in session a great number of Saturdays also makes it darn tough to have a full schedule of crackerbarrels across rural South Dakota.

Family and keeping your constituents informed is fairly important. So, I'll disagree with the CCK blog on this one. Legislators, when it's Saturday, go home.

Really, just go.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Actually this creates an extra commute for legislators. We usually meet on 2 Saturdays a session. This cuts down on the need to come back up for a short week. I don’t mind losing 2 days at home to gain 3 and have one less commute. (not to mention the thousands of dollars spent on reimbursing legislators for every trip)
1:56 PM
Anonymous said…
I think the chances of using those two days are negligible. This is a great schedule.

Not only that CCK's logic is just plain wrong. Those two Saturdays a session spent in Pierre can be much better spent now by legislators AT HOME INTERACTING WITH THEIR CONSTITUENTS. Talk about wrong headed. Sheesh.

It is the legislature's executive board which sets the schedule.
4:13 PM
Anonymous said…
I think a good argument can be made for the legislature meeting only four days each week during the legislative session. This would slow the march of bills through the process down, giving people more time to react to legislative events and visit with legislators through letters, phone calls or e-mails.

The fast pace of the legislative session makes it almost impossible for the average person to keep up when they can't be there every day. A little more time and a slower process would benefit legislators by giving them time to review legislation and consider citizen imput. The media would have more time to cover important issues and inform the public.
9:22 AM
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