Governor's Budget Address

January 19, 2010

The Governor's budget address on Wednesday, January 19th paints a grim picture for the state of South Dakota, in particularly for education and social service programs.

Please keep in mind that this is only a suggestion at this point. There is still much work to be done in the Legislature and the Senate.

As member of the Education Committee I have been given the opportunity to speak with many about the proposed cuts to education and to ask the important questions about our students receiving the best education possible. As you can imagine, they are preparing for the worst. They are thinking outside the box and getting creative to ensure that our educators be prepared to provide the same capacity of education with less funding.

The way the state budget is designed 49% of the total budget goes towards education,37% of the total budget goes towards services to help people,i.e. Medicaid, these two areas is where the largest portion of the total budget is spent, the remaining portions are spent on protecting the public with the least amount being spent on state government. Over the past four years our revenue has dropped while expenses have increased. The biggest influx of the states expenses has come from the increased utilization of Medicaid.

It's impossible to pay for more when you have less to spend. No one is in favor of cutting anything, if there were another way we would implement it. Unfortunately, we are at a point where the tough decisions must be made. It's time to get serious and rectify the problem if we want a brighter future for South Dakota.

You are welcome to post questions, comments or insults. This site was desinged to assist you to stay in contact with your elected Representative. I can assure you that we will not always agree on the issues or the answers,but at least we can communicate to make us all better informed, to work together to make South Dakota government run the way you think it should be.

Representative Patricia Stricherz