South Dakota lawmakers have revised the current budget based on falling revenues. Both chambers of the legislature approve Senate Bill 32. That measure balances spending with revenues coming in lower than anticipated.
Appropriators say they scaled back spending and found money in department budgets that would have been reverted to the general fund at the end of the fiscal year.
State Representative David Anderson is chair of the appropriations committee. He says the budget looks different than lawmakers assumed three months ago.
"There was still more optimism back then. The reality of where our revenues are going hadn’t fully developed. So the governor still had a number of spending proposals in that budget for the balance of Fiscal Year ’17," Anderson says. "We have done away with virtually all of those, and so, as this bill stands today, it creates, once again, a balanced budget for Fiscal Year ’17."
Anderson says state government leaders are trying to hold spending down. He says reserve funds kick in if revenues drop even further through June 30, 2017.