S.D. Legislative session graphic. Photo courtesy Dakota Radio Group.
YANKTON, S.D. (WNAX) — This week could be the battle of the budgets as South Dakota legislators work to wrap up the final four days of the main run of the 2022 session. The House and Senate are working on separate budgets.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” said Sen. Jean Hunhoff of Yankton, who chairs the Joint Appropriations Committee. “This is the first time in my history in Pierre that this could potentially happen.
Hunhoff said the differences are over spending authority of hundreds of millions of federal dollars brought on through COVID-19 relief.
Democratic Rep. Ryan Cwach of Yankton said there’s bipartisan agreement on the matter, and he thinks the budget will be passed in time.
“There are some people who have some ideological or philosophical concerns about the budget, and I suppose we’ve got to respect that,” Cwach said.
One item currently being negotiated is money to address South Dakota’s housing shortage, a key component of Gov. Kristi Noem’s budget proposal. A bill that would spend up to two hundred million dollars for housing across the state ran into a problem last week and was amended down to fifty million dollars.
“There’s not a community in the state that doesn’t have housing issues,” Rep. Mike Stevens of Yankton said. “We’re just trying to do the best we can, and to get it done people are going to have to give and take.”
The main run of the legislative session ends Thursday. Lawmakers return for veto day on March 28.
(Jerry Oster, WNAX, contributed this report.)
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