Weeks One & Two
Sam Wilson, Associate State Director--Advocacy
Welcome to the first edition of the AARP South Dakota State Legislative Update for 2008! Yes, we’ve reached that time of year again and no doubt you’ve been hearing about some of the more hot button issues through media outlets over the last week and a half. The range of issues is as diverse as ever ranging from regulating tanning beds to adding additional tax to alcoholic beverages. To date, roughly 270 bills have been filed but we have over a week to go before the final deadline for bill introductions. The average number of bills per year is in the 500-600 range and there is no indication that this year will be any different.
AARP will be involved in a variety of issues this session and I’d like to share some of those with you in the areas of consumer protection, South Dakota Retirement System revisions, and health and long-term care. Some of these bills have already had committee action and that is indicated in their description. Any bill that has **ALERT** next to it means that we are asking you to contact you legislator immediately and share AARP’s position with them.
Consumer Protection
**ALERT** SB35- Consumer Protections on Auto Insurance Claims
· AARP strongly supports this legislation that provides South Dakotans clear protections when filing auto insurance claims. The following protections are proposed by the law and do not currently exist:
o No unreasonable travel can be required by insurance company to fix vehicle
o Insurance claims must be responded to in a reasonable time period by the insurance company
o Market value of a vehicle claim must be determined using fair standards established in this bill.
o All replacement parts must be of like kind and quality.
While many of these protections seem obvious, South Dakota has some the weakest consumer protection laws around auto insurance claims not only in our region but across the entire country. This measured approach strikes a good balance between protecting consumers and keeping unnecessary regulations in check.
HB1059- Eliminating restrictions on Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Complaints
- Currently, the Office of Consumer Complaints is limited to 4 full-time equivalents (FTEs). This bill would eliminate this limitation so that the Attorney General can adequately staff this office to meet the growing need for more staff to investigate consumer complaints. AARP strongly supports. Passed House Judiciary 13-0.
HB1060- Revising statute of limitations on filing actions against deceptive practices
- Currently, the statute of limitations for the Attorney General to file action in a deceptive practices case is two years from discovery. This would raise that time period to four years from discovery, which will assist in allowing the state to join in multi-state actions that sometimes require more time than currently allowed in statute. AARP strongly supports. Passed House Judiciary 8-5.
HB1066- Revising definition of unfair and deceptive practices
- Legislation would add “unfair” to the deceptive practices statute, which would encompass a greater number of fraudulent practices than are currently covered by law. AARP strongly supports. Sent to 36th Day (kills the bill) 11-2.
South Dakota Retirement System(SDRS)
--AARP supports each of these bills and encourages SDRS members to contact their local legislators in support of this package of bills. All of these bills were heard in House Retirement Laws Committee on January 15th and were passed through committee.
HB1019- Provides for benefit formulary increases
- Increase to 1.7% of Final Average Compensation (cost to system $351 million)
HB1020- Creates Supplemental Retirement Plan
- Allows for conversion of SRP or Special Pay Plan dollars to guaranteed lifetime benefits
HB1021- Allows units to auto-enroll employees into Supplemental Retirement Plan
- In order to increase personal savings in system, auto-enrollment will increase participation for those units and employees that voluntarily choose to participate.
HB1022- Revises appeals process for SDRS beneficiaries
- Provides for eliminating Board of Trustees from appeals process and inserting the SDRS administrator and professional hearing examiner. Circuit court appeals process still applies if initial appeal is unsatisfactory to beneficiary.
HB1023- Technical fixes bill
- General Counsel Wade Hubbard frequently peruses statute to ensure uniformity. These are technical fixes that accomplish that goal.
HB1024- Revises definition of child for benefits purposes
- Expand SDRS definition to whenever the child graduates from high school or is 19 years of age.
- Adopts Uniform Probate Code definition of child for purposes of family benefit payments.
HB1025- Provides special exception for Mitchell firefighters brought into system in 1996
- Clarifies that these beneficiaries will receive 3.1% annual compounded COLA just like all other beneficiaries in the system.
Health and Long Term Care
SB33- An act to require hospitals to report certain adverse health care events
- The following instances would be included in reporting: (1) The list of adverse health events required to be reported, including hospital-acquired infection events and surgical events; (2) The method and reporting requirements for a hospital to report an adverse health event; and (3) The format for making a report of an adverse health event available to the public. Each report of an adverse health event shall identify the hospital but may not include any identifying information for any health care professional, hospital employee, or patient involved.
- There are several discussions going on considering this bill and we except several changes to be made during the committee process. AARP is supportive of greater transparency in both cost and quality measures and we will be following this bill closely during session.
While this not an exhaustive list of our legislative agenda items, it is representative of the many issues that we will be following during the 2008 legislative session. For those of you who are planning on attending our Lobby Day events this month, this will serve as a reminder to sign up depending on your region of the state. Here are the dates of the AARP South Dakota Lobby Days:
January 28th—West Region
January 29th—Northeast Region
January 30th—Southeast Region
These events are a great time for our members as well as the legislators that attend. This year, we will also be celebrating AARP’s 50
th Anniversary with a special presentation of a miniature 50
th Anniversary cake to Governor Rounds in the Capitol Rotunda prior to the afternoon session of the legislature. If you are interested in attending and have not yet signed up, please contact me at
swilson@aarp.org to ensure that you are included.
I hope this update finds all of you having a Happy and Healthy New Year and thank you all for the work you do on behalf of AARP in your local communities!
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