2020 S.D. Legislature: SD Legislature to meet in special session
The special session for allocation of the CARES Act funds is set to begin next week. Our Legislative members along with our Legislative Research Council staff have been putting in hundreds of hours in preparation for this opportunity to help South Dakotans.
It remains to be seen as to whether we can match the use of these federal dollars with all of the requests and creative ideas that we have heard. We have received information about the more immediate needs of some organizations and businesses. The quick example of a need that should be met is in regard to the community support providers for those with special needs. Those organizations incurred increased expenses and obligations due to the need to distance and quarantine the people they serve.
Other businesses found that they either had no outlet for the products they produced or they couldn’t find the necessary raw materials or they did not have enough available employees. For many the task of rehiring, retraining, and rebuilding their businesses now begins. Our goal must be to ensure that those who are the real revenue generators are assisted within the confines of the CARES Act. Those who are creating jobs and opportunities will be the ones who fund all of the rest of state and local government.
The challenge we are facing is to create a workable and an equitable formula for disbursement of these funds. We did have a relatively smaller state fund this spring that was approximately $10.5 million. The state agency that was tasked with distributing those funds tells me that there were approximately 500 requests from businesses and only about 200 received funding. That was due, in part, by the qualifications of the business and, in part, due to the limited funds. Now, we are in a much different situation with these hundreds of millions of federal dollars.
So, that is the task that I see before the Legislature. I do hope that the Governor’s proclamation in regard to the special session grants us the latitude to do what is needed in the best interests of South Dakota. As of this writing, we have only been told that there is to be a special session, but we have not seen the parameters of that proclamation. Our Constitution does allow the Legislature to also call ourselves into special session. I believe the House of Representatives would take that step if the Governor’s proclamation does not have enough authority to allow your elected representatives to do the work that is needed. We would also need the cooperation of the Senate to make that happen.
In preparation for this special session we are continuing to assess the overall personal impact and business impact. Even though we will not be able to meet everyone’s wants or needs, the good thing is that we are now aware of some of our societal and business weaknesses. We have also been made aware of new business opportunities that could yield some tremendous gains for South Dakota. I have mentioned before the likelihood that businesses will develop to do more final processing of grains and livestock. That has the high potential for keeping our young people here to use their talents and live out their dreams.
I also want to encourage everyone to remember that the original goal of government intervention in our lives, as it relates to this virus, was to “manage” the risk. It is fine to personally try to “avoid the risk”, but in that mix it is vitally important to recognize the ongoing “assessment of the risk”. Part of that “assessment” is to recognize the impact of modifying all that we do. Some have been unable to access their mental healthcare and some have been unable to access their physical healthcare. So, there are tradeoffs and we want to keep that in mind as we make our decisions and plans going forward, whether that is in regard to the workplace, employment decisions, education, or healthcare settings.
Please keep in touch as we move into this special session. Our goal remains to move funding to those places where those dollars will do the most long-term good for all the citizens of the state. As I have said before, the goal of the CARES Act was to help citizens survive the impact as opposed to just ensuring full funding for government and special interests.
Please go to www.sdlegislature.gov for a listing of upcoming meetings and other information about the special session. As usual, please keep in touch with any concerns or recommendations you have. You can contact me at steven.haugaard@sdlegislature.gov
