Governor Mike is already feeling
the backlash of his budget
By Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: It has only been about
a month since Governor Mike Rounds proposed what some insiders say
is one of the tightest budgets in South Dakota's history. The
projection for the state's next fiscal year is already being shot at
on various fronts although the 2008 legislative session does not go
into action, or inaction, until next week. The Governor's proposal
has a price tag of some $3.55 billion. What it will be by the time
this session of the Legislature is over is a great big question. The
backlashes heard so far could spell a big difference in what the
state should spend and what he has prepared.
IT IS VERY DIFFICULT for the
average South Dakotan to comprehend 3.55 billion of anything. At
least it is for me. But when that 3.55 has a dollar sign in front of
it, the incomprehensible is there in capital letters. Nevertheless,
that is what Governor Mike Rounds feels the state can spend during
its next fiscal year.
Now, to make this $3.55 billion more
comprehensible, a graph might help for you to digest it a little bit
easier. For example, half of every one of those 3.55 billion dollars
will go to all the education levels supported by the state. Thirty
three cents of that buck would go to social and health programs and
11 cents of that dollar will be needed to lock up the bad guys and
gals (Corrections), courts and law enforcement. The rest of state
government gets the remaining six cents.
Anyway, that is his proposal. But that
had hardly hit the papers before the backlash started. Probably
first up to bat the Governor's funding package were the education
people. They have for the past several years received an annual
three percent raise in state funding. His proposal for next year is
just 2.5 percent increase for state aid.
THE GOVERNOR LATER later
countered by announcing school reserves are growing and according to
that newspaper in that town near Harrisburg, Rounds said that money
should be spent, not saved.
"During a recent speech to lawmakers,
Rounds said schools' general-fund budget reserves have grown in the
past five years--$16 million in the past year--to $170.8 million."
One has to admit that isn't chicken
feed. A lot of folks say the schools aren't the only ones hoarding
reserves. Rounds announced during his budget address to legislators
that for his budget to even balance he has to take $28.2 million
from the state's two largest reserve funds. And some feel while $28
million isn't chicken feed either, the dent it puts in those
reserves is minimal.
OH MY GOODNESS, what are we going
to do? Well, a Rapid City legislator knows his compatriots would
never pass a bill to close one of our state's six universities, so
he may ask the legislators to pass a resolution to study the
possibility of closing one of them. Which one he didn't say. But
because of South Dakota's low population it might not justify
keeping all of them open.
It will be interesting to see if that
bird flies, although it was done once before by Governor Bill
Janklow and whether or not it was a popular decision, today it would
take a whole lot more courage than there is in both Houses of the
South Dakota Legislature to do so again. The Regents would don their
armor at the mere suggestion.
Although the Governor cries a tight
budget, the Regents have their hands in so many pockets in Pierre,
they will probably get their "University Center" in Rapid City like
the one they have in Sioux Falls, along with millions of dollars for
their science projects. I can agree on the necessary funding for
these science project, but another "center" at this time is more
than a little ridiculous.
THE BUMP IN the budget that will
be felt by most every South Dakotan is his proposal to cut $2
million from the budget of the state's Highway Patrol. This means
the highway troopers would patrol South Dakotašs highways 23 percent
less next fiscal year compared to the state's current fiscal year.
That even got my dander up a bit.
This would translate to mean the number
of patrol hours on our highways next fiscal year would be a drop to
107,723 hours from 139,900 hours this fiscal year. According to
estimates, DUI citations would go down from 3,550 this year to 2,733
in the 2009 fiscal year. This could very well translate to more
highway fatalities next year.
According to state Senator Gene
Abdallah, "I don't know why he would cut public safety when we've
got the third-worst record of DUIs in the country," a quote I have
written about before.
Other legislators seem to be climbing on
Abdallah's bandwagon as well, including some of the legislative
leadership.
The bottom line, as we see it, is that
Governor Rounds has a hard sell with next fiscal year's budget to
the Legislature that could prove to be an even harder sell to the
people of South Dakota....
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and
recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a
lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the
U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.
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