The Senate transportation bill is looking quite a bit better for South Dakota than the one passed by the House last week. Sen. John Thune who is a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee supported a bill which passed committee today with approximately $1.465 in funding over the next 5 years for South Dakota
According to a Thune press release:
South Dakota would see a $266 million increase over funding in TEA-21 [the previous transportation bill], a 24.38 percent increase. The bill passed in the House last week amounted to a $172 million increase for the state. The Senate is expected to act on the committee-approved bill in the next 3-4 weeks.
The press release also featured some comments from the South Dakota Department of Transportation offering their approval for the bill.
“We appreciate Senator Thune’s efforts and time spent in developing a highway reauthorization bill that provides funding for South Dakota over the next 5 years,” said Leon Schochenmaier with the SD Department of Transportation. “Senator Thune has been instrumental in securing a substantial increase in formula funding for South Dakota. In fact, Senator Thune’s efforts as a member of the EPW Committee ensure that our state’s overall share of highway funding is locked-in over the coming years. Basically this means that South Dakota will continue to receive a 2-1 rate of return for every dollar of motor fuel tax that’s collected. While it is still up to the Senate to approve this measure and conference the bill with the recent House-passed version, we look forward to completion of this important piece of legislation.”
The bill should come before the full Senate in the coming weeks. The fact it passed committee with this much funding is encouraging though, in light of last weeks developments in the House.
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