Chairman’s Note: Governor Daugaard released his proposed budget this week, and already Republicans are taking credit for last year’s cuts. “Today, I was a lot more comfortable being able to say, we were right,” said Senate Majority Leader Russ Olson (R-Wentworth). “I don’t want to be a sore winner, but we were right.” If Olson claims victory on behalf of Republican leaders, our schools, hospitals, and nursing homes were the losers. Republicans entirely disregarded our school funding formula for two years, for example, and now want praise for just meeting the state’s bare minimum obligations to education. That’s praise they won’t get from South Dakota families still suffering from $127 million in unnecessary cuts from last year.
