South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem gave her budget message to a joint session of the Legislature Tuesday, calling for restraint but also proposing a 4% funding increase for the “Big Three” of education, state employees and nursing home providers.
Noem said her budget plan addresses teacher salaries, invests in childhood literacy, and sets children up for careers in the future.
She encouraged lawmakers to do exactly what families across America are doing every single day – stick to a tight budget – but to also “take care of our people first. We must address our responsibilities first before we consider special interest projects.”
In this year’s session in the spring, Noem reluctantly signed a budget with tens of millions more in spending than what she originally proposed but used the budget message to warn it will be different in the new session that starts January 9th.
She said “I am not proposing conservative spending because our economy is weak. I am proposing conservative spending because we are strong – and I want South Dakotans to continue to thrive for generations to come,”
Noem is proposing just under $7.3 billion dollars in spending in Fiscal Year 2025 funded by federal, state, and other sources. That’s almost $100 million less than the current budget, which gets just under half of its money from the federal government.
South Dakota law requires education spending to increase by the inflation rate or 3%, whichever is lower, but Noem wants 4% to give teachers a pay raise – saying teacher pay raises have not kept up with what the state invests in public schools.
Noem also wants a 4% hike for nursing homes, community service providers, and developmental disability providers while her proposed 4% pay raise for state workers is an attempt to retain and attract people to public service.
South Dakota has over $130 million in federal COVID-19 aid left and Noem wants most of that to go to state water programs and local water and wastewater projects.
She also wants a new indigent defense commission to oversee an appellate defender office as well as to train and mentor rural attorneys, and she wants
$228 million for a new men’s prison to replace the aging Penitentiary and $21-million to cover a shortfall for the new women’s prison under construction in Rapid City
Lawmakers earlier this year passed a 3-year cut in the sales tax rate instead of Noem’s proposal to end the sales tax on groceries, but she now proposes to make the reduction permanent.
Noem plan generally received the response from lawmakers that observers expected. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, 63-7 in the House and 31-4 in the Senate, but this year’s session was plagued by intra-party fighting between Noem and her fellow GOP leaders.
Republican House Majority Leader Will Mortenson said after yesterday’s speech that Noem “really put out a meat and potatoes budget proposal,” adding that he appreciated she focused on core items but that “the devil is in the details.”
Democratic lawmakers said while they share Noem’s commitment to children, they don’t agree with her execution. In a real sense, what they want doesn’t matter – given the Republicans’ overwhelming supermajorities.