Appropriations committee rejects effort to strip added SDPB funding, approves BIT budget

The Joint Committee on Appropriations rejected a bid to remove a $296,000 increase for South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB) on March 3, then approved the Bureau of Information and Technology (BIT) budget that included the increase.

Representative Sam Nordstrom moved to set the BIT budgets at levels shown on the motion sheet, which included a $296,000 line-item increase for SDPB atop an existing amount cited in debate as about $5.6 million. Senator Carly offered a substitute motion to deselect that line item, saying county officials had urged the committee not to increase SDPB—s funding. "We received on our, on our desktops today a letter from 30 executive boards from counties all over South Dakota, alerting us to the fact that SDPB should not receive more than the $5,600,000 they already receive," Senator Carly said.

Senator Carly also told the panel the federal government had cut some public-broadcasting funding and argued the state should not add to SDPB's allotment. "So I don't think we need to increase their budget," Carly said, urging committee members to support the substitute motion.

Supporters of the original motion pushed back. Representative Nordstrom asked the committee to "resist the substitute motion with a no vote and move on." Representative Muckey said the additional funding helps preserve "open government" services and noted prior fund swaps that reduced other supports; "this will help us make sure that we're maintaining open government going forward for our state," Muckey said. Representative Jorgensen said late delivery of a letter felt like an ambush and objected to last-minute process changes.

Senator Howard urged colleagues to support the substitute motion arguing there had been prior federal action against some public broadcasting funding, saying, "there is a reason that President Trump took away some federal funding from, in, public broadcasting." The committee debated procedural and policy points before the roll calls.

The substitute motion to deselect the SDPB line item failed on roll call, 5 yeas to 13 nays. The committee then voted on the original BIT motion, which passed 16 yeas to 2 nays.

The BIT budget vote settled funding for enterprise platforms, infrastructure, support services and SDPB for the coming fiscal term; the committee did not take public testimony on the substitute motion. The committee moved on to the governor's office budget later in the morning.