South Dakota Senate table SB125(Study on Child Care)

PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) — An attempt to fund a state study on child care died a sudden death on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Just after presenting the reasons to fund the study by the sponsor, Republican Sen. Tim Reed from Brookings, Republican Sen. Jean Hunhoff from Yankton, the co-chair of the Joint Appropriations Committee, moved to table SB125.

A motion to table is non-debatable and proceeds immediately to a vote.

The motion to table passed 27 to 6.

The Joint Appropriations Committee had amended the bill to provide just one dollar in state funding.

However, according to Reed, he told the South Dakota Broadcasters Association that tabling the bill was his idea and he was good with what happened on the Senate floor.

Reed said the Department of Social Services plans to do a study on childcare, so funding a study was no longer necessary.

Before the debate ended, Reed said the study was important to parents of small children and for workforce development.

“So the bottom line is it’s too expensive and too hard to find for the parents and yet not expensive enough for childcare operators to stay in business,” Reed said in his remarks. “The information will be used to identify innovative childcare stabilization strategies to help parents remain or join the South Dakota workforce. This would include identifying pathways for potential partners to provide quality, affordable child care.”

While nothing is ever completely dead while legislators are in Pierre, the move makes it difficult to get the bill off the table for consideration later in the session.