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South Dakota More Reliant Than Neighbors on Federal Funds

But Feds Smallest Component of SD Government Jobs

Mr. Epp notes that South Dakota depends on federal funding more than any neighboring state. From 2008 to 2011, the percentage of South Dakota's budget covered by federal funds during increased from 36.2% in 2008 to 44.9% in 2011. Governor Dennis Daugaard's proposed FY2015 budget brings that percentage back down to 39.7%. Yay, self-reliance!

Mr. Epp also notes that from 2007 to 2012, saw one of the largest increases in state and local government employment. Here are full-time equivalent government positions for 2007 and 2012, state and local, from the Census Bureau, compared with federal jobs for those years as counted by the South Dakota Department of Labor:

2007 2012 change
state FTEs 13,897 14,971 7.7%
local FTEs 29,524 30,677 3.9%
federal jobs 11,079 11,449 3.3%

Even including the Daugaardian austerity of FY2012, state government employment grew at twice the rate of local government employment. The Rounds-Daugaard administrations grew state government employment even faster than the number of feds stationed in South Dakota. Yay, smaller government!

At the end of FY2012, there were about 426,000 jobs in South Dakota. Comparing jobs and FTEs is a little apple-and-orangey, but the 57,097 government jobs and FTEs listed above constitute 13.4% of that workforce. So a little more than one in eight of your South Dakota neighbors put food on the table by teaching, policing, managing your sewer, issuing your license plates, studying the weather, or carrying out other government functions.

11 Comments

  1. Jenny 2014.03.12

    Oh, but don't you know, it's the Indians that make us so poor and have to rely on federal funding. Those lazy Indians just won't work. That's really the main reason why we look bad as a welfare state.

  2. larry kurtz 2014.03.12

    The texting ban bill is back: how much federal money would passing it bring to the state?

  3. mike from iowa 2014.03.12

    I believe if you check both parties occupation of the WH,you will find, historically, that wingnuts grow the public sector more than Libs. In some cases substantially more. If I remember correctly,dumb bass dubya created more public sector jobs than private sector jobs. So much for smaller gubmint.BTW-Tax and spend Libs create more jobs than cut taxes and spend wingnuts. Clinton is the job creating champion going back to Ike.

  4. Lanny V Stricherz 2014.03.12

    Other than the Governor's son and son-in-law, it would be interesting to see where those new State government jobs came from, so that we can judge whether or not we are getting our money's worth.

  5. rick 2014.03.12

    Thune's job-killing agenda will cut federal support for South Dakota. He can't serve two masters: The GOP Leadership in D.C. or South Dakota's economy. Thune and Noem are part of the wrecking crew in Washington. This year, send Noem home. In 2016, replace Thune in the Senate so he can continue his lucrative lobbying business.

  6. Merlyn Schutterle 2014.03.12

    Seems like I remember Thune was just a country kid from Murdo, but now he is a millionaire politician. Don't tell me there isn't money in politics. They all come out with plenty of loot.

  7. Lanny V Stricherz 2014.03.12

    They sure do, Merlyn. There is an interesting article in the Nation about Tom Daschle the Shadow lobbyist. Another article there talks about Chris Dodd, the US Senator from Connecticut, who was one of the Democrats running for President in 2008. He would never be a lobbyist, but made 3.3 million as one in his second year as a lobbyist. Then of course there is Billy Tauzin, the former Congressman from Louisiana, who was instrumental in passage of Medicare Part D. He immediately went to work for big Pharma for pay in the millions, culminating with his work for Pharma in passage of the Affordable Care Act, for which he was paid 11.6 million in 2010.

    And to think that, when I was young, they got paid 25k a year as legislators and were not owned by corporate America while serving and working for Corporate America at these exorbitant salaries afterwards. .

  8. John 2014.03.13

    It's a republican disease - take more and more. The upper crust republicans running my homeowners association act like they have to raise rates nearly annually. Smaller government, less taxes starts at home.

  9. mike from iowa 2014.03.13

    Until 2012,congress could use inside stock tips to make lots of money. Laws were passed to shut down insider trading for congress and a year later,the new laws were rolled back. Congress,it seems,can find all kinds of reasons to prevent their information from being publicized. Ordinary citizens-forget it.

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