Lawmakers passed the state’s 2016 budget late Friday night. The budget increases school funding and employee salaries by 2%. It also increases Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals by over 1.5%. It increases Medicaid reimbursements by 2.5% to community health centers, long-term care providers and nursing homes. Despite the increases lawmakers had to cut around 10.4 million dollars from the Governor’s budget proposal due to lower than expected revenue projections. Senator Billie Sutton says he would have liked to seen more funding towards education to address teacher shortages and rising college tuition costs.
"We all know how important education is in South Dakota and everyone of you cares about education. I know that. I know that. But I hope that we can keep that conversation alive and have honest discussions and real discussions about moving education forward in South Dakota with the dollars we have available in the future," says Sutton.
In the end Sutton supported the measure. He says even though many lawmakers didn’t get what they wanted the measure was the result of compromise and hard work. He says it provides increased funding to the most important areas of the state.
The end budget totals around 4.3 billion dollars which includes general funds, other funds and federal dollars. It now moves to the Governor for his final approval.