Details from District 2: Budget revenues not adding up to ‘asks’

Greetings from Pierre!

We are five weeks down and past the halfway point for the 100th Session of the South Dakota Legislature and the grind is settling in. In the next six legislative days, each chamber needs to finish up with their respective bills by either killing them or passing them and sending them over to the other chamber. What is termed ‘Crossover Day’ happens on Feb. 25 and can end up running late into the evening. A high point is that on the 26th, Senator Kolbeck, Representative Sjaarda and myself get the pleasure of celebrating Brandon Day at the Legislature where we hope to see many friendly faces from District 2.

Now, onto other news from Pierre. 

Starting Tuesday, the House of Representatives is finally complete with the appointment of Tim Czmowski to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of Herman Otten just prior to the beginning of the session. It certainly seems late in the game, but with the change of Governors shortly after the session started and Governor Rhoden taking over the helm, the delay is understandable. We are all looking forward to working with Representative Czmowski as he settles in.

Legislatively, I’ll just touch briefly on a couple topics at this time, those being the budget revenues and the proposed new men’s prison funding. The bottom line on the bottom line of the budget (pun intended) is that the revenue numbers are down while inflation is still inching up, which ultimately means that our Appropriations Committees have their work cut out for them in the weeks to come. With the requirement that the budget is required to be balanced each and every year, it’s clear that not every ‘ask’ for money can be satisfied. How this is going to impact such things as school funding and state employee salary adjustments, to name a couple, has yet to be determined, so stay tuned.

Then we have HB 1025, which is for the final funding and approval needed to move forward on the building of the proposed men’s prison in Lincoln County. The bill would give authority for the Department of Corrections to contract for the construction of the prison facility and also transfers another $182 million into the ‘incarceration construction fund’ to move that forward. While there seems to be majority support for the building of the facility, there remains doubt that the legislature will get to the two-thirds majority needed to move it forward. The bill was moved out of the House State Affairs committee and sent to the House Appropriations Committee with no recommendation. If HB 1025 fails to garner enough votes to pass, the building of any new facilities could be delayed by years with the possibility that future costs could exceed the current price tag of approximately $825 million, which is the current ‘Guaranteed Maximum Price’ or GMP. We just need to wait and see on this one.

In ending, I would just encourage everyone to stay tuned in on what is transpiring in the South Dakota State Legislature as the decisions made there can impact all of us. Until the next report, take care and stay warm.