03/04/2006

Good Morning Taxpayer - The Tax and Spending (TAS) Report
Legislative Day 34

The Legislature was full of activity today, as the conference committees from both houses met and discussed their differences over various bills. The legislature as a whole was anxious for the delivery of the General Appropriations Bill from the Joint Appropriations Committee.

The Committee finally got the bill out around 6:00 p.m., and heard amendments until almost 10:00 p.m. The following is a brief summary of those amendments which passed.

209aj - reduces SDPB General funding (GF) by $500,000 209hb - add $100,000 of General Funds for SD Risk Pool 209zk - decreases $21,611 & eliminates bank examiner enhancement program 209ac - decreases GF to state fair by $260,000 209ai - decrease the State Fair Commissioner per diem to $60 209mh - decrease Tourism GF by $780,000 regarding CEO and Research Centers. 209mi - eliminate DOT staff archeologist 209ui - increase Homemaker Services funding by $72,896 GF 209zd - adjust figures for the separation of the PUC from the Dept of Labor 209ad - decrease in DOT travel budget by $890,927 209zb - eliminate School Efficiencies program line item 209zi - adds $800,000 of nonrecurring funds to tech schools 209zj - increases funding to money lending regulation 209mc - eliminate $250,000 requested by BOR for information systems upgrades 209me - decrease BOR travel budget by $410,000 GF 209mg - add $146,000 to the SD Opportunity Scholarship 209mb - decrease operating expenses by $40,560 209mf - decrease DOC funding by $38,278 at the Rapid City minimum security unit 209ha - add $175,567 to the Northern Hills Drug Court 209zg - decrease GF by $346,460 due to callable bonds maturing 209zt - $4,569,130 to retire callable series A bonds 209ag - transfers $3 million to GF from capital construction funds 209ze - transfers $4.7 million from DOE to GF 209uj - increase other fund expenditure authority to Dept of Human Services 209hg - transfers 2.7 million to GF from highway fund

Special Appropriations...

Signed by the Governor: HB 1014 - Remodels locker rooms at SDSMT - $0.45 million HB 1087 - Money for N. Crops Institute - $0.05 million HB 1089 - Money for Vietnam War Memorial - $0.1 million HB 1038 - Reimburse Doctors & Dentists - $0.1 million HB 1239 - Water Projects - $10.2 million HB 1243 - School consolidation incentives - $0.5 million SB 2 - New Judgeship in 2nd Circuit - $0.19 million SB 20 - Dairy plant at SDSU - $4 million SB 21 - Manure separator in Brookings - $0.114 million SB 23 - Feed storage at research farm - $0.02 million SB 204 - Soil Conservation Fund - $0.6 million SB 1103 - Money for M&R at Tech Schools - $0.36 million

Passed Both House and Senate: HB 1013 - BOR Title IX renovations - $0.3 million HB 1090 - School compensatory payments - $0.07 million HB 1175 - Fund ED enrichment - $7.5 million HB 1237 - Tax refunds for elderly, disabled - $1 million HB 1238 - BOR Sioux Falls land purchase - $5.8 million SB 143 - Appropriation to State Fair - $ 0.5 million

Specific facts and figures cited in the Good Morning Taxpayer - TAS Report have all been obtained through the official Legislative website, http://legis.state.sd.us and by attendance at the daily committee meetings.

If you have friends or relatives that you think would be interested in receiving these updates, please forward this to them and send their e-mail address to us at: contact@greatplainsppi.org. For information on other issues, to review previous TAS Reports, and to view the GPPPI Spend-O-Meter visit our website at www.greatplainsppi.org.