It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that some people see a glass as half full while others see the same glass half empty. When it comes to measuring the output of the South Dakota Legislature it is popular for those who owe their livelihoods or their budgets to that Legislature to criticize the work of our citizen legislators and lament any gap between their requests for special interest funding and the portion of the pie ultimately allocated to them.

But, objectively, it's hard to see how the 2007 Session of the Legislature can be seen as anything but a great success.

In the first week of the session, House and Senate Republicans laid out a five-point agenda that set the benchmarks for the session. The program called for:

1. $45 million in new money over the next five years for K-12 education.

2. $45 million in new money over the next five years in property tax relief.

3. $45 million in new money over the next five years for health care.

4. Comprehensive campaign finance reform.

5. Passage of a balanced budget with no withdrawal from the rainy day funds.

The 2007 Legislature successfully passed bills accomplishing each of these five objectives.

K-12 education received $14 million in new money, above and beyond the $17 million budgeted for the 3 percent statutory increase. Those funds are distributed across several important areas - $4 million in additional general funds with no strings attached, $1.7 million for cooperative programs through the regional education service agencies, $1.5 million for high school career and technical education, $4 million to address and increase teacher pay and the balance for additional funds required to implement recommendations resulting from the two-year Task Force Study.

This represents a total budget increase of $34.5 million for the largest one-year increase in K-12 education funding in the state's history. And unlike most years, that was done almost entirely from state funds, not increasing local property taxes.

The resulting funding level for 2008 will be a minimum of $4,528.80 per student or $113,220 for each class of 25 students. That is a 3.76 percent increase over last year. That is before inclusion of a further $33 per student available through the Teacher's Compensation Assistance Program (T-CAP). All of this year's funding increase is ongoing and will carry on into future years.

Property tax relief was in the form of immediate reductions in property tax levies for all classifications, including commercial property taxpayers. This contributed to a 10.5-percent decrease in mill levies statewide.

$9 million from the Health Care Tobacco Tax Fund filled a gap resulting from a reduction in the portion of Medicaid funding provided by the federal government.

Campaign Finance Reform addressed some gaps in the laws and greatly increased the transparency and reporting requirements for candidates so voters know where campaign money is coming from and judge if that money represents a threat to the independence of their legislator or other office holder.

Achieving a balanced budget without depleting the rainy day fund means lawmakers continue to manage the public purse responsibly while protecting the $137 million in "rainy day" budget reserves. In comparison to a total state budget of $3.3 billion the $137 million "rainy day" funds represent less than 4.15 percent in unrestricted reserves to cover a short-term financial hiccup or natural disaster response without raising taxes. (School districts may maintain reserves of up to 25 percent of their annual budget without penalty.)

Other accomplishments:

Major progress was made in addressing restructuring in our property tax assessment process. With further work over the interim it can be anticipated that next year will be the year that a dozen years of effort will result in an updated, more fair system of distributing the tax burden across all classes of property.

We laid the groundwork and had preliminary debate on important issues that will be worked on over the summer and will return for consideration next year. It's hard to imagine that 105 public servants could accomplish more in 40 days but there is more beyond these highlights.

Some people are content to stand on the sidelines and criticize those responsible for making real changes and moving the state forward, while others resort to personal attacks in hopes of scoring political points. The House Republicans have dedicated themselves to provide effective and responsible leadership in state government. We understand that every dollar we spend comes from the pockets of state taxpayers.

As citizen legislators we will continue to work hard to find practical, reasonable and sustainable solutions to the challenges of our state while returning to our regular jobs, working alongside you to keep South Dakota's economy strong.