EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Unemployment Down to 2.5%: The unemployment rate in South Dakota declined from 3.5% to 2.5% since 1993. 55,600 New Jobs: 55,600 new jobs have been created in South Dakota since 1993 -- an average of 8,779 jobs per year. 50,000 New Private Sector Jobs: Since 1993, 50,000 new private sector jobs have been created-an average of 7,895 jobs per year. 11,800 New Manufacturing Jobs: 11,800 new manufacturing jobs have been created in South Dakota since 1993 -- an average of 1,863 per year. 4,200 New Construction Jobs: 4,200 construction jobs have been created in South Dakota since 1993 -- an average of 663 jobs per year. 38,000 Have Received a Raise: Approximately 13,000 South Dakota workers benefited from the increase in the minimum wage-from $4.25 to $4.75 -- on October 1, 1996. They, along with about 25,000 more received a raise on September 1, 1997. Home Building Up 3.2% Per Year: New home building in South Dakota has increased 3.2% per year since 1993. A $500 Child Tax Credit to Help Families Raising Children: To help make it easier for families to raise their children, the balanced budget included a $500 per-child tax credit for children under 17. Thanks to President Clinton, the Balanced Budget delivers a child tax credit to 73,000 families in South Dakota. Over $25,000 of Reduced Federal Debt for Every Family of Four: The national debt will be $1.7 trillion lower in FY99 than projected in 1993 -- that's $25,000 less debt for each family of four in South Dakota this year. EXPANDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION
Over 2,300 Children in Head Start: Over 2,300 South Dakota children were enrolled in Head Start in 1998. In FY99, South Dakota will receive $12.2 million in Head Start funding, an increase of $5.5 million over 1993. More High-Quality Teachers With Smaller Classes for South Dakota's Schools: Thanks to President Clinton, the final FY99 budget provides for the first year of the President's new initiative to hire 100,000 new, well-prepared teachers, to reduce class sizes in the early grades to a national average of 18. South Dakota receives $5.6 in 1999 to hire about 145 new public school teachers. And, under President Clinton's proposal, South Dakota would receive $7 million in FY2000 to support a total of 178 teachers. $1.7 Million in Goals 2000 Funding: This year [FY99], South Dakota receives $1.7 million in Goals 2000 funding. This money is used to raise academic achievement by raising academic standards, increasing parental and community involvement in education, expanding the use of computers and technology in classrooms, and supporting high-quality teacher professional development. $2.1 Million for Technology Literacy: This year [FY99], South Dakota receives $2.1 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, which helps communities and the private sector ensure that every student is equipped with the computer literacy skills needed for the 21st century. $19.4 Million for Students Most in Need: South Dakota receives $19.4 million in Title I grants providing extra help in the basics for students most in need, particularly communities and schools with high concentrations of children in low-income families. [FY99] $28.1 Million in Pell Grants: This year [FY99], South Dakota will receive $28.1 million in Pell Grants for low-income students going to college, an additional $1.3 million over last year. With this increase, a total of 14,800 South Dakota students will benefit. Expanded Work-Study To Help More Students Work Their Way Through College: The FY99 budget includes a significant expansion of the Federal Work Study program. South Dakota will receive $4.2 million in Work-Study funding in 1999 to help South Dakota students work their way through college. Nearly 200 Have Served in South Dakota through AmeriCorps: Since the National Service program began in 1993, 181 AmeriCorps participants have earned money for college while working in South Dakota's schools, hospitals, neighborhoods or parks [through 11/98]. Tuition Tax Credits in Balanced Budget Open the Doors of College and Promote Lifelong Learning: The balanced budget included both President Clinton's $1,500 HOPE Scholarship to help make the first two years of college as universal as a high school diploma and a Lifetime Learning Tax Credit for college juniors, seniors, graduate students and working Americans pursuing lifelong learning to upgrade their skills. This 20% tax credit will be applied to the first $5,000 of tuition and fees through 2002 and to the first $10,000 thereafter. 15,000 students in South Dakota will receive a HOPE Scholarship tax credit of up to $1,500. 19,000 students in South Dakota will receive the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. [fully phased-in FY2000 estimate] Expanded Job Training to South Dakota's Dislocated Workers: Thanks to President Clinton, the FY99 budget includes a significant expansion in the dislocated worker program. South Dakota will receive $926,965 million in 1999 to help 550 of South Dakota's dislocated workers get the training and reemployment services they need to return to work as quickly as possible. FIGHTING CRIME AND VIOLENCE
