SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The South Dakota Board of Regents is facing a potential $10 million budget cut if Gov. Kristi Noem’s recommended budget is taken up by the state legislature.
“We had the Governor’s annual budget address last week — honestly it wasn’t terribly positive, but also not surprising,” said SD BoR Executive Director Nathan Lukkes. “We knew revenues were down — it was gonna be a tight fiscal year for the state and that was certainly reflected in the Governor’s budget address.”
That fiscal tightness is manifesting as a difference of nearly $30 million between the BoR’s requested budget and the governor’s recommended budget, with the former coming in at $337,077,230 and the latter at $308,507,996.
Lukkes noted as well that the BoR will continue working to get their goals accomplished throughout the legislative session.
The largest hit to the BoR budget could come in a reduction of $9 million from maintenance and repair funding.
The BoR requested $7.4 million for maintenance and repair, but could wind up getting none of it and still needing to shave more off.
Noem also recommends a $2 million reduction in the BoR general fund and the dissolution of the Dakota Digital Network, which would cut $400,000 from the budget as well.
BoR requests for funding for academic building insurance, cybersecurity technology funding and a tuition inflationary buy-down are also given a pass by Noem, who recommends no funding for any of the three programs.
KELOLAND News has reached out to the BoR asking how such budget cuts would impact the state’s university system.
