Real Property Tax Relief
By: Gov. Larry Rhoden
April 4, 2025

Now that the legislative session is in the rearview mirror, I’m focused on looking forward and unlocking new opportunities for South Dakota. We had a historic 100^th legislative session, and we accomplished a lot for the people of South Dakota – but there’s more work to do!

I recently announced next steps to deliver a real property tax cut for the people of South Dakota. During legislative session, we passed my bill, Senate Bill 216, which delivered meaningful, impactful changes to slow down future increases in homeowner property taxes. Now, it’s time to go a step further.

I am proposing to the legislature’s Property Tax Relief Task Force that we give counties the option to cut homeowner property taxes by instead implementing a sales tax of up to 0.5%. The proceeds of that tax must go directly to homeowner tax relief – they cannot be used to grow government. And if homeowner taxes are completely offset, then whatever money is left must go towards commercial and agriculture property taxes.

This proposal will be referrable to a vote of the people, and the people could use an initiative process to put it on their local ballot themselves. This means that every county will have every opportunity to decide if this option is right for them.

During legislative session, we had a couple dozen property tax bills proposed. Only my Senate Bill 216 became law. One reason for that is because many of those bills tried to solve a five-county problem with a statewide solution. My new proposal addresses that by giving counties the option to choose what is best for their people.

It just so happens that many of the counties that have the biggest issues with property taxes are also the counties that see the most out-of-state visitors – like Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties in the Sioux Falls metro and several counties in the Black Hills. If those counties implement this proposal, they’ll shift a sizable portion of their local tax burden onto out-of-state residents, which saves money for South Dakotans.

My team will get to work with the legislature’s Property Tax Relief Tax Force to hammer out this proposal and get it into a final form. I promised to address property taxes for our people – and I am delivering on that promise.

I want to thank the people of South Dakota for the opportunity to serve as your Governor. Becoming governor in the middle of session was its own unique challenge and opportunity. I’ve really enjoyed getting around the state in the last couple of weeks on my Open for Opportunity tour, and that will continue in the weeks to come. I hope to see you in your hometown!

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Fixing Biden’s Broken Broadband Program
By Sen. John Thune

 More than three years ago, Congress created the $42.5 billion BEAD program to bring broadband service to unserved parts of the country. It was the single largest federal investment in broadband expansion ever made. But to date, it has not connected a single household to the internet.

The reason? The Biden administration chose to load up this program with a slew of extraneous conditions that made it unworkable for many providers. The program’s requirements read like a progressive wish-list, and they bear little resemblance to what Congress envisioned for this program.

The Biden administration added irrelevant climate mandates. They required union labor and DEI hiring practices. The program prioritizes government-owned networks over private investment. And despite a clear prohibition on rate regulation in the law, the Biden administration tried to add that in, too.

So many extraneous requirements were added to this program that it couldn’t fulfill its core function, and we’re now in a situation where a $42 billion taxpayer-funded program hasn’t connected even a single household to the internet after three-plus years.

But now there’s a new administration in the White House. President Trump has expressed interest in finally getting this program off the ground, and the Commerce Department has begun to review these requirements. I recently led my colleagues in urging Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to remove the Biden-era mandates that stopped the BEAD program from actually connecting unserved communities to the internet. By reviewing and ultimately eliminating these unnecessary requirements, we can ensure that this funding is finally deployed to expand broadband access to unserved areas quickly and efficiently.

The BEAD program is one particularly egregious example of the consequences of overregulation. The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are working to eliminate some of the Biden administration’s burdensome regulations. Democrats don’t seem to see the downside of government mandates, but the American people feel them. Those mandates have costs: financial costs and opportunity costs. In the case of the BEAD program, it’s meant unserved areas have been kept waiting years for a reliable internet connection.

Regulatory relief continues to be a priority for the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress. The American people can be confident that we will continue working to eliminate the red tape that stifles progress.

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Johnson: “We Must do Better for Tribes”

 Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) urged Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Department of Government Efficiency Chair Elon Musk to examine the waste, fraud, and abuse of funds for Indian country. Many healthcare, education, and law enforcement facilities in Indian country are not receiving the necessary funds for upkeep and operations.

