PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — In a Monday morning hearing of the South Dakota Legislature’s Joint Committee on Appropriations (JCA), the committee approved budgets for the State Treasurer, Dept. of Game Fish and Parks, Dept. of Transportation, Dept. of School and Public Lands, Dept. of Military and State Auditor.

Two departments on the agenda that did not receive their budgets were Tourism and the Secretary of State (SOS).

Tourism was deferred prior to the start of budget discussions, but the deferring of the SOS budget took a slightly different turn.

After an initial motion to set the budget as requested, for a total of $3,421,410, a comment was made by Republican Sen. John Wiik that there is an active bill that could require an adjustment to the budget for the SOS.

Wiik broached the idea of either delaying action on the budget until the fate of the bill is know, or acting on the budget now, realizing the committee may need to revisit the budget once again.

At issue is SB 160, a bill to require post-election audits by counties within 15 days after an election. Within section two of the bill, there is a requirement that the SOS office shall reimburse counties for the cost of auditing the election.

The bill so far has cleared the Senate and was heard Monday morning by House State Affairs. During the JCA discussion of the SOS budget, it was noted by one member that SB 160 had been approved by House State Affairs that morning, meaning it will go before the House as a whole.

After Wiik’s suggestion, the committee opted to defer the SOS to a later date.