South Dakota state government will not get as much from the American Rescue Plan as it did from last year’s CARES Act. While we got $1.25 billion in coronavirus relief money last year, the ARP will only pour $974 million into our state coffers, just a half a percentage point of the $195.3 billion in total direct aid to states in this year’s big pandemic relief and stimulus package.
Now don’t go thinking President Biden is shorting South Dakota. Every state gets $500 million, and the additional payments are based on the number of unemployed workers in each state. And the state getting the least from ARP, $925 million, is President Biden’s home state of Delaware.
But hang in there, South Dakota socialists (and that means all of us South Dakotans). We’ll get over the billion mark again thanks to another $171.8 million in direct aid to counties, just 0.26% of the $65.1 billion ARP allocates to counties nationwide. If the Legislature doesn’t find a way to skinflinterize them again, every county in South Dakota, from Minnehaha at $37.5 million to Jones at $175,397, will get some extra money to maintain county services and boost their local economies:
| County | ARP direct aid |
| Aurora | $534,349 |
| Beadle | $3,584,279 |
| Bennett | $653,612 |
| Bon Homme | $1,340,438 |
| Brookings | $6,813,296 |
| Brown | $7,544,020 |
| Brule | $1,028,880 |
| Buffalo | $381,095 |
| Butte | $2,025,711 |
| Campbell | $267,272 |
| Charles Mix | $1,804,862 |
| Clark | $725,674 |
| Clay | $2,732,933 |
| Codington | $5,440,420 |
| Corson | $793,658 |
| Custer | $1,742,706 |
| Davison | $3,841,062 |
| Day | $1,053,548 |
| Deuel | $845,131 |
| Dewey | $1,144,452 |
| Douglas | $567,370 |
| Edmunds | $743,738 |
| Fall River | $1,303,922 |
| Faulk | $446,554 |
| Grant | $1,369,768 |
| Gregory | $812,887 |
| Haakon | $368,858 |
| Hamlin | $1,197,285 |
| Hand | $619,814 |
| Hanson | $670,705 |
| Harding | $252,121 |
| Hughes | $3,404,220 |
| Hutchinson | $1,416,191 |
| Hyde | $252,704 |
| Jackson | $649,533 |
| Jerauld | $391,002 |
| Jones | $175,397 |
| Kingsbury | $959,343 |
| Lake | $2,485,667 |
| Lawrence | $5,019,894 |
| Lincoln | $11,873,397 |
| Lyman | $734,415 |
| Marshall | $958,566 |
| McCook | $1,085,015 |
| McPherson | $462,093 |
| Meade | $5,503,159 |
| Mellette | $400,325 |
| Miner | $430,432 |
| Minnehaha | $37,514,015 |
| Moody | $1,277,311 |
| Oglala Lakota | $2,753,716 |
| Pennington | $22,099,460 |
| Perkins | $556,493 |
| Potter | $418,195 |
| Roberts | $2,018,913 |
| Sanborn | $455,295 |
| Spink | $1,238,463 |
| Stanley | $601,750 |
| Sully | $270,185 |
| Todd | $1,976,763 |
| Tripp | $1,056,850 |
| Turner | $1,628,494 |
| Union | $3,094,604 |
| Walworth | $1,055,685 |
| Yankton | $4,431,352 |
| Ziebach | $535,321 |
The Bureau of Finance and Management doesn’t have a table up yet breaking down how much direct aid South Dakota towns will get from the $45.6 billion the American Rescue Plan sets aside for metro governments.
But we know government assistance is bad for South Dakota, so the Republicans in Pierre will surely tell Governor Noem to send all that socialist money back, right?
From what I understand the counties will get half this year and the other half next year.
I’m not sure if the counties know yet what the money can be spent on.
Well you know, it could be like the end of Chistmas for Shacktown, that wonderful Carl Barks story where the boys were trying to raise fifty bucks for a party for the kids of Shacktown. They used their toy train to back into a hole in a cave that was connected to Uncle Scrooge’s money bin which had fallen into a deep hole just above quicksand. Uncle Scrooge heard it fill with money and gave it to the boys and fainted when it came out with thousands of dollars. It was a great party for the poor kids of Shacktown. Hyde County get a quarter of a million dollars. The alumni party at next year’s Old Settlers Day would be a great place for it.
well…its a good time to be in the culvert business.