Daugaard: SD Compared to Other States
Air Date:01/19/2011
By Gary Ellenbolt
Governor Dennis Daugaard gave lawmakers his revised state budget proposal Wednesday. He says his goal for Fiscal Year 2012 is to reduce South Dakota's structural deficit by $127 million. Daugaard proposes severe cuts for every state agency, from 10 percent up to 22 percent. Daugaard says he's trying to keep the state out of the same situation other states are in.
"Some of our sister states, and some cities within them, face the real prospect of default, because of their mountains of deficit and debt," Daugaard says. "They have yet to learn that you can't spend your way out of a recession. Their broken systems perpetuate the unsustainable patterns of spending and borrowing that have brought them to the brink of ruin. They have promised their citizens something for nothing-and created a society where everybody wants to be carried, and no one wants to pull their own weight. South Dakota is not like that."
Daugaard says the state's Rainy Day fund needs to be set aside for natural disasters or other extreme emergencies. That fund has dropped from a high of $160 million in Fiscal Year 2004 to just over $100 million at the present time.
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