Tuesday,  March 11, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 238 • 24 of 35

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• "It's going to come down to making changes in the governor's proposed budget in order to fund the Legislature's priorities," Peters said.
• School districts and facilities that provide health care to low-income people through Medicaid hope lawmakers will give them more money than Daugaard has proposed. Peters noted that those two areas are still legislative priorities.
• Terwilliger said state sales tax collections are expected to total $848.4 million next year, up more than 1.5 percent from December's projections.
• However, the bank franchise tax will likely bring in $8.7 million next year, far below the $17.5 million the governor had projected in December. That's because Daugaard decided not to introduce a bill that would have increased collections of the bank income tax, Terwilliger said.
• The Legislature is in the process of passing a different bill expected to stabilize the bank tax at about $8 million or so a year.
• South Dakota also saw this year a one-time windfall from unclaimed property, which comes from bank accounts and other financial holdings turned over to the state when owners cannot be found. Daugaard's proposed budget had predicted ongoing unclaimed property receipts would be $67.5 million next year, but further analysis indicates that will fall to about $60 million, Terwilliger said.
• Terwilliger said IHS Global Insight, which helps the state predict national economic trends, expects the U.S. economy most likely will grow by 2.7 percent this year and 3.3 percent next year. That translates into a 1.5 percent growth in South Dakota's jobs this year and a 1.7 percent growth next year, he said. South Dakota's nonfarm income is predicted to grow by about 5 percent both this year and next.
• South Dakota's economy benefited in recent years when farmers received high prices for crops, Terwilliger said. That trend has ended, but livestock prices are now high, he said.
• Lawmakers asked whether the early October blizzard that killed tens of thousands of cattle in western South Dakota would hurt the state's economy, but Terwilliger said the loss of 25,000 to 30,000 head of cattle is a small part of the $4 billion net farm income -- just $65 million.

SD panel OKs background checks for economic agency

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota House State Affairs Committee has passed a bill to require background checks of officers and employees of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
• Representatives voted unanimously Monday to support the measure.
• An amendment introduced in the committee hearing replaced the entire content

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