“We believe in our duty to provide critical resources to tribes and tribal citizens. But as Members of Congress, we have a duty to ensure that federal taxpayer dollars are being used wisely,” wrote the members. “Funding must reach in-need tribal communities, rather than sit in an empty federal government building while Native Americans continue to face records levels of poverty, inadequate healthcare, and lack of proper law enforcement.”

Background:

In February, the House Natural Resources Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee held a hearing that highlighted the severe lack of oversight and mismanagement of the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Johnson advocated for this hearing earlier this year.

Examples of mismanaged funds:

• A Department of Interior (DOI) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report showed one BIE-operated school had transferred $1.2 million in federal funds to an offshore account.
• A DOI OIG report demonstrated BIE’s systemic mismanagement and noted a more than $1 billion backlog in deferred maintenance.
• BIE was responsible for over $900 million in COVID-19 funds. Half of the COVID-19 funds used on purchase cards were flagged for being “elevated-risk transactions.”

The letter was signed by U.S. Representatives Troy Downing (R-MT), Jake Ellzey (R-TX), and Harriet Hageman (R-WY).

Read the full letter here.

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Trucks and Trade
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
April 4, 2025

 BIG Update

Common food and drink names like parmesan, chateau, and bologna are used around the world to describe products to consumers. However, due to geographic indication to European locations, the European Union has begun using economic and political influence to implement unfair trade practices under the guise of protecting geographic indicators. These unfair trade practices have the potential to block United States agricultural products from being sold in international markets.

I, along with Senator Thune, reintroduced the Safeguarding American Food and Export Trade Yields Act to protect American food products. Our bill amends the Agriculture Trade Act of 1978 to include and define a list of common names for commodities, food products, and terms used in marketing and packaging of products. I’ll keep working to ensure American ag producers don’t face unnecessary barriers in foreign markets.

BIG Idea

As a recognized leader in Congress on transportation and infrastructure issues, Portland Cement Association asked me to give an update at their annual meeting about legislation I lead that they are supportive of.

We discussed my bill, the Fair SHARE Act, ensuring electric vehicles (EVs) contribute to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) that supports repairs and upkeep for our roads and bridges. The HTF is on the road to insolvency and this bill is a step in the right direction towards funding our roads.

We also talked about my bill to increase shipping capacity for truckers, the SHIP IT Act. It increases safety, provides recruitment and retention incentives for drivers, and includes flexibility during times of emergencies – ensuring our supply chain is operating at its fullest potential. I look forward to advocating for these initiatives during highway reauthorization this Congress.

Johnson speaking at the Portland Cement Association meeting

BIG News

I’m sure you saw President Trump announce sweeping tariffs this week. Under President Biden’s trade policies, our country saw the largest ever trade deficit – more than $1.2 trillion in 2024 alone. While tariffs can be a powerful negotiating tool, I don’t support high tariffs as a long-lasting or permanent trade policy. We need to work quickly to secure better trade deals, reduce trade barriers, and deliver for American producers and consumers.

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Recognizing the new South Dakota Republican Party.
Which faction are you: New Internet Populist or Traditional GOP?

I noticed a new effort on Facebook that took off the other day where a group with many familiar names declared that they want legislation that would “obligate the National Guard to shoot down these poison pushing planes.” Literally, they want planes with “chem-trails,” which would include passenger jets shot out of the sky.

The problem is, it is nothing but a fringe conspiracy. What they call chem-trails are actually condensation trails that form behind jet aircraft, resulting from the condensation and freezing of water vapor in the exhaust.  Even infamous government whistleblower Edward Snowden noted “In case you were wondering: … Chemtrails are not a thing.”  But don’t try to tell that to people on Facebook. This is not a new issue; perennial fringe GOP candidate Lora Hubbel had spoken about it for years, but it was always relegated to the outer rings of internet conspiracy.

Yet, here it is anew again 10 years later.  BOOM! Instantly Three NE State Representatives, Dylan Jordan, Logan Manhart & Brandei Schoefbauer signed on, as did Dell Rapids Senator Tom Pischke.  Two former Representatives chimed in and said “I always believed in this” and the group quickly grew from few dozen to nearly four hundred.

Welcome to the new South Dakota Republican Party.  Or at least what we might call a populist faction of it.

