Had a couple of belly flops last week

Greetings. We just finished week four, and as mentioned, it was a five-day week which is too long to be in session. It was a dark week. I can’t see when I go in at 6:30 a.m. and I can’t see when I leave coming out because it’s dark then, too.
We had our third crackerbarrel at the American Legion in Hot Springs Saturday. Ever wonder how the term crackerbarrel came about? The term derives from the old time practice of people gathered around a literal barrel of crackers at the local country store to discuss the events of the day. That’s actually where the Crackerbarrel restaurant got its name and decor from also.
It was fun meeting new people and seeing old friends. Talk about a passionate bunch! Over 85 showed up and they had a lot of good questions and really let us know their feelings. I love crackerbarrels because it keeps me grounded and more committed than ever during the week in Pierre. I’m not there representing myself. I’m there representing my 25,000 bosses who sent me there!
Our District 30 is divided among three counties, Fall River, Custer and part of rural Pennington. The population in each is about 8,200 people.
I wouldn’t trade it for any other district. When campaigning I give a little speech that everything in a South Dakota tourist pamphlet is in District 30: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Wild Horse Sanctuary, Angostura Lake, Black Elk Peak, Custer State Park and the list goes on and on. Really. The other tourist attraction, not in District 30, is that giant bird feeder in Mitchell or maybe the Terry Redlin Museum in Watertown. 
How is session going? I had a couple of belly flops off the high dive. I had a bill asking for $50,000 with matching private donations to have a task force to study the zebra mussel pandemic. In the Hills, both Pactola and Sheridan Lake have zebra mussels, as do 33 lakes East River, as well as the Missouri River. My intent was to to have an independent study to assist Game, Fish, and Parks (GFP) in seeing if we could get a handle on this crisis. GF&P came out against the study and so nine legislators voted not to have the study. Four voted to have it. 
What GFP is doing is having fishermen drain their plugs when coming off a lake. If they have any minnows left, dump them out on land. One cannot take their minnows to the next lake. I guess they decided you can keep your night crawlers and leeches.
I shouldn’t have brought that up as some GFP bureaucrat will say no nightcrawlers and leeches can leave the premises. If I sound condescending and upset, it’s because I am. By the way, all the sportsmen organizations testified in favor of our proposed study!
Next I had a bill to help the citizens on paying excise tax on a used pickup that was recently purchased. Basically, if you buy a 1990 Ford F150 pickup for $10,000, when you go to the courthouse to register the title/transfer, they look up the Blue Book appraised value. If it books at $15,000, then that is what you are charged! My bill had the bill of sale be the amount you pay tax on because that’s what you paid for the vehicle.
The Motor Vehicle Agency testified that it could lose between $450,000 and $500,000 in revenue. What? That’s almost stolen money from our citizens. It is immoral to require South Dakota citizens to pay more tax than they actually paid for the vehicle. I might add that it is a felony to make a false bill of sale (lying about the amount paid) and I checked with the attorney general and he assumed he would prosecute false bills of sale. I’m not making this up. The vote was nay seven, yea three. The yea votes were myself, Tony Randolph and Kent Roe.
After leaving, the seven nays each came to me and apologized for voting against my bill. I told each representative that they didn’t vote against my bill, they voted against the citizens of South Dakota who voted to send them to Pierre.
Most made remarks like, “I don’t know about that.” So, I asked them, “How would you put it?” For some strange reason legislators vote with the various agencies and not for the citizens of this great state. 
It’s mind-boggling to me!