Juvenile Arrests Down in South Dakota: South Dakota's juvenile murder arrests have decreased 100% between 1992 and 1997. [FBI, Uniform Crime Report, 1992 and 1997] 272 More Police: The President's 1994 Crime Bill has funded 272 new police officers to date in communities across South Dakota. [through 7/99] Reducing Crime with Drug Courts: Working to reduce drug-related crime in South Dakota, the Clinton Administration has awarded a Drug Court grant to the community of Agency Village. The Administration had previously awarded grants to a number of South Dakota communities including: Flandreau Sioux, Lower Brute, Ogala Sioux, Yankton Sioux, and Rosebud Sioux. Drug courts use the coercive power of the criminal justice system to combine drug testing, sanctions, supervision and treatment to push nonviolent, drug-abusing offenders to stop using drugs and committing crimes. $3.1 Million to Combat Domestic Violence: Through the Violence Against Women Act, South Dakota received $3.1 million in federal funds in FY98 to establish more women's shelters and bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims' services. $400,000 in Grants for Battered Women and Children: In FY98, South Dakota received $400,000 in HHS's Family Violence Prevention Program grants to assist women and children fleeing domestic abuse. $2.2 Million to Keep Drugs & Violence Out of South Dakota's Schools: South Dakota received $2.2 million in FY99 for the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program, which invests in school security and drug prevention programs. MOVING SOUTH DAKOTANS FROM WELFARE TO WORK
11,309Fewer People on Welfare: There are 11,309 fewer people on welfare in South Dakota now than there were at the beginning of 1993 -- a 56% decrease. [through 12/98] Child Support Collections Up 117%: Child support collections have increased by $19 million-or 117% -- in South Dakota since FY92. [through FY98] Encouraging Responsible Choices-Preventing Teen Pregnancy in South Dakota: Since 1993, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have supported innovative and promising teen pregnancy prevention strategies, with significant components of the strategy becoming law in the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act. The law requires unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live at home or in a supervised setting; encourages "second chance homes" to provide teen parents with the skills and support they need; and provides $50 million a year in new funding for state abstinence education activities. Efforts are making a difference, adolescent pregnancy rates and teen abortion rates are declining. And between 1992 and 1997, teen birth rates declined 17.8% in South Dakota. $2.8 Million for South Dakota Welfare-to-Work: In 1998, $2.3 million in competitive grants were awarded to South Dakota localities to support innovative welfare-to-work strategies and Native American tribes in South Dakota received $504,000 in Federal funding. Part of the President's comprehensive efforts to move recipients from welfare to work, this funding was included in the $3 billion welfare to work fund in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. INVESTING IN SOUTH DAKOTA'S HEALTH
Health Care for Uninsured Children: The balanced budget included the largest single investment in health care for children since the passage of Medicaid in 1965 -- an unprecedented $24 billion over five years to cover as many as five million children throughout the nation. This investment guarantees the full range of benefits-from checkups to surgery -- that children need to grow up strong and healthy. It ensures that prescription drugs, vision, hearing, and mental health coverage now offered at the state level are extended to millions of uninsured children. To expand health coverage to more uninsured children in South Dakota the Balanced Budget provided $8 million in 1998. This compares to the 1995 Republican plan vetoed by President Clinton that would have denied health care coverage to 6,300 children in South Dakota. Helping Over 20,000 South Dakota Women and Children with WIC: The Clinton Administration is committed to full funding in the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). In FY98, South Dakota received $10.9 million in total WIC grant funding, helping 20,500 women, infants and children in need receive health and food assistance. More Toddlers Are Being Immunized: As a result of the President's 1993 Childhood Immunization Initiative, childhood immunization rates have reached an historic