(Continued from page 20)

provide money in the long term, he said.
• House Democratic Leader Bernie Hunhoff of Yankton said the Republican governor's speech failed to address the state's top issue of adequately funding schools.
• "I was hopeful with the rosy revenue estimates and hundreds of million in reserve funds, we could come up with a bipartisan approach to help the school districts catch up to some kind of normal level of funding," Hunhoff said.
• Senate Republican Leader Russell Olson of Wentworth said many people will propose ideas for spending the uncommitted $26 million.
• "I do promise you that out of that one-time money, there will be investments in education," Olson said. But he added such spending might not include state aid to school districts.
• Sandy Arseneault, president of the South Dakota Education Association, said the teachers union is pleased that education funding is increasing again after the earlier cuts, but education groups need to come up with a long-term plan for funding public schools.
• Under Daugaard's plan, state aid to school districts would rise by 3 percent next year under a state law that calls for that aid to increase each year by the rate of inflation up to a maximum of 3 percent. Reimbursements to hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities that provide services to poor people under the Medicaid program also would increase 3 percent, and the university system would get a 3.2 percent boost.
• The governor proposed 3 percent pay hikes for state employees in July, with employees earning below the midpoint of salary ranges for their jobs getting an extra 3.5 percent.
• Daugaard also proposed adding $16.5 million to the current year's state budget, including $7.9 million for the state employees' health insurance plan, $5 million to cover incentives offered to attract two companies to the state before voters in November rejected the law allowing such payments, and $2.6 million for a new state program aimed at reducing the prison population by treating more nonviolent convicts outside prison walls.
• He said he also plans to submit a special spending measure that would authorize the use of $1.3 million in state funds, $23.6 million in federal money and $14.8 million in state bonding to build a new state veterans home in Hot Springs.
• Other special spending bills would pay the state's share of fighting forest fires last summer, build facilities at the new Blood Run State Park, and finance efforts to curb the spread of mountain pine beetles in the Black Hills.
• Daugaard devoted a big part of his speech to describing how federal budget

(Continued on page 22)