The South Dakota Senate passed the legislature’s recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2014 just before midnight on Friday. The House and Senate Joint Appropriations Committee met most of the day to hear 59 proposed amendments to House Bill 1185. Most of them were a no-go.
Committee co-chair Deb Peters presented the legislation to the Senate after it was approved by the House.
“Education—46 percent of our state budget goes to education. Forty six percent, for $601 million. Thirty-nine percent of our state budget is taking care of people. Ten percent of our budget is protecting the public,” Peters says. “And that leaves 5 percent of our budget to run the legislative branch and the executive branch, and the rest of the programs that are not included in education, taking care of people, and protecting the public.”
Peters says the budget of more than $4 million is balanced, not only nominally but also structurally.
About half of the budget comes from federal dollars.
Legislators return to the Capitol for a final day on March 25 to consider action on any vetoes by Governor Dennis Daugaard.