The state Republican Party has always had intra-party divisions, and they have flared up from time to time over the decades. When I first became involved in politics in the state, you could see within the party remnants of more moderate Rockefeller Republicans who would buck up against the conservative Reagan Republicans. The SDGOP largely went along for years dominated by Reagan Republicans where generally most seemed to get along as there was always a place in Reagan’s big tent, whether you were small-government, pro-life, free-trade, for cutting taxes, etcetera. The key to Reagan’s philosophy was always that it could be flexible when needed for the greater good.

Yet a few decades later, the SDGOP finds itself split down the middle and driven by 2 groups that find themselves jockeying for control of the party.  We have the “New Internet Populist” faction amalgamated from several groups who are now in charge as the dog who caught the car and trying to find something do to with it.

In this collection, you find a number of people driven as much by what they read on Facebook as they do any base political philosophy. Many are Republicans who for years have called for the GOP to purge itself of those who they viewed as less pure and they termed RINO (Republican in Name Only) for not having a strict adherence to sets of rules or platform planks they would make up. Yet ultimately and not just a little ironically, this group were finally ascendant in the SDGOP by joining and being led by former Democrats.

It’s a fusion of Trump voters based on his personality. You can find libertarian Ron Paul Republicans side by side with ‘medical freedom’ proponents, election truthers and ballot hand-counters, anti-pipeline factions along with land-use activists.

The land use activists and pipeline opponents are a group that has brought this faction to the forefront, and interestingly, you see a number of Democrats popping up in this group, coming in from oil pipeline opposition, and traditional Democrat agrarian groups such as Dakota Rural Action who helped bring money into the last South Dakota election from a Jane Fonda Climate PAC.  Throw in the chem-trail conspiracists who flow through many of these same threads and you literally have an entire faction of the party which has aspects of traditional populism mish-mashed and threaded together from toxic misinformation on Facebook.

Last election’s pipeline battle gave this group the foot soldiers they needed to nudge themselves into the leadership of the SDGOP, which is now led by Jim Eschenbaum, a self-admitted Obama voter and 32-year Democrat.

That leaves the other group in the Republican Party, and what might be argued as a great silent majority that has been sitting out elections. As evidenced by the record low 17% turnout of the last Republican Primary, many Republicans are strongly repelled by the toxicity that the internet populist group brings to the table.

Traditional Republicans, or Trad GOP are what we might term the groups that have historically been aligned as Republicans.  Business owners, Chamber of Commerce members, community and economic development advocates, value-added ag proponents, and others who have been affiliated as Republican voters in the state on the basis of low taxes, smaller government, free-market capitalism, and deregulation.  They’ve been more moderate in the past, but time and Reagan conservatism has shuffled some of those tendencies to the background. This group is closer to the vein in which Reagan actually operated; conservative, but pragmatic knowing the realities of governing.

This group largely voted for and supported Trump less for his personality and more for policy. It’s less what he says, and more what he had done in his first term.  They were ok with Trump as Mitch McConnel and John Thune worked int he background to put conservative judges on the bench.  (Time and outcome will see what this group has to say about the President’s taking a wrecking ball to the country’s economy this week in what some are calling “ruination day”).

The Trad GOP group, while still voting Republican when they do, is most definitely larger. But, they are the quiet majority. They are disengaged and unmotivated which has been contributed to by the toxicity from the New Internet Populists, as candidates argue over their conservative bonafides, without providing specifics on how they will positively affect communities.   It is challenging enough to engage a business owner in politics who is busy trying to generate income to pay the bills and survive, when all that rises above the din of politics is that there are those who want to throw their local librarian in jail because they think they are distributing pornographic books.

Hearing that, most community-minded people would rather give their spare time and coin to children’s sports or a vacation or other family activities than spend one moment on politics. Because when all they hear is awful politicians they believe to be crazy who don’t represent them, THEY STAY HOME. And it hasn’t reached critical mass where the other group’s actions affect them enough en masse to come out and vote.

They stay home because they find it ugly. Or worse yet, they’re offended and might switch to Independent. Or at least they talk about it.

The extreme factionalism in the South Dakota Republican Party has not brought people into the tent. It has split them, driven some out, and largely de-funded the party.  While there might be a person here and there in the New Internet Populist faction that has the ability to donate, largely this group doesn’t give money to the party. In recent years their activities and the language they use has actually driven away the donor class in the Trad GOP faction.

