Two bills aiming to boost improvements at Ellsworth Air Force Base saw different fates on the Senate floor.
Advocates say it means at least some state support for Ellsworth is coming.
The surviving bills is SB 6, a bill to create a capital infrastructure fund for the base to improve necessities as it prepares to house the next generation of American stealth bombers – the B-21.
It was brought by Rapid City Republican Sen. Helene Duhamel.
“We’re so close to the end, and it’s really hard to know until you get to the floor if you have enough support to move something across," Duhamel said. "Clearly in the Senate, we had enough support we could have gone for a higher two-thirds standard, but we weren’t sure that was possible in the House. So, we went with a really safe solution, and it gives some opportunity to do lots of these other things that go with hosting a base and the growing pains.”
Growing pains like supporting local school districts, upgrading water and sewer lines, and repairing roads getting chewed up by heavy construction traffic.
For Duhamel, these investments are worth it because the base is a meaningful state asset.
“All the sales and excise taxes on $2 billion of construction is going to the state, not the local economy because its federal property," Duhamel said. "I’ve been arguing for years, why isn’t the Governor’s Office of Economic Development helping us? If any business came and dangled 1,600 jobs and $2 billion of construction, we’d move mountains and give them every incentive.”
The other bill, SB 16, would have set aside an excise tax and created a fund explicitly for Ellsworth improvement projects.
That bill, brought by Rapid City Republican Sen. Taffy Howard, was seen as a bridge too far and was killed in debate.
SB 6 is due to be heard in House committee next.