high. According to the CDC, by 1996, 90% or more of America's toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines-surpassing the President's 1993 goal. In South Dakota in 1997, 96% of two-year olds received the vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; 92% received the vaccine for polio; 91% received the vaccine for measles, and 95% received the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria causing a form of meningitis. Increased Funding for Ryan White by $713,000: Between 1993 and 1998, South Dakota communities received $713,000 in Ryan White formula and other HIV/AIDS program funds. This funding provides people living with HIV and AIDS medical and support services, including the AIDS Drug Assistance Program which helps those without insurance obtain much needed prescription drugs. [HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration, 12/98] Tobacco Plan Will Cut Smoking and Premature Deaths by 42% in South Dakota: The Clinton Administration's tobacco proposal, combined with the recently enacted state tobacco settlements, will cut youth smoking and resulting premature deaths 42% in South Dakota by 2004. Between 2000 and 2004, 8,800 of Alaska's youth will be kept from smoking and 2,800 will be spared a premature tobacco-related death. [Treasury Dept., 2/99] 300,000 Americans in South Dakota Cannot Be Assured They Have Patient Protections: Even if South Dakota enacted all the protections in the Patients' Bill of Rights, 300,000 people in South Dakota cannot be assured they have the comprehensive patient protections recommended by the President's Advisory Commission. This is because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) may preempt state-enacted protections. That is why the President has called on Congress to pass a federally enforceable patients' bill of rights so that everyone enrolled in managed care may have a basic set of protections. Notably, 150,000 South Dakota women are in ERISA health plans and are therefore not necessarily protected. Women are particularly vulnerable without these protections because they are greater users of health care services, they make three-quarters of the health care decisions for their families, and they have specific health care needs addressed by a patients' bill of rights.
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT:
Toxic Waste Site Cleaned Up in Sioux Falls: Since 1993, the EPA has cleaned up a Superfund toxic waste site in Sioux Falls, South Dakota [through 6/99] $8.1 Million in Safe Drinking Water Funding: This year [FY99], thanks to President Clinton, South Dakota will receive $7.4 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to provide low-interest loans to municipalities to build, improve, and prevent pollution of drinking water systems. In addition, South Dakota will receive $690,300 in Public Water Supply Supervision grants to help monitor drinking water quality and enforce health standards. Revitalizing Brownfields in Sioux Falls: As part of the Clinton-Gore Administration's efforts to clean up Brownfields, the EPA has awarded Sioux Falls, North Dakota, a pilot project to spur environmental clean-up and economic revitalization. This project is intended to jump-start local clean-up efforts by providing funds to return unproductive, abandoned, contaminated urban properties to productive use. SPEARHEADING RURAL RENEWAL EFFORTS:
Revitalizing South Dakota's Communities: Beadle and Spink Counties were designated Enterprise Communities in December, 1994 and were jointly awarded $3 million to create more jobs, housing, and economic opportunity for area residents. In 1999, Ogala Sioux Reservation in Pine Ridge was designated a New Rural Empowerment Zone PROVIDING DISASTER RELIEF
$165 Million in Federal Emergency Assistance: Since 1993, South Dakota has received $165 million in disaster relief. This includes $11 million for severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding in 1998, and $36 million in assistance to recover from the Midwest Floods of 1993. [FEMA] EXPANDING FUNDS FOR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT
Over $773 Million in Federal Highway Aid: Since 1993, South Dakota has received over $773 million in federal highway aid. Included in this funding is $47 million for emergency relief in response to natural disasters and $5.8 million for scenic byways. These funds have helped generate 32,560 jobs. [through FY98] Over $64 Million in Aviation Funds: From FY93-FY98 South Dakota received over $64 million in Airport Improvement Program funds to help build and renovate airports, and, when necessary, to provide funds for noise abatement to improve the quality of life for residents who live near airports. Over $17 Million in Transit Funds: South Dakota has received over $17 million in FTA funds since 1993.
Last Updated July 1999
![[Return to map]](images/footer.gif)