State budget officials are advising the legislative committee that oversees South Dakota’s finances that sweeping cuts at the federal level are going to impact the state’s bottom line.
New policy from a new presidential administration means adjustments at the state level every time, but that’s particularly true considering the unprecedented budget cuts from the White House now.
Brandy Miesner is the chief budget analyst for the state Bureau of Finance and Management. She presented to the interim appropriations committee.
“The state has been very cautious of the sustainability of federal funds in the past, which is one of the reasons why we’ve chosen to reject some federal funds in previous years,” Miesner said.
She offered the perspective of the state’s administration – there will be cuts looming.
“Whether the state should provide subsidies of the loss of these federal funds, we must weight the potential solution against its potential impact on our investment in other core areas of the state," Miesner said. "Our goal should not be to subsidize every single federal funding cut because we have to carefully consider the impact each grant has on South Dakotans on a case-by-case basis. It would be unfeasible for us to maintain our core responsibilities like education, community support providers and others while simultaneously subsidizing every federal grant.”
There are myriad contracts the state will have to consider after grants were rescinded that touch all corners of government. For example, the Department of Health faces three separate, yet significant, cuts.
For this one state department, grants orbiting health disparity, childhood vaccination, and laboratory capacity for infectious diseases have been slashed.
This comes amid a major measles outbreak across the nation that has touched nearly all of South Dakota’s neighbors.