PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) -- South Dakota Public Broadcasting might not lose as much money as what Gov. Kristi Noem wants taken away. The Legislature's Joint Committee on Appropriations is looking deeper into the governor's recommended deep cut in general funds, according to its House leader. Republican Rep. Mike Derby said Wednesday that the 18-seat panel has a working group talking further about the situation. Derby and the committee's Senate chair, Republican Ernie Otten, said SDPB will return February 7 for an additional one-hour hearing. The governor recommended in her budget speech last month that lawmakers reduce state general funds to SDPB from the current $5,563,698 to $1,957,250 for the new fiscal year that starts July 1. The $3,606,448 cut would be offset by increasing SDPB's "other funds" category by approximately the same amount. The governor hasn't publicly indicated however where the money might be found. UPDATE: No explosives found at prison scene SDPB is part of the state Bureau of Information and Telecommunications. Appropriators listened on Wednesday afternoon as BIT Commissioner Madhu Gottumukkala presented SDPB's budget request. Sitting next to him was SDPB executive director Julie Overgaard. Commissioner Gottumukkala showed a slide to the committee about the potential impacts. The slide said, in part, "If SDPB is unable to raise enough to cover current operations, cuts would need to be made proportionally to the shortfall. Services would be adjusted." The slide then listed the possible impacts: Reduced local programming and staffing levels. Reduce grant funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Reduced Friends of Public Broadcasting funding. Reduced ability to implement ADA open captioning. In her December speech, Noem said, "I propose reducing funding for South Dakota Public Broadcasting to bring us in line with the national average. Currently, South Dakota has the third highest per-capita funding of public broadcasting of any state in the nation. We’ve been paying more than double the national average." Differences between Gov. Noem and SDPB became public during her 2022 re-election campaign, when she declined to face Democratic challenger Jamie Smith at a scheduled SDPB debate. SDPB issued a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter. It said, "South Dakota Public Broadcasting has a long history of fair and in-depth political coverage. Our longstanding tradition of hosting primetime debates for statewide and congressional offices furthers our public service mission.  “As the state's only public media station, we reach areas of the state that otherwise go unserved by most media outlets," SDPB's statement continued. "Our commercial-free format makes the most of each candidate's time to address issues that impact all South Dakotans.  “We'd like to ensure our viewers and listeners we will proceed with our longstanding public service mission. We will still hold fair, in-depth candidate debates and interviews," SDPB added. “We respect Governor Noem's right to decline to participate. During the televised debates, we will provide an empty chair in the space Kristi Noem would normally occupy.”  The governor's communications director, Ian Fury, responded with a statement. "Last year SDPB brought Marxist prof Ibram X. Kendi on the air to criticize Gov. Noem. Kendi’s radical teachings reject the basic fabric of American society w/ statements like 'Capitalism is essentially racist.' SDPB didn’t press him on these claims," Fury's statement said.  He added, “Gov. Noem has participated in this debate in the past, but SDPB’s extreme leftward swing precludes the possibility of a fair debate. She has accepted the invitation to a debate co-hosted by @dakotanews_now and @kotatweets (the largest joint TV audience in the state).”  During the current fight, the not-for-profit Friends of SDPB fundraising organization has given the appropriators an eight-page presentation that shows SDPB spends more per capita than four of five other states with similar state-owned networks, but more funds are raised per capita in South Dakota than in the five other states. SDPB would see its 76-FTE staff reduced to 26 with the cut, according to the Friends document.