Kristi Noem has started off her governorship the way she ended her Congresswomanship: overseeing a deficit.
The Legislative Research Council has issued reports on General Fund Receipts and Expenditures and Encumbrances for January. In Governor Kristi Noem’s first month in office, general fund receipts ran $25.49 million short of the FY2019 Legislative budget target:
…while as of January 31, total general fund spending was running $12.27 million hot, or 0.76 percentage points higher, compared to the average percentage of appropriations spent at this point in the past two fiscal years. Add those two figures together, and, after four weeks on the job, Governor Kristi Noem was overseeing a $37.76-million state budget deficit.
We’ve also burned through $22.9 million more in federal money and $16.6 million more in other funds than our two-year average spending rate would predict.
Whew—good thing the Senate killed Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s plan to add another $53.80 million to that deficit. With Noem’s weak fiscal stewardship at the helm and the Trump tariffs devastating our ag economy, we’ll be lucky if we balance the budget without cutting programs.
Mr H
From the notes of the financials, it appears that the deficit is merely caused by timing issues. In accounting speak, this appears to be no big deal.
Has someone developed and serum that would allow stoopid wingnut pols to get over their phobia of new taxes? Debt and deficits aren’t going to magically disappear no matter how many phony prayer sessions you have. Gawd isn’t in the bill paying business, which could explain why Drumpf isn’t gawd.
Noem is off to a fast start managing decline.
Weak 2 tax return season sees weak tax returns down an average of 16%. Unless you be filthy rich.
Mr. H is big on French Math and only wants to criticize our new young Governor. French Math never pans out in the end.
French math is a big a fraud as grudznicks claim of “Conservatives with Common Sense”. Grudznick’s Catholic school math is what’s in a learning deficit.
Me just can’t stop thinking, “if we starve government to death, it might awaken sleeping giant in our economy.”
Me also keep thinking, “tax cuts make higher tax revenue so we can more easily balance the budget.”
Me insist that, “putting women and doctors who aid in abortion behind bars helps keep government smaller and less intrusive in our lives.”
Me just think plus equals minus, ya know?
State government did the “French math” grudz. Cory only offered the commentary.
And I don’t know if this is a French thought or not. Grudz can inform us. Either GOP Party tariffs are hurting SD’s economy, or they are not. Which is it?
Mr. Rorschach, I believe Mr. H is great at arithmetic and when he sees two numbers he adds them together or divides them apart and then spouts the answer as a reason to criticize those he does not agree with on policy. That, sir, is French Math.
Expand Medicaid and we would quickly be in the black with even some walking around money. Allow hemp farming, and she would have an even better chart to look at. NOem can complain all she wants to about tariff’s and China poor pitiful her, but she can do something about it very quickly if she wanted to. But being on the pity pot is where she want to be.
Why would license and fees be down over 22 million?
So, what happened to South Dakota’s share of Trump’s $7.7 Billion farmer bailout when his Chinese trade deal failed?
Mr. Schaffer, according to note #3 it is due to timing. You should call the Council on the Research for Legislatures and ask them for more detail. Perhaps that is what Mr. H is going go to, or just let fly with his speculations of wild. Either way, it’s just a bunch of libbies spitting into the wind when they should be spitting with it.
Does anyone know what’s the $ amount of farm bailout that’s been dispersed in SD?
So farm bailout socialism is just peachy, but Medicaid for sick and injured people is s not? SDGOP thinking, or not.
Income tax refunds are down 17%, but who is really surprised at that? https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/filing-season-statistics-for-week-ending-february-15-2019
Rich guys taxes are doing just fine, in case anyone should be concerned. NOem and trump treated us all like sheepherders, because they pulled the wool over our eyes.
Me just feel so strongly, “if me help starve government to death, me might help awaken sleeping giant of power in our economy.”
Me also just keep thinking, “tax cuts make higher tax revenue so that we can more easily balance the budget in the future.”
Me totally insist that, “putting women and doctors who aid in abortion behind bars helps keep government small and less intrusive in our lives.”
Me just think 1 equals 2, ya know?
Me also feel like 4 = 18 sometimes.
Adam, methinks that Mr. Kurt Evans has just had a stroke reading your posts. His King’s grammar is perfect pitch, so these last three posts, may have driven him over the edge.
Otoh, they aren’t incorrect.
I see those footnotes, Mr. Sol, but Grudz, I did no math. The LRC did the math.
If we’re running a marathon (I was watching Olympic running last night on YouTube) and marking mile split times, and if the split time for mile 1 is under the standard pace for gold medalists, and if there’s some unusual circumstance that caused that slow time—unexpected headwind, sudden downpour, herd of sheep crossing the road—we runners don’t say, “Oh, footnote! Nothing to worry about; we’re not really going slower.” The plain, honest fact is that we are behind where we want to be and we need to pick up the pace to make up for our immediate deficit.
In its first month, the Noem Administration ran a deficit.
Francis, I’m puzzled as to what timing issue would have intervened in both insurance tax collections and license permits and fees. We’re talking state revenues, so it can’t be tied to Trump’s federal shutdown. January’s a longer month, so it’s not like we skipped a day. Was everyone just hungover from inauguration and needs another week to catch up on paperwork?
Sales and Use tax increased year over year. That is the main component of the State’s revenue.
Noem won the marathon.
“Mission accomplished.”
“Heckofa job Brownie.”
“We’re going to win so much you may even get tired of winning.”
And I say, “Please, please, it’s too much winning.”
But Mr. H, if there’s a footnote that says “hey big hill our fancy bike went slower up this, but we bet you we will make it back to even on the downhill side when our fancy bike really goes faster than we planned on our split time” and if the councils of the legislatures don’t know that the bike will go faster than considered on the downhill side, that would seem to be of import. Or if they said “hey we have the money in our pocket but just haven’t put it in the bank”, that might be a reason for a note. I know if I had told the former Mrs. grudznick that I was bringing home $100 this month and then only $60 showed up in the bank she would have been mad, until I showed her I had $40 in my back pocket and indeed I had brought home $100. That might have saved me from some severe repercussions, so I would have written a note on the bottom of my bank statement. I would guess the councils don’t know about the $40 in the back pockets.
So grudz, are the GOP Party tariffs hurting SD’s economy, or are they not?