Week 6 - Legislative Update

Representative John Shubeck | District 16

South Dakota Legislature

House of Representatives

Originally Posted on Facebook: February 24, 2026

We are coming down the home stretch on the legislative session and getting a lot done. We are approaching cross over week where all passed house bills cross over to the senate and all passed senate bills cross over to the house. We passed two bills dealing with property taxes, we also passed one to help schools with disruptive students, and I tabled my law banning data collection on minors.

In the state House of Representatives we passed House Bill 1253, which if passed by the senate will lower property taxes. This bill operates off an Olympic average for the assessed value of a owner occupied home over the course of 8 years. In an Olympic average, the high and low assessment are dropped, so out of the 8 years, 6 are used. Olympic averaging is a method commonly used in industries with turbulent valuations such as crop insurance. This bill should deliver an average of about $300 of tax relief to our homeowners. That is our first step towards tax relief.

After House Bill 1253, the next property tax relief bill we got done was SB 20, which is an act to appropriate funds for elderly and people with disabilities. This bill appropriated funds for to pay for property tax relief when eligible people apply for property tax relief. If you are over the age of 65 or have a qualifying disability, please apply for these programs. If you are over the age of 65 or have a qualifying disability. This is a program that some are not aware of, but when property values have skyrocketed like they have, that’s what these programs were created for.

In addition to providing relief for property owners, we are also providing relief for teachers. HB 1308 is geared towards allowing school districts to remove disruptive and violent students and assigned to alternative instruction. In recent years we have seen the pressure on teachers grow. Much of this pressure is due to unruly students. As a track coach I can tell you that not every problem child should be sent to some sort of alternative instruction. Some kids have problems beyond their control, which need to be addressed with the resources in a school.

For other kids, their behavior is something that is too disruptive for a school setting and they need to be put in an alternative setting. This bill facilitates the transition to alternative instruction. Additionally, this bill was prime sponsored by a retired superintendent and it was supported by the South Dakota Education Association and the South Dakota Department of Education.

Finally, on top of bills we passed in the state House of Representatives, I tabled my bill that would ban data collection on minors. Protecting our kid’s online activity is very important to me as I have 4 kids and a foreign exchange student living with me that are all school age. Getting to a solution on these issues is difficult and I want to make sure we get it right. The mechanisms by which we let a tech company know that they are dealing with someone who is underage is not simple and that is the main hold up on this legislation. I worked with the Legislative Research Counsel and the Attorney General’s office on this legislation, but it still needs work in order to make sure that we are able to hold the tech companies accountable. I will work on this legislation over the summer and I hope to have it ready for the 2027 session. Thanks as always for your support!

Representative John Shubeck

South Dakota District 16