This rumor is coming straight out of Pierre today from an extremely reliable source, and it’s not going to be a very welcome message to State Employees.

What I’m hearing is that even with Obama’s bailout, the budget situation at South Dakota State Government is troublesome enough that state employee pay raises are a major items again on the chopping block, and it looks as if state employees will go a second year without a pay raise.

In addition, it looks as if the Governor is also rumored to be proposing to reinstate the same cuts that were flirted with this last year,  such as Birth to 3, and School for the deaf. Of course, with School for the Deaf involved in a lawsuit over it’s mission under the constitution, and B to 3 having a very, very organized constituency, those aren’t the low hanging fruit they once were.

So, as opposed to an across the board departmental budget cut (which is needed), it sounds as if they’re going to pick and choose favorites as they did this past year.

Considering what happened last year – good luck with that.

Of course,  stay tuned to see if any of this holds true.

But as I said – No raises for 2 in a row, and cherry picked budget targets is what I’m hearing.

And in the face of our government spending reality versus reduced income, Obama’s bailout just wasn’t enough.