‘Ruffled feathers’ is an understatement when it comes to South Dakota’s frugal funding
Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: Governor Mike Rounds is making trips around South Dakota telling people that putting the budget together for the state’s next fiscal year is no picnic. In other words, things are tough at our state capitol. For example, he said, state revenue for July through September, this year is down some $33 million as compared to the same time a year ago. Programs may have to be cut or terminated for the state to continue to live within its means.
THE SHORTAGE of revenue to maintain our roads and bridges, (Remember last week’s column on raising the state’s gas tax) is just one example of the shortfall facing South Dakota as Governor Rounds and his crew work in developing the budget for the next fiscal year. Every department in state government is going to go through a belt tightening exercise before Dec. 8 (That’s less than one month away). That is when the governor brings his budget proposal to the Legislature. It will be for the state’s fiscal year starting July 1, 2010.
Other examples showing the need for more funding range from funding shortages in our six public universities to how can South Dakota continue to see Medicaid spending going up the way it has been.
Rounds told his audiences that the number of new Medicaid eligible people increased by 6,400 during the past year. Medicaid pays the medical expenses of low-income people and requires that the state spend $1 for every $2 contributed by the federal government.
(Credit: Teddy Llovet)
ROUNDS SAID revenue to the state in the form of taxes and fees during the period of July through September this year is down some $33 million from the same period a year ago. Sales and use taxes were down 4.8 percent, video lottery revenue was down 5.6 percent and the state¹s bank franchise tax was down 21 percent for the 2009 period.
There’s no question that cutting spending by state government is going to be extremely tough this next budget round because much of each dollar spent goes to areas deemed critical. This includes Medicaid, education, prisons and public safety, he said.
At the same time, he said, the Legislature will be reluctant in an election year to provide the needed two-thirds to boost any taxes or fees – even on a temporary basis.
He also noted that the state is currently using the one-time federal stimulus money to help balance the current budget and while there is some $65 million left for next year, it may have to be used in the current fiscal year if the state’s revenue continues to go down.
MENTIONING EDUCATION, I could not help but be reminded of the dramatic history of the University of South Dakota at Springfield (USD/S) or any one of a number of other titles the college had from its beginning in 1881 when it was authorized by the territorial legislature to actual closing in 1984 when the birth of South Dakota’s minimum-security prison was passed by the Legislature and was immediately signed into law on March 9 by then Governor William Janklow. The sensational story was penned by Marshall Damgaard, a former, long time state employee.
From the beginning of this institution to its final demise there was hardly a year went by that someone tried to close USD/S one way or another. Lack of funding seemed to be the main culprit for its attempted closings, but plain old politics ran a close second.
While the Springfield story may appear today as secondary to some South Dakota folks in comparison to the state’s shortage of funds of today, but it represents the struggle our universities have had from their beginnings for the funding they have needed.
COULD THE RECENT announcement by the S.D. Board of Regents be a flicker of something bigger, much bigger, coming down the pike? The regents’ plan is to review the undergraduate academic programs that graduate five or fewer students each year or have graduated fewer than 20 in the past four years.
There are five main options being considered in the regents’ low-enrollment plan.
- Keep the classes if they are essential to the school’s mission.
- Continue to monitor the program¹s progress.
- Fold a narrowly defined major into a broader program.
- Designate one university as a destination for majors in a particular field. And
- Terminate it.
Could this plan lead to other university closings? There’s no question that this hasn’t been discussed. It has. At least to the public, Governor Janklow’s original plan for a minimum-security prison was a lot different than the end result.
If you think “ruffled feathers” describes the next legislative session because of frugal funding, if anything develops like the Springfield story did, we haven’t seen anything yet. But keep in mind, it’s just conjecture….
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion, retiring 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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