One recent party official related to me anecdotally that they had a party-minded donor who was going to donate an entire building in Pierre to the SDGOP to use as a headquarters and potentially rent empty space for income. But seeing the other faction in the wings ready to take over, they had no interest in “handing it over to the crazies.”

The story over the last few years has seen donations to the South Dakota Republican Party dry up to nothing. When the Democrat Party is able to pick up low-hanging fruit donors amounting to thousands, the SDGOP will go a month raising less than $50.  A far cry from a party once able to command a budget which raised tens of thousands or more monthly in its heyday.

Time will only tell whether the two factions can mend their differences and possibly find a common goal to reach harmony on and work towards, or if the populist group will wither away and be absorbed into the larger but quieter group as has happened in the past.

Until then, intra-party fights between the New Internet Populists and the Traditional GOP in South Dakota will continue to be raucous. And potentially ruinous for the South Dakota Republican Party at large.

From Facebook:

That’s interesting. Candidate, perhaps? Otherwise, I’m not sure else constitutes a “big announcement.”

Attorney General Jackley Announces Former DSS Employee Found Guilty of Stealing $1.8 Million From Child Protection Services

 PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that a former state Department of Social Services employee was found guilty Thursday of stealing an estimated $1.8 million in state and federal funds from the department’s Child Protection Services.

Lonna Carroll, 68, of Algona, Iowa, was found guilty by a Hughes County Jury of two felony counts of Aggravated Grand Theft. The maximum sentence for Count One is 25 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. The maximum sentence for Count Two is 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine.

“This was a violation of trust by someone who had access to public funds,” said Attorney General Jackley, who was co-prosecutor in the trial that started Tuesday, April 1. “She stole money from the accounts of children who were in the custody of DSS, and now she is being held accountable for her actions.”

The state Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and Legislative Audit led the investigation. The Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the case.

A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

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Thune, Durbin Ask Trump to Permit the Nationwide, Year-Round Sale of E15 Fuel

“Utilizing American ethanol year-round is a direct solution to reinforcing our energy supply and reducing consumer costs, and the issuance of a nationwide waiver for the 2025 summer driving season is a clear path toward these shared goals.”

 WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) today led a bipartisan group of their colleagues in asking President Trump to permit the year-round sale of E15 fuel through the summer of 2025 in order to enhance America’s energy security and lower fuel costs for consumers while leveraging American agriculture.

“To meet our nation’s energy needs and decrease the cost of fuel, we must deploy an all-of-the-above energy strategy, which includes leveraging domestic biofuels,” the senators wrote. “As affirmed by the actions you took to first allow year-round E15 in 2019, and those approved for the summers afterward, the sale of higher blends of biofuels like E15 through the summer months supports the domestic fuel supply, reduces consumer costs, and promotes American biofuels and agriculture feedstocks.

“Utilizing American ethanol year-round is a direct solution to reinforcing our energy supply and reducing consumer costs, and the issuance of a nationwide waiver for the 2025 summer driving season is a clear path toward these shared goals,” the senators continued.

The senators’ bipartisan letter requests that President Trump use the nationwide temporary waivers provided under the Clean Air Act to extend the Reid vapor pressure waiver through the 2025 summer driving season.

The letter was also signed by U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.).

Full letter below:

Dear President Trump:

We write to request that you again permit the sale of E15 fuel during the 2025 summer driving season by extending the Reid vapor pressure (RVP) waiver, nationwide, from June 1 through September 15.  Through nationwide temporary waivers under Clean Air Act Section 211(c)(4)(C)(ii), the year-round sale of E15 has allowed for lower gas prices for consumers and stronger support of domestic biofuels and U.S. agriculture for three consecutive years.

These waivers will allow our domestic energy supply chain to continue to quickly and reliably respond to fuel supply challenges brought on, in part, by the war in Ukraine, which unfortunately continues to weigh on global energy and security.  Furthermore, this effort is in line with your executive order “Declaring a National Energy Emergency” that implores Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Zeldin and Department of Energy Secretary Wright to consider issuing these emergency waivers.  And finally, this action will give the agriculture economy much needed certainty by increasing the domestic demand for American commodities.

To meet our nation’s energy needs and decrease the cost of fuel, we must deploy an all-of-the-above energy strategy, which includes leveraging domestic biofuels.  As affirmed by the actions you took to first allow year-round E15 in 2019, and those approved for the summers afterward, the sