PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem is highly critical of Congress for, so far, refusing to allow states to use COVID-19 relief money to cover revenue losses.
“They don’t want me to replace revenue loss. What they want me to do is go out and create a bunch of new government programs,” that’s not a conservative approach, says Noem.
Noem warns of widespread cuts if South Dakota doesn’t get federal help to make up for dramatic drops in sales taxes and other revenue due to the economic impact of the coronavirus.
“Let me use it to replace revenue loss so I don’t have to cut teachers, I don’t have to cut education, so I don’t have to stop funding my highway programs and keeping snowplows out there this winter when we need it, and so I don’t have to cut nursing homes.”
Some critics of the approach favored by Noem say it amounts to a “bailout.”
Congress and the Trump Administration have approved trillions in COVID-19 relief for individuals, small businesses, hospitals, and the like, but no direct relief for state budgets struggling with dramatic drops in revenue.
