Gov. Daugaard gives annual budget speech to S.D. Legislature
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PIERRE (AP) — Gov. Dennis Daugaard outlined state spending priorities Tuesday that are limited for the second year in a row by disappointing South Dakota tax collections, proposing a plan that would fill an immediate shortfall this budget year and keep state employees’ wages mostly flat over the next.
The $1.62 billion general fund budget proposal, which the Republican governor outlined in his annual address to the Legislature, includes roughly $32.4 million in state spending increases for the upcoming 2019 budget year.
The proposal for the upcoming cycle would add more than $20 million in education spending, nearly all from K-12 enrollment growth, but schools wouldn’t see an inflationary funding increase per student under the plan. Most state workers wouldn’t see raises under Daugaard’s budget outline.
“It’s just the way it is. I mean, if there’s not money there, there’s not money there,” House Majority Leader Lee Qualm said after the speech. “There’s some other people that are struggling as well with this whole economy, and so we just need to ride this thing out.”
The GOP-controlled Legislature will reshape the current budget and approve the next one during the legislative session that begins in January — Daugaard’s last as governor. Term limits bar him from running again next year, and he leaves office in 2019.
“South Dakota is working,” Daugaard said. “We’re working better than many other states.”
Photo:
South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard gives his annual state budget address to the South Dakota legislature at the state Capitol in Pierre on Tuesday.
AP photo by James Nord