Via Governing, I learn that state government general fund spending nationwide in Fiscal Year 2016 is up by 4.1 percent:
Enacted fiscal 2016 budgets show aggregate general fund ex- penditures reaching $790.3 billion, an increase of $30.9 billion or 4.1 percent over fiscal 2015. Budget growth in fiscal 2016 is projected to slow slightly from a 4.6 percent increase in fiscal 2015. General fund spending in fiscal 2015 reached $759.4 billion, compared to $725.7 billion spent in fiscal 2014. As will be discussed in more detail later in this report, the aggregate spending increases in fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2016 were particu- larly driven by a few large states. For this reason, median state spending growth is a more modest 3.0 percent in fiscal 2015 and 2.9 percent in fiscal 2016 [National Association of State Budget Officers, The Fiscal Survey of the States, Fall 2015].
Surprisingly, under Governor Dennis “Grandpa Cheap” Daugaard, South Dakota has been outpacing the national spending growth median and average. According to the state’s Bureau of Finance and Management, our FY 2016 budget increases general fund spending 5.08%. In FY 2015, general fund spending rose 5.83%. The Governor Daugaard is asking for a 4.15% increase in the FY2017 budget.
If we include this year’s proposed budget, Governor Daugaard has overseen an average 4.48% annual increase in general fund expenditures since 2011. That includes the year of Daugaard austerity, FY 2012, when the Governor originally proposed 10% cuts across the board but ended up with a budget that cut federal expenditures 10.65% while raising general fund expenditures by 0.14%. Daugaard’s predecessor, Mike Rounds, oversaw eight budgets with an average annual increase in general fund spending of just 3.52%. (Nationwide, states increased general fund spending 5.5% a year from 1979 to 2015.)
By these numbers, one could argue that the notoriously cheap Dennis Daugaard is increasing state spending even faster than his less thrifty predecessor. Yet we still pay our teachers the least in the nation, and we can barely approve enough new spending to tackle a quarter of our highway needs. How can we be increasing spending faster than other states but not getting bang for our buck?
What is he spending all the money on? Lawyers? Court costs? Repayment to the EB-5 investors? Trips to China and Korea? Weekly stays near the Mall of America? Are South Dakotans paying attention?
How much of this years increase is the increase in the gas tax to fix the roads. That was a good improvement although should have done it a lot sooner.
Now he wants to join National Health Care but really does not want to. He has all these exceptions that make it just like we would not be on it but just wants more federal money so he will not be paying for it. Sounds like a liberal just trying to get more money but is still a conservative because he does not want to do anything with it.
I went to a seminar by Joy Smolnisky of the South Dakota Budget and Policy Project, last Friday and got a real wakeup. (Thanks for the heads up on your blog Cory.) As Cory mentioned on here on the Governor’s budget address, last week, DD put a 2.7% pay increase into his budget for state employees. What I did not know, is that is an across the board increase but does not include merit raises, tenure bumps etc which can bring that pay up to a 5% increase. Not sure what the brown nose bump would add to that.
Remember several years ago when Governor Rounds increased the number of state employees by several hundred? Well, I did a little math this morning. We employ 1 person for every 65 citizens in this state. People love to complain about the Federal government, but ironically, we are at the lowest number employed since Lyndon Johnson, and we employ one for every 112 citizens. That does not include the military, but then the State also does not include the National Guard.
The low federal employee number is ironic considering that the new Homeland Security Department which incorporated FEMA into its fold when it was started, employees 240,000 people. It is still third largest behind the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, so those three department take up way over a third of our federal employees, so you can see what that secure feeling that the pols always talk about, is costing us.
But to get back to the topic of this blog, it is not hard to see with increases in the number of employees and those types of increases in pay, when we supposedly have no inflation, or at least that is what they are telling us seniors on Social Security, how we can be a leader in government spending.
I find the same type of increases at the city government level. But we cannot pay the teachers.
Could it, have anything to do with the fact that the state and city governments tax collections keep increasing because those governments increase the tax rate whenever they feel like it, there are more people to spend money, business is good and by its spending state and city governments are also increasing business, while the school districts and counties, facing those same increases in population, have had their means of taxation frozen?
http://www.yankton.net/community/article_3544b50c-a2e5-11e5-9ca0-f3e7dc055b5b.html
If you are talking to me larry, I can narrow it in four words. “no increase sales tax”
I read you, Lanny: increasing the burden on the poor is exactly what a sales tax does.
I think that Ms. Smolnisky is a purveyor of French Math, Mr. Stricherz, but she is probably right that the Government Employee Union is a much more powerful beast than the Heinous Teachers Union led by Mr. Pogany. The GEU is a hungry beast with a ravenous maw and will devour all money it can. Unions are bad, they are bad!
