Governor likes state budget plan

PIERRE - The $3.9 billion budget passed by the South Dakota Legislature will help the state's effort to fix its budget problems in the next couple of years, Gov. Mike Rounds said Monday.

The governor said the budget for next year is balanced with the use of $88.1 million in federal money from the stimulus package passed by Congress, but it also includes most of the cuts in state programs he proposed in January.

The use of federal stimulus money and an effort to slow the growth of state spending will help the state get through the next couple of years, Rounds said. That means the state will have a better chance of balancing its budget when the federal aid ends, he said.

''It gives us a chance to slow down the increases in spending until such time as our revenues start to pick up again as we recover,'' the governor said.

The next step is to increase employment by creating jobs and helping people get trained for new occupations, Rounds said. That effort, which will be named Jump Start, will involve cooperation from many state agencies, he said.

''We have to get started right away,'' the governor said.

The Legislature passed the budget on Friday, the final day of the main run of this year's legislative session. Lawmakers return for a final day March 30 to consider vetoes issued by the governor and any other last-minute issues.

After state revenues fell sharply due to the recession, Rounds proposed a $3.6 billion budget in January that called for cutting $46 million in spending from the portion supported by state general funds.

On Monday, Rounds said the Legislature approved 80 percent of those proposed cuts in the final budget bill.

About $16.4 million in proposed cuts had to be restored for education and Medicaid in order to qualify for $88.1 million in federal stimulus money that was used to balance the budget.

Those restored cuts included $5.3 million in continued extra aid to schools with significant increases and decreases in enrollment, $6.1 million in adjustments to local school district property taxes, and $800,000 in general state aid to schools. Another $4.2 million in cuts were restored to Medicaid, the state-federal program that pays the medical expenses of poor people.

The $3.9 billion state budget for the year beginning July 1 includes $1.13 billion in spending from state general funds, such as the sales tax. It authorizes spending another $1.85 billion in federal funds, and nearly $939,000 in other funds that are dedicated to specific uses, such as the gas tax for road construction.