Governor Noem Address to 2020 Special Legislative Session on COVID-19 Relief Dollars

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome to the chamber the Governor of South Dakota, the Honorable Kristi Noem. Thank you everyone. Go ahead and be seated. Thank you. Lieutenant Governor Roden, Mr. Speaker, members of the legislature, and to all of those listening at home, good morning. The last time that I saw many of you, we didn't know what to expect from COVID-19. Here we are nearly seven months later, though there's still so much to learn, we have a better sense of the common enemy that we are fighting. And before we turn to the business of the day, I would like to remind you of where we've been, where we are today, and where we still need to go. In South Dakota, the team at the Department of Health began to study this virus long before it ever reached our state. In January, my weekly briefings began, and the website that we've all relied on for so much information for months now, covid.sd.gov, was launched. On February 10th, we activated our Emergency Operations Center, and a month later, on March 10th, the state had its first known cases of the virus and our first reported death. Our initial models showed a very troubling situation. We could expect as many as 600,000 people to get sick. And at our worst point, we could have up to 10,000 South Dakotans in the hospital. Now, in addition to these dire numbers, there were many unknowns. How was the virus going to spread? Who was most likely going to get it? And how sick would they be? How would we manage the tens of thousands of illnesses all at once? And are there any treatments? And on and on and on. And though we knew very little about the virus in those early days, here's what we did know. We knew that Secretary Kim Malzahm-Reisden and her team at the Department of Health were among the very best in the country. We knew that we had some of the finest medical professionals in the country, and we knew that together, we were going to find a way to get through this. We turned to the science, to the data, and to the facts to get a handle on what was happening on the ground here in South Dakota. We asked the chief executives and chief medical officers at Avira, Monument, and Sanford to help us understand this virus. And then we asked South Dakotans to be extra diligent about their personal hygiene and to stay home if they were sick. For two months, we held nearly daily press briefings to share all of the information that we had about this virus. In other words, as a community, we got to work. With the help of our medical professionals and the South Dakota National Guard, we ramped up our hospital capacity. We started finding ways to get all of our supplies distributed. Our schools moved to an online instruction model, and our restaurants, our cafes, they moved to curbside pickup. Our people social distanced, and in many cases, they stayed home. And I want to remind you all of this because while we were working together and we were preparing as a state, many other states were taking a very different approach. Some ordered their citizens to shelter in place, ordered their businesses to lock down, and ordered their churches to close. Some even sent nursing home patients who had the virus back to their facilities. The mainstream media told us that these steps had to be taken to slow down the spread of the virus. And day after day, night after night, they insisted that every single decision I was making was wrong, that I was foolish to trust my people. And I was even sillier to respect the oaths that I took. They told me I should shut my state down. Now as all of you might imagine, these last seven months at times can get a little bit lonely. But earlier this week, one very prominent reporter on the national level sent me a note that said, Governor, if you hadn't stood against the lockdowns, we'd have no proof of just how useless they really have been. The work of what we are doing wasn't just about me, and it wasn't just about you. It was about the team at the Department of Health, the countless medical professionals across the state. It was teachers, law enforcement officers, grocers, small business owners, moms, dads, grandparents, you name it. It was every single one of your constituents, the people of South Dakota that made our approach work. We all know that the science tells us we cannot stop this virus. Our goal from day one was to slow down the spread and to free up hospital capacity for those who need higher levels of care. And we accomplished that. Even with a recent uptick of cases across the Midwest and South Dakota, only 10% of hospital capacity is taken up with COVID patients. And according to the senior leadership at Avera, Monument, and Sanford, they have greatly improved treatment. Today, most of the people who are hospitalized for COVID are not getting as sick. They're not staying as long in the hospital, which is outstanding news. In addition to the healthcare side of this equation, we're also closely monitoring the social and the economic ramifications of the virus. I recently had the chance to visit with a single mom. She had two little girls. She lives in another state, and her state has been locked down. Those young girls have been doing 100% distance learning for months. This mom is working full-time from home, and she is struggling. At first, she could balance her work. She could do what she needed to do to help her kids with school. But now, it seems like this horrible situation is never going to end. I could hear the fatigue in her voice. I could see the anxiety in her face. She was fed up. She was angry, and she was in need of relief. My heart hurt listening to her tell her story. And it's just one of many like it. From moms and dads to small business owners and their employees, I've had a chance to visit with a lot of South Dakotans and a lot of Americans across this country that are tired, and they're in need of relief. COVID-19 has posed challenges for South Dakota, too, but we took a different path. We gave our people the freedom to avoid impossible situations