People who say that unions are bad, are bad, are the ones who are bad. We have decreased from nearly 40% of the workforce being unionized to less than 8%. Suppose that has anything to do with the disappearance of the middle class?
I never hear any of the people who are against unions, say a word about the American Medical Association nor the American Bar Association two professional unions that are closed shops and make a helluva lot more money than any of the “unions” that people hate.
Let me just say that Dakota Free Press is the best political forum in South Dakota without equal.
Carry on.
I agree with Mr. kurtz.
Lanny, South Dakota has a larger proportion of government employees in our population than the federal government does nationwide? Good grief, whither conservatism?!
Excellent observation about raises for state employees but not yet for teachers. It’s funny the Governor doesn’t apply the same math, capping increases at the CPI, to state payroll that he does to state aid for K-12 schools.
Roger E, surprise! I don’t think the $85 million tax increase for roads passed last March is included in the numbers above. The NASBO survey looks at general fund expenditures; I think all of the tax increases for roads (gas tax, wheel tax, license fees, etc.) go into the “Other Funds” category, not the General Fund. If you look at the FY2017 Budget Book section for the Department of Transportation, you’ll see there’s darned little General Fund expenditure; it’s mostly Other and Federal. The Governor is requesting about $82 million more in Other than was budgeted in FY2014.
Mr. H probably has it right, but how much of that $82 million is your tax dollars, folks?
The libbies don’t just want to tax your wheels for $82 million they want to tax your income for another $82 million just for teachers, and then the other special interests are already probably printing hats and standing in line with their hands out.
2016 will be the year of tax gluttony. I’m just sayin…
grudznick, if you are having a hard time keeping up, just say so. Tax gluttony has been going on for about ten years now. The sales tax has been raised several times during that time. The property tax for occupiers of the property has been frozen for about that same length of time. The property taxes are where education funding at county government is funded. The teachers are paid from education funding, which state government also shorted by moving the funds that were promised by state government to be dedicated for education, to the general fund so that state government could fund all of the little economic development projects that they wanted.
As far as the wheel tax is concerned, that is so that the counties can fix the roads for which they are responsible, which they were unable to do since the counties’ taxing ability had been frozen.
The tax gluttony has been committed by those who have the most in this state by shifting the tax responsibility to sales tax which hits those who have the least, the hardest. Start paying attention to the whole lessons that the entire class are trying to teach Grudz, or professor H will have to have you stay after class. If you don’t want to pay your share, Grudz, you could probably find another country that doesn’t have paved roads, nor schools and teachers.
You twisted my arm!
Is this not what I have been saying? Perpetuating the disinformation he puts out that he’s frugal? Gives him the smokescreen he needs to continue growing govt for cronies..
What’s interesting to note is SD has almost twice as many state govt employees as ND -13245 to 7900. Cory and Lanny, do you know what SDs expected budget surplus would be? Also, that general fund is growing nicely – 179,000,000, but needs to be watched closely with all the stolen millions lately. I just wish SD had a governor that cared about education like our Gov Dayton does. But it’s the peoples fault that your leaders are anti-teacher and anti children.
Jenny, part of it is the dysfunctional and almost non-existent opposition. What is the latest budget surplus forecast for Minnesota?
Lynn, MN is projected to have a 1.87 billion dollar surplus.
For being anti-govt, SD sure likes their govt jobs. MN has a population of 5.46 million with 32,259 state govt jobs. If SD had that same population they would they have 92,246 state govt workers.
A bit hypocritical there, SD?
That’s great Jenny!
Actually, I must have put my numbers in wrong, SD would have more like 84,768 state workers jobs if it had the same population as MN. That’s what you get when you have a state that employs everybody’s family members, I guess.
Isn’t this fascinating information! We can preach and preach how corrupt the state is, but nothing changes!
We like our governor, Lynn. He has a good, decent administration working for him. He wouldn’t put up with the corruption that SD has. Dayton cares too much about the working class to let that happen.
Jenny,
Minnesota has a great park system funded partially by their Legacy fund that Minnesotans approved. Big Bog state park for example is beautiful with nice facilities. The carnivorous plants are pretty cool there.
Stace … Stace … Stace
(Carnivorous plants in Minnesota? No way!)
96, I take it that’s a call for Stace Nelson to get back on the horse and run for Legislature as a reform candidate in 2016?
Big Bog http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/big_bog/index.html
including carnivorous sundews and pitcher plants. http://www.startribune.com/exploring-big-bog-state-park/268499352/