PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) — Republican and Democratic legislative leaders offered contrasting perspectives on South Dakota’s budget and property tax relief as lawmakers completed the main run of the 100th legislative session Thursday.
“There’s heartburn for some people in this budget. I’ve got quite a few things in it I don’t like, but some of the lot of things I do like,” said House Majority Leader Marty Overweg, R-New Holland, during Thursday’s Republican leadership press conference.
The $7.3 billion budget includes a 1.25% increase for state employees, education, and community service providers and additional funding for Community Support Providers to address their reimbursement methodology.
Both parties celebrated the restoration of South Dakota Public Broadcasting funding.
“That was a key priority, a vital service that’s statewide. It’s more than just providing educational programming, news, TV, radio, but also our emergency alert system for the state of South Dakota,” said Joint Appropriations Committee member, Rep. Eric Muckey, D-Sioux Falls.
Property tax relief emerged as a significant focus, with Senate Bill 216 being the only successful measure. During the interim, the legislature approved a property tax task force to examine comprehensive solutions.
“The funding formula is complicated, but the parts of it that clearly are affecting landowners is what the local effort is,” explained Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre. “Places that have seen these exponential increases in land valuations, their local effort is going up exponentially right along with their land values, and as that does, the state aid formula goes down.”
Speaker Pro Tempore Karla Lems, R-Canton, emphasized the need for comprehensive review.
“This task force better look at everything. There can be nothing that’s not on the table. And the way we fund education and special education in this state is a mess,” Lems said.
Mehlhaff added, “Obviously, we had Senate Bill 216 that passed. That was something. But, is it enough? No, I don’t think it’s enough.”
House Minority Leader Erin Healy, D-Sioux Falls, expressed concern about the task force’s direction.
“I’m very concerned that their solution with this task force, even though I supported the task force, is to cut spending and to look into our funding sources and how we fund our schools,” Healy said.
“They have been cut so much,” she added. “How can we potentially cut them even more without fully bringing them back to where they should be?”
Economic challenges loom over the legislature’s work. February sales and use tax receipts were down 0.9%, raising questions about future budget shortfalls.
The Republican leaders suggested the need for a new revenue source but did not offer any ideas for solving the property tax dilemma.
The legislature will convene a special session on July 22 to address the state’s prison system. The prison reset task force will hold its first meetings in Sioux Falls on April 2-3.
“It’s a two-day meeting down in Sioux Falls to kick off that very important work, and hopefully get prepared to have a decision in hand for a special session on July 22nd. So it doesn’t seem like it ever ends,” said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Carl Perry, R-Aberdeen.
Governor Larry Rhoden’s veto of House Bill 1132, a childcare assistance program, drew sharp criticism from House Minority Leader Healy.
“This bill would have helped incentivize a workforce in order to get empty classrooms full of children, and now we know that we’re probably going to see more closures,” Healy said.
The veto day for the 100th legislative session—the last and 38th legislative day- is March 31.
