South Dakota
Work for benefits question to appear on South Dakota ballot
State Capitol in Pierre
PIERRE, SD. – South Dakota voters will decide this fall whether the state can impose work requirements on certain low-income people receiving Medicaid health care coverage, which would modify the program expansion voters approved in 2022.
The Republican-controlled Legislature has put the measure on the November ballot, with the state House approving the resolution in a 63-7 vote on Tuesday. The Senate previously adopted it, 28-4.
South Dakota Republican lawmakers want to add a work requirement for adults who are not physically or mentally disabled but who are eligible for Medicaid under the expansion of the government-sponsored program that voters approved in 2022 under a ballot initiative. The change, which took effect last summer, greatly increased the number of people in the state who qualify for Medicaid.
Even if voters approve the measure, the federal government will have to sign off on a work requirement.
The expansion was previously opposed by both Republican Gov. Kristi Noem and the GOP-controlled Legislature, which defeated a proposed Medicaid expansion earlier in 2022.
The 2022 constitutional amendment expanded Medicaid eligibility to people who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level, which the state Department of Social Services says is up to $41,400 for a family of four.
Republican Rep. Tony Venhuizen, a prime sponsor of the work requirement measure, described it as a “clarifying question” for voters on a specific point.
“When you listen to the opposition on this, you hear people who very clearly want people to go on Medicaid expansion and stay on it for a long period of time as their plan for health care, and I just don’t think that’s the purpose of social programs in South Dakota. We want to give people a hand up to a better life,” Venhuizen said.
Details of and exemptions from the work requirement are “like step 10,” he told a House panel Monday during a hearing for the resolution. “What we’re talking about today is step one.”
Supporters also have pointed out that other assistance programs, such as food benefits, have work requirements.
Opponents have said a work requirement would be unnecessary, ineffective and against the will of voters in 2022. South Dakota has a 2% unemployment rate, behind only Maryland and North Dakota, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in January.
“Who is not working? Who is on Medicaid and is not working? And I can answer that for you, it’s the poorest of the poor,” said Democratic Rep. Kadyn Wittman, who called the measure’s consideration “deeply offensive to every individual that voted yes” for Medicaid expansion in 2022.
The expanded eligibility took effect July 1, 2023. Nearly 20,000 people have since enrolled. More people are expected to enroll. The department estimated 52,000 new people would qualify for Medicaid expansion when it opened.
South Dakota
Republican businessman Toby Doeden advances to primary runoff in South Dakota governor’s race
Republican businessman Toby Doeden has advanced to a runoff in South Dakota governor’s race, NBC News projects.
Gov. Larry Rhoden, who replaced Kristi Noem last year when President Donald Trump nominated her to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was battling with Rep. Dusty Johnson and former state House Speaker Jon Hansen for a second spot in the July 28 runoff. The primary will go to a runoff because no candidate eclipsed 35% of the vote.
Trump did not issue an endorsement in the race. Doeden branded himself on his campaign website as “a total political outsider who’s tired of the government’s failure to deliver on its promises” and one of Trump’s “fiercest supporters.”
Rhoden, a former lieutenant governor, agriculture secretary and lawmaker, campaigned on property tax cuts and lowering crime in his bid for a four-year term.
Johnson is the state’s lone representative in the House, where he previously was chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus. Hansen, who was elected to the South Dakota House in 2010, held several leadership positions before he became speaker.
The Republican nominee will be the favorite to win the general election in the solidly red state this fall. A Democrat has not served as governor in South Dakota since the 1970s, and Trump carried the state by 29 points in 2024.
News
Agronomist: eastern South Dakota crops hit and miss
An agronomist in eastern South Dakota says corn and soybeans are hit and miss as the growing season begins.
Steven Zemlicka with AgTegra Cooperative tells Brownfield, “We’ve got corn anywhere from V1 all the way up to V4. Biggest stuff’s maybe touching V5. Corn’s coming right along, looks pretty good. A little bit of hail here too, but I don’t think it’s going to be much of an issue. Stands for the most part are pretty good, pretty solid.”
Zemlicka says soybean emergence has been slow due to the wet, cool conditions, and there are a few fields that still need planted.
“People were still working on planting soybeans when we got the recent rain.”
He says recent rain totals ranged from a half inch to as much as four inches in the northeast part of South Dakota; the southern part of the state has been drier.
South Dakota’s corn is rated 61 percent good to excellent, with soybean conditions rated 57 percent good to excellent, according to USDA’s first condition ratings of the season.
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – The South Dakota Community Foundation is encouraging nonprofits to apply for funding this June.
Beth Massa and Ginger Niemann joined us live with what you need to know before applying.
Watch the full interview above.
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