South Dakota Governor Daugaard Cancels Special Session

South Dakota lawmakers will not be called into special session in June after all.

Governor Dennis Daugaard had announced the special session, to be held on June 22, to deal with the overbids for the new State Veterans Home in Hot Springs.

But Daugaard says new information from the Veterans Administration means a deadline for a federal grant has been extended, giving the State more time.

Daugaard says officials had believed that delaying construction would jeopardize the $23.6 million VA grant and could also mean the loss of eligibility for Medicaid. That way, a special session would have been the only way the state could appropriate enough funding.

But he says officials have been notified that the grant can be extended, so now the State has until February 2014, not June 2013, to finalize its construction plans.

Daugaard says the additional time will allow the state "to revisit the current plans, seek a scaled-back redesign and rebid the entire project."