State of the State quick hits

By David Montgomery
Published/Last Modified on Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010 - 01:14:17 pm CST

Quick hits about Gov. Rounds' State of the State address beginning now:

• He'll do a bullet-point review of — shocker — the current state of South Dakota, tossing out numbers and statistics about unemployment and Medicaid enrollment, among others

• The 2010 initiative will get a fair amount of talk

• Rounds will directly challenge some of his critics about the growth of state full-time equivalents. Much of this growth, the governor will say, is due to expanded enrollment in the university system. "If you're going to have young people enrolling in universities, you better have the people to teach them," he said. "We're not going to let (critics) get away with simply whining about it. ... I don't think they're going to want to eliminate the FTEs at universities."

• He'll mention one possible budget respite for the state — a federal proposal to increase the federal Medicaid payment to states. This still-tentative proposal, Rounds will say, could mean more than $35 million for the state. That's more than the projected structural deficit for this year that Rounds is proposing to fill from the Property Tax Reduction Fund. This may not come to pass, so Rounds is proposing structuring the budget with a fallback — to draw on the federal money if it's available, or on the PTRF if the federal money is not available. "It should not be counted on by this legislature, and I will make it very clear that it cannot be used for new ongoing spending in any category," Rounds said.

• 20 years ago Gov. Mickelson declared a "year of reconciliation." Rounds is proposing a commemoration of that this year.

• A big emphasis throughout the speech will be on university education, and in particular post-graduate education. One of Rounds' few new proposals this year is a call for a doctorate program in physics to dovetail with the Homestake science lab.

• Expect to hear the words "quality of life" a lot

• Rounds will close, as always, with a salute to veterans. He'll also talk about the recent memorials to World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and the prospect for a memorial for the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan

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