Governor Kristi Noem has issued an executive order to merge two state departments - Agriculture and Energy and Natural Resources - into one agency. The new organization will “promote agriculture and preserve natural resources.”
Hunter Roberts is the DENR Secretary and Interim Ag Secretary. He supports merging the two departments and says that would create more efficient operations. Roberts points to an example of streamlined regulations.
“If I’m going out to a dairy to inspect them for health issues, dairies get inspected twice a year by the Department of Agriculture. One of those times, we’re going to have a cross-trained member of our team to inspect them also for their outside inspection on the feedlot side of things.”
Roberts says cross-training inspectors can create a bigger presence across the state and limit interactions with farmers and ranchers to two times a year.
The proposal eliminates at least five full-time positions between the departments.
Roberts says the merger would save money, but it’s unclear how much. He says department budgets would also merge.
“They’ll be officially merged when the new fiscal year starts on July 1.”
The 2021 fiscal budget shows the Department of Agriculture had allocated $47.5 million. The DENR budget totaled $25.9 million. The combined agency budget would have roughly $73 million.
If the legislature does not take any action within 90 days, the merger will go through under the executive order.
-Contact SDPB reporter John Nguyen by email.