Governor Rounds will need a lot of arms for the legislative session

By Gordon Garnos on January 4th, 2010

Gordon Garnos

AT ISSUE: Next Tuesday, Jan. 12, is the opening day of South Dakota¹s 85th legislative session. For weeks now about all we have been hearing is what a difficult session it will be because of the state being short of money and how difficult it is going to be to balance the budget that has to be done. That is because the state’s constitution says the budget must be balanced. But those won’t be the only issues facing our legislators. There are other needs our legislators need to look at as well.

HOW MANY ARMS does Governor Mike Rounds have? Two. How many arms should he have next week once the legislative session opens its doors? At least a dozen. Why? Well, he is going to need at least eight for juggling his budget. He’ll need a couple extra to fight off those legislators who won’t want to do anything because it is an election year. Also, he needs at least two more to fight off the Board of Regents and the South Dakota Board of Education because it doesn’t look like they are going to get what they want.

In fact, we had better give him a couple of extra arms to fend off the dozens of special interest groups who don’t understand the financial crunch South Dakota has found itself. What has caused such a mess? Is our governor the guilty one? Some say “Yes” because he hasn’t shown the leadership that he should have during the past seven years he has been in office. But shouldn’t our legislative leadership be held at least partially responsible? In fact, shouldn’t most of our legislators take some of the blame?

Depending on your point of view, perhaps a little of the blame should be passed around to all of us. But there are some real culprits that need to accept a lot of the causes for the financial mess South Dakota now finds itself as well as the present recession itself.

I REMEMBER SEVERAL weeks ago Governor Rounds was making the circuit across the state warning South Dakotans about the deficit facing the state. At that time he was saying South Dakota’s government could be as much as $176 million in the hole for the 2011 budget year. Also, the 2012 budget shortage could be as much as $107 million.

However, on Dec. 8 when it was time for him to deliver his budget recommendations to the Legislature, the next fiscal year’s deficit had shrunk to “only” $31.8 million. Needless to say, that was some change from his original prediction of $176 million shortfall for the next fiscal year. What caused the drastic change, legislators were asking themselves?

The answer was fairly simple. That $176 million deficit he was talking about included every last dollar every department in state government was asking for. It also included a 1.2 percent inflationary increase in per-pupil funding for public education, the usual three percent salary increase and other adjustments for state employees and a three percent increase for community health providers and other assistance to help the needy.

IN FACT, THE GOVERNOR on Dec. 8 was recommending no increases in the per-pupil fund or the state’s salary policy. One of the big expenses is the growing Medicaid need and besides that he had figured spending about a $900,000 less than this fiscal year on state government operations.

As he said, what was requested and what he is recommending to the Legislature are two different things.

Needless to say, whatever the shortfall in the budgeting process turns out to be there are some legislators, including the candidates for Rounds’ job in the next election, are trying to put the blame on the shoulders of our governor when in actuality, the state’s revenue through taxes and fees are far from where they should be. Because of the recession people simply are not spending what they usually do and thus a shortage of sales tax revenue, the state’s largest source of income, other than what comes to South Dakota from the federal government.

Mentioning culprits in the budget process earlier, one of the biggest and most uncontrollable is the Medicaid program in South Dakota. Spending for the needy is virtually out of control because of the unemployment in the state and because of the state’s impoverished areas in the state. An example of this is the birth rate in these areas is much higher where depending on government support is a fact of life for many of these people.

THE BOTTOM LINE is that in about a week, our legislators will have to tackle the budget and all of its ramifications. This includes where in state government can costs be cut and, at the same time, should or will our legislators have the intestinal fortitude to look at raising state taxes, even though 2010 is an election year….

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.

Lots of tax talk on the horizon. (dakotawarcollege.com)
South Dakota could join challenge to Obamacare based on the Cornhusker Kickback (dakotawarcollege.com)
KCCR NEWS: Tad Perry to run for Board of Regents (dakotawarcollege.com)

Note: Reader comments are reviewed before publishing, and only salient comments that add to the topic will be published. Profanity is absolutely not allowed and will be summarily deleted. Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will also be deleted.