SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO.COM) Two Sioux Falls lawmakers visited KELO Radio's Greg Belfrage Show Monday morning to give a little post mortem on the 2017 State Legislature.
State Representatives, Republican Greg Jamison and Democrat Karen Soli discussed how things went in Pierre.
Soli was able to get a bipartisan ethics panel bill passed, which helped make up for the repeal of Initiated Measure 22. Her personal combination of church and state may have greased the skids.
"As a Lutheran pastor, I think people were willing to cut me the slack and say that this wasn't just a political ploy," Soli also said that the GEAR-up and EB5 scandals were in the back of everyone's mind.
The 2017 session was baptism by fire for the freshman Jamison. The former city councilor was right in the middle of the IM 22 repeal and replace debate.
"It was pretty amazing. With all the people we had in our caucus, on our side, the Republicans, there were 70 different ways to kind of fix this," said Jamison, describing the challenges.
Both Jamison and Soli agreed that more needs to be done to fully replace IM 22, including limits on campaign contributions. Soli said she believes that was a promise made by the Republican leadership. Jamison said that he volunteered to be part of fact-finding legislative task force this summer on campaign limits, so proposed legislatiion will be ready to go in 2018..
On a separate issue, Jamison, who spent eight years on city council wrestling with budget issues, told the Belfrage Show that he was concerned how fast the state budget process goes in Pierre.