Bill Harlan, Journal staff

PIERRE - The Senate passed two bills that would give $3 million in one-time money to technical schools like Western Dakota Technical Institute.

The House passed the measures earlier this month, and now they go to Gov. Mike Rounds.

HB1226 provides $2 million to the tech schools, which includes:

• $800,000 to continue one-time funding from last year. "That basically keeps them even," Sen. Jerry Apa, R-Lead, said.
• $600,000 to $700,000 to increase salaries 3 percent. "They been below inflation fo the past two years," Apa said.
• $500,000 for new and replacement equipment and other "program enhancements."

HB1227 provides $1 million for maintenance and repair of buildings. Apa said tech schools were "several years behind" in building repairs.

The one-time spending bills come after the failure of a proposal that would have set up permanent funds that would have provided a dedicated funding source for the tech schools. The funds, supporters say, would have made budgets easier to predict, and schools could have responded faster to requests from industry.

However, Gov. Mike Rounds did not support that idea, and even some supporters of the measures opposed a provision to use the state's economic development Future Fund to pay for one of the funds.

Apa said the tech schools received $83 million during the five-year period that ended in 2003. If the tech schools had received 3 percent raises over the past five years, he said, they would have received $96.3 million, rather than the $89 million the did get. "They're behind the eight ball by $7 million," he said.

Apa said tech schools were vital to the state's economic future. One engineer from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, he said, needs support from 10 technically skilled workers. "Where do those workers come from?" he asked. "They come from our technical schools."

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com