like that single mom faced that I visited with. In South Dakota, we didn't take a one-size-fits-all approach, and the results have been incredible. We had the fewest low-income job losses of any state in the region, and we've already recovered those losses. Our unemployment rate is the fourth lowest in America, already back down to 4.8%. When the virus first hit, every single state's economy shrunk, but our state had the second smallest losses. We closed the 2020 budget year with a $19 million surplus, and our general fund revenues are up 8.7% so far this fiscal year. Because of the path that we took, a surge of people want to move to South Dakota. They want to live and work and play in a place that respects their rights and their freedoms. This news is encouraging, but many South Dakotans have still faced some serious challenges. Many have struggled financially, some have had loved ones get sick, and some of us have lost our friends and we've lost our family. This body knows loss, just like so many other communities across South Dakota. Bob Glanzer was a man of true integrity and honor. He was respected. He epitomized what it means to be a true statesman. He worked tirelessly for the people of Beadle and Kingsbury counties, as well as for the entire state. Now, Brian and I are going to miss him dearly, and we extend our deepest sympathies to Penny and to the entire family, but I'd like to ask that we all just please stand for a moment and have a moment of silence to remember Bob and all of the South Dakotans that we have lost due to this horrible virus. Thank you. Our new normal may be very different from the past, but don't ever forget this one fundamental truth. The windshield is so much bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason. In South Dakota, we always confront adversity, and we emerge into even greater prosperity. Our future is bright. Hope is in front of us. We will emerge stronger than ever before. So that brings us to today's task in front of us. The federal government sent South Dakota $1.25 billion from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. I've spent countless hours on the phone and out in D.C. asking for flexibility in how South Dakota can spend this money, but the Department of Treasury tells us that this money can only be used to cover costs, very specific costs. If you've not read their guidance, I would encourage you to do so. My team has spent hours on the phone talking with you and talking with South Dakotans about Treasury's guidance. In order to comply with the law, these funds must be used in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes many costs incurred by the state, by cities and counties, and by education institutions. We can also use the funds to help private entities if they can show to us that they were negatively impacted by COVID. These expenses, though, had to be incurred between March 1st and December 30th of this year, and all that money has to be spent by December 30th. Not just set aside, not obligated in a contract, it actually has to be spent. So I'll keep pushing Congress to provide greater flexibility, especially as it relates to the deadline, and they may come back, they may pass something before the upcoming election, or even in the lame duck session, but that's why whatever you adopt needs to be flexible. It should account for whether Congress acts or if it doesn't act. And I think it's important that we all recognize the tremendous work that the Interim Appropriations Committee did, and all the policy committees have done leading up to get you prepared for today. I don't know of any other issue that has been discussed by so many different committees prior to the legislature acting. Would you please join me in acknowledging all of those efforts that they have put in? To date, we've allocated funding for state and local governments to respond to the virus. Tourism, the number two industry in the state, has taken a tremendous hit. Treasury specifically says that we can use this money on tourism efforts. I think many of you have seen our ads promoting the state. As a result, our state parks have been packed with visitors from across the country who want to escape their lockdowns and explore our wide-open spaces. Treasury allows us to spend up to $500 per student to help schools get back to normal, so we set aside $75 million for schools. We've also suggested a framework for small business grants for those who can demonstrate a loss because of COVID, and community-based health care grants as well for those that are taking care of some of our most vulnerable. We set aside $100 million to the Reemployment Insurance Fund, nearly $100 million for state public safety and public health officials, and more than $20 million for universities and technical colleges. And again, as you start to outline how you'd suggest we spend this money, please be sure to closely follow the guidelines that Treasury has set out. The state of South Dakota will be audited, so we must ensure that we are strictly adhering to these federal guidelines. Throughout this pandemic, we have had many conference calls together. Today, I look forward to hearing from you in a formal setting while you provide your valuable input. I know many of you have been hard at work constructing recommendations for what we should do with the federal dollars that we have left. It's my hope that we can set aside any personal agendas, we can reject ideological fights, that the people of South Dakota are counting on us to work together to take this finite amount of money and help as many of our citizens as we can within Treasury's parameters. I'll close with this. Together, we will get through this. And together, that's exactly what we're doing. It's important that we remember, especially during difficult times, that we are stronger united rather than divided. And I believe we all have the same goal in mind, making South Dakota safer, stronger, and healthier. So today, let's work together towards that goal. Thank you all for your work as public servants. God bless you. And may God bless the great state of South Dakota.