Appropriators dwindle down list of ideas for special funding, statewide daycare study survives

Bill would require the Department of Social Services to conduct in-depth study on childcare in South Dakota

(Austin Goss/The Dakota Scout)

PIERRE — The rest of the Legislature enjoyed a quick finish to “Crossover Day” Wednesday, but the Joint Appropriations Committee Friday deadline to get bills off its desk was more intense.

The committee, tasked with making sure that the state maintains a balanced budget each year, spent the last day of the legislative week wading through 24 different special appropriations bill. Like the rules of Crossover Day, any special appropriation bills not advanced out of the Appropriations committee by the end of the day would be considered dead.

Though the committee left no bill untouched, many met the same fate that they would have had they remained unheard. Lawmakers lined up and shot down proposals, like one from Democratic House Rep. Linda Duba to provide food assistance benefits to low-income children in the summer, or another to build a new dam in a state park in north central South Dakota. Those that did survive were amended to dedicate just $1 to the cause, a way to “keep the conversation going” in the legislative chambers without endorsing the entirety of a project.

The intentions of the day were well known to lawmakers, as the appropriators’ deadline day was dubbed “baby seal day,” a reference to the expression to “club a baby seal.”

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