Governor Kristi Noem has proposed a $4.8 billion state budget with no new taxes, while still providing extra help in several key areas.
Noem proposes expanded help to ease South Dakota’s nursing home crisis, including $5 million in one-time money. Nursing homes have been closing in small towns around the state.
The Governor also proposes $5 million in one-time development grants to expand rural broadband. That proposal gets a round of applause from her audience, a joint session of the State Legislature in Pierre. Another proposal that gets a round of applause is a plan to expand Opportunity Scholarships to homeschooled children in South Dakota.
Under Noem’s budget proposal, Medicaid providers, education, and state employees would all get 2.5 percent increases. She also removes a controversial plan by former Governor Dennis Daugaard to charge some state workers health insurance premiums.
The budget proposal would also increase money to fight the Meth epidemic and to expand habitat for pheasants and other wildlife.
Government transparency is also a “cornerstone” of Noem’s first State Budget blueprint. She’s announced a new website so citizens can keep track of how their money is spent – www.open.sd.gov.
(KELO)