Republican reaction to the Governor’s State of the State message.
In a message to a joint session of the legislature yesterday, Governor Dennis Daugaard presented bold plans from his administration to address challenges that the administration has faced during his tenure. However, reaction to his plans have varied from support to skepticism. And that’s within the confines of the Republican caucus.
As noted by the Associated press:
Lawmakers should pass a half-cent sales tax increase to improve South Dakota’s lowest-in-the-nation teacher pay so it’s competitive with neighboring states, Gov. Dennis Daugaard said Tuesday in his State of the State address.
The sales tax increase would raise more than $100 million in the upcoming budget year, most of which would be put toward helping raise the state’s target average teacher salary to $48,500 per year. If approved, it would be the first permanent increase to South Dakota’s sales tax rate of 4 cents per dollar in nearly half a century.
and…
“To do two tax increases in a row, back-to-back is tough,” House Majority Leader Brian Gosch said, referring to fuel tax increases that lawmakers approved last session for road and bridge funding.
and…
On other issues, the governor again exhorted legislators to consider an expansion of the Medicaid health coverage program for disabled and low-income people. Daugaard’s position a departure from other Republican governors nationally who have declined to expand because they oppose President Barack Obama’s federal health overhaul.
But Daugaard has said the state’s costs for expansion would have to be covered by savings in part by expanding access to services that are fully funded by the federal government. That would free funds for boosting potential enrollment by about 50,000 residents.
In reviewing the Governor’s proposals, I asked some legislators to give me some feedback on what they thought about the Governor’s State of the State address, and the Governor’s proposals. And the wariness over the proposed tax increase as noted by House Majority Leader Brian Gosch seems to be evident with other members of the GOP.
State Representative Lance Russell of Hot Springs offered an unvarnished assessment of the Gover
nor’s proposals. When asked, he noted that to him, the State of the State address offered “More taxing, more spending, more welfare, more mandates, and no great announcements of new private industries that will contribute to the taxable value of the state’s future. And no vision.”
Representative Jim Bolin found more to like in the address, especially in some of the points that weren’t primary focuses by the media, such as the new state park proposed by the Governor. Bolin noted, “My reaction is that we have no agreement yet with the feds on Medicaid expansion, so out of respect for the governor and his request 
that we withhold judgment, I will not comment at this time. I am supportive of the effort to make some adjustments for future employees in the state pension system. I am very pleased by the work we are doing on rail line expansion and the refurbishing of old lines. Good for everybody. I like the effort to push dual credit classes juniors and seniors in high school. I like the efforts we are making to develop Good Earth State Park near where I live and the work being done in Custer Park is great. The efforts to develop a new park in Spearfish Canyon is noteworthy as well.”
On the education portion of the package, with the Governor’s 1/2 cent of sales tax to fund high salaries for teachers, Bolin, a majority whip for the GOP Caucus, echoed what Gosch had to say on the tax proposal; that “the Blue Ribbon Task force proposal will face major hurdles as the two thirds constitutional amendment passed by the voters in 1978 makes any tax hike very difficult. The fight over this question will be a dominant question this session.”
State Senator Deb Peters, Chairwoman of Senate Appropriations had been listening to the main proposals on Education and Medicaid develop over the last year, and was not surprised to see that they 
took the form that they did. Deb noted that “an important component of working on the legislation will be how they work on accountability for the distribution of the new funds, versus how it is balanced with local control,” expressing the legislature’s desire for the funds to go where they intend – to teacher’s salaries – without stepping in and usurping local control from school districts in making decisions.
Senator Peters is also watching the Medicaid Expansion proposal carefully, as negotiations have been going on for quite a while, but an agreement for the federal government to step in and take over their treaty responsibilities has still not happened yet. She noted that South Dakota’s Native American population wants the access to care, and she believes it is the right thing, but “we have to balance that against the Medicaid expansion itself.”
The next 30 days will be very telling as to what is going to happen with the Medicaid expansion in South Dakota, which is already drawing opposition from groups such as the South Dakota chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative, free market group which has already begun campaigning against the measure.
With at least two major measures proving to be controversial before their bills have been written yet, the 2016 legislative session could be interesting to watch in light of the election year politics that are sure to be involved in many of these decisions for legislators.
Stay tuned.
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“The speech tonally was very different than previous years,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. “It’s almost like, ‘Okay, I’ve done what I can, and I’m going to continue to do what I can this next year by executive action.’ But I think he’s been on the glide path out of here, and I think the speech tonight reflected that.”
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