By The South Dakota House of Representatives has approved a bill that would soften proposed budget cuts to the South Dakota State Library.
That action came by a 61-8 vote on Monday, March 3 at the Capitol in Pierre. All six Aberdeen area lawmakers supported the measure.
South Dakota’s main legislative budget committee initially took some of the sting out of the proposed cuts on Thursday, Feb. 27, though library advocates claim it still goes too far.
The Joint Committee on Appropriations endorsed House Bill 1041 in a 16-2 vote.
The original proposal would have cut $1 million in state funds from the South Dakota State Library, cut the state Department of Education’s ability to seek $1.4 million in federal funding for the library and laid off a dozen employees. Former Gov. Kristi Noem proposed the budget cuts during her December budget address in response to lower-than-anticipated revenues and rising Medicaid costs.
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The changes made Thursday would rescue most of the programs that were proposed to be cut, said South Dakota Department of Education Secretary Joseph Graves, including most databases, access to interlibrary loans and “adequate personnel to provide for the training and the promotion of the summer reading programs.”
From left: Sen. Ernie Otten, R-Tea; Rep. Mike Derby, R-Rapid City; and Sen. Mark Lapka, R-Leola, listen to a budgetary brief in Pierre on Jan. 14, 2025. South Dakota Searchlight photo by Joshua Haiar.
The department’s ability to seek $1.4 million in federal funding would also be reinstated to help “make the difference” in cuts at the state level, Graves said. The actual budget cuts are not in HB 1041, since they’re embedded in the state’s general appropriations bill.
The legislation dissolves the South Dakota State Library Board with plans to cut about $825,000 in the library’s budget and three and a half full-time positions. The library would retain “standard oversight” by the library director and the Education Department, Graves said. He told lawmakers earlier in the week the changes would cut four databases made available through the state library to public libraries across the state, including Ancestry Library, Fold3, HeritageQuest and Swank.
The library will be able to keep a total of 17 full-time positions, said Rep. Terri Jorgenson, R-Rapid City. The library currently has 21 employees.
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Jorgenson, who worked on the changes with the state Department of Education, said they are a “way for us to save our state library.”
Muckey said that statement is “half true” in an interview with South Dakota Searchlight after the meeting.
“I simply just want the bill dead so we can restore all the funding back,” he said.
Aberdeen-area legislators, Rep. Al Novstrup, R-Aberdeen, and Sen. Mark Lapka, R-Leola, both endorsed that plan.
South Dakota Searchlight’s Joshua Haiar contributed to this report.