SD Senate panel approves one-time bonuses for state workers

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PIERRE — A South Dakota Senate committee on Friday approved one-time bonus pay for state workers.

About 13,000 public employees have foregone any salary increase for the past three years while South Dakota grappled with tightened finances.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard and a subcommittee of Senate and House lawmakers worked together to come up with the bill, which would provide workers with at least $2,300 extra in their paychecks on March 30.

“Gov. Daugaard felt it’s a small step in thanking state employees for their dedication to public service and for hanging in there,” said Jason Dilges, the state’s budget director. “State workers are doing more with less anywhere you turn.”

The bill allots limited one-time payments to the highest paid and gives extra to the state’s lowest paid. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved it unanimously.

The bill outlines a percentage-based bonus that depends on how much the employee earns and how many years he or she has worked for the state.

All workers earning $46,000 or less would earn a bonus based on that amount, and no bonus could exceed a calculation based on a $150,000 per year salary.

Those who have worked one year at their state jobs would get 1.7 percent of their salaries. Two years would get 3.4 percent and three years would get 5 percent of their salaries.

The Finance and Management Bureau said the state has about $31 million from state, federal and other funds from which to make the pending bonus payments.

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