EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL

• Unemployment Down to 2.3%: The unemployment rate in South Dakota declined from 3.5% to 2.3% since 1993.
• 65,900 New Jobs: 65,900 new jobs have been created in South Dakota since 1993 -- an average of 9,304 jobs per year.
• 60,700 New Private Sector Jobs: Since 1993, 60,700 new private sector jobs have been created—an average of 8,569 jobs per year.
• 12,400 New Manufacturing Jobs: 12,400 new manufacturing jobs have been created in South Dakota since 1993 -- an average of 1,751 per year.
• 5,400 New Construction Jobs: 5,400 construction jobs have been created in South Dakota since 1993 -- an average of 762 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 3.8% Per Year: New home building in South Dakota has increased 3.8% per year since 1993.
• Homeownership Has Increased in South Dakota: Homeownership in South Dakota has increased from 66.1% to 70.7% 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.
• 10.2% Growth in Total Bank Loans and Leases: South Dakota has seen a 10.2% average annual growth rate in total bank loans and leases per year since 1993. In contrast, total bank loans and leases fell an annual average of 14.1% during the previous administration.

EXPANDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION

• Over 2,400 Children in Head Start: 2,485 South Dakota children were enrolled in Head Start in 1999. In FY00, South Dakota will receive $13.9 million in Head Start funding, an increase of $6.7 million over 1993.
• More High-Quality Teachers With Smaller Classes for South Dakota's Schools: Thanks to the Class Size Reduction Initiative, South Dakota received $5.6 million in 1999 to hire about 145 new, well-prepared public school teachers and reduce class size in the early grades. President Clinton secured funding for a second installment of the plan, giving South Dakota an additional $6.1 million in 2000.
• $1.7 Million in Goals 2000 Funding: This year [FY00], 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. [Education Department, 12/3/99]
• $2.1 Million for Technology Literacy: This year [FY00], 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.
• Over $20 Million for Students Most in Need: South Dakota receives over $20 million in Title I Grants (to Local Educational Agencies) providing extra help in the basics for students most in need, particularly communities and schools with high concentrations of children in low-income families [FY00]. This includes over $342,000 in accountability grants, to help states and school districts turn around the worst performing schools and hold them accountable for results.
• $27.8 Million in Pell Grants: This year [FY00], South Dakota will receive $27.8 million in Pell Grants for low-income students going to college, benefiting 13,936 South Dakota students.
• Expanded Work-Study To Help More Students Work Their Way Through College: The FY00 budget includes a significant expansion of the Federal Work Study program. South Dakota will receive $4.2 million in Work-Study funding in 2000 to help South Dakota students work their way through college.
• Over 200 Have Served in South Dakota through AmeriCorps: Since the National Service program began in 1993, 206 AmeriCorps participants have earned money for college while working in South Dakota's schools, hospitals, neighborhoods or parks. [through 2/00]
• 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: Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. South Dakota's juvenile murder arrests have decreased 100% between 1992 and 1997. [FBI, Uniform Crime Report, 1992 and 1997]
• 288 More Police: The President's 1994 Crime Bill has funded 288 new police officers to date in communities across South Dakota. [through 1/00]
• 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.
• Over $9.5 Million to Combat Domestic Violence: Through the Violence Against Women Act, South Dakota has received over $9.5 million in federal funds since FY95 to establish more women's shelters and bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims' services. [through FY99]
• $400,000 in Grants for Battered Women and Children: In FY99, 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 FY00 for the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program, which invests in school security and drug prevention programs.

MOVING SOUTH DAKOTANS FROM WELFARE TO WORK

• 12,629 Fewer People on Welfare: There are 12,629 fewer people on welfare in South Dakota now than there were at the beginning of 1993 -- a 62% decrease. [through 6/99]
• 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 1991 and 1997, teen birth rates declined 16.4% 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 Nearly 3,200 Uninsured South Dakota Children: In 1997, President Clinton passed the largest single investment in health care for children since 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 that children need to grow up strong and healthy. Two million children nationwide have health care coverage thanks to the President's plan, including 3,191 in South Dakota. [HHS, Health Care Financing Administration, FY99 SCHIP enrollment data]
• Helping Nearly 20,500 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 FY99, South Dakota received $12.7 million in total WIC grant funding, helping 20,448 women, infants and children in need receive health and food assistance. [through 8/99]
• 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, 90% or more of America's toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998 —surpassing the President's 1993 goal. In South Dakota in 1998, 92% of two-year olds received the vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; 90% received the vaccine for polio; 90% received the vaccine for measles, and 93% received the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria causing a form of meningitis.
• Funding for HIV/AIDS Assistance Programs: In FY 2000, South Dakota will receive $101,714 in Ryan White Title II formula grants. This funding provides people living with HIV and AIDS medical and support services. Also through the Ryan White Act, South Dakota will receive $131,638 for state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which help those without insurance obtain much needed prescription drugs. There has been a tenfold increase in ADAP funding in the last four years, up from $52 million in 1996 to $528 million in 2000. [HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration, 4/7/00]
• 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:

• 2 Toxic Waste Cleanup Sites: Since 1993, the EPA has cleaned up two Superfund toxic waste sites in Sioux Falls, and Ellsworth, South Dakota. Only one site was cleaned up during the previous twelve years combined. [through 3/1/00]
• $7.7 Million in Safe Drinking Water Funding: This year [FY00], thanks to President Clinton, South Dakota will receive $7.7 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.
• 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

• $187.8 Million in Federal Emergency Assistance: Since 1993, South Dakota has received $187.8 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, 2/29/00]

EXPANDING FUNDS FOR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT

• $692 Million in Federal Highway Aid: Since 1993, South Dakota has received $692 million in federal highway aid, including $47 million for emergency relief in response to natural disasters and $6.1 million for scenic byways. These funds have helped generate 29,527 jobs. [through FY99]
• Over $73.1 Million in Aviation Funds: From FY93-FY99 South Dakota received over $73.1 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 $24.4 Million in Transit Funds: South Dakota has received over $24.4 million in Federal Transit Administration funds since 1993.

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Last Updated April 2000