South Dakota governor calls special legislative session

May 28, 2013

By Jennifer Springer

PIERRE, South Dakota: Governor Dennis Daugaard has issued a call for a special session of the legislature in June 2013. Lawmakers will be asked to approve more money needed for construction of a new veterans home in Hot Springs.

The Legislature earlier this year approved a bill authorizing the spending of $41.3 million in state and federal money to build the new home. However, when bids from contractors were opened recently, the lowest bid was considerably above projections, which will lead to a total project cost of $51.3 million.

Daugaard says he's disappointed with the project architect, but the extra $10 million must be spent to build a quality facility.

Daugaard says that as the state approaches the end of its fiscal year on June 30, it is anticipating tax revenues to be $7-to-$10 million higher than projected and state expenses to be a similar amount below what was forecast. “Normally, those excess funds would go into reserves automatically. Instead, I will be asking the legislature to appropriate a portion of those funds to make up the gap for the construction of the Veterans Home.”

Daugaard said that he is calling the special session in June to hopefully gain approval so that the entire 2013 construction season will not be lost. The special session is set for Saturday, June 22nd in Pierre.

See also

• South Dakota
• South Dakota Legislature
• Gov. Dennis Daugaard

External links

• News: Rapid City Journal, "Daugaard calls for special session"
• News: WNAX.com, "Special Session To Be Held" (dead link)
• News: Rapid City Journal, "SD governor calling special legislative session for Hot Springs Veterans Home"
• News: KDLT.com, "SD Governor Calling Special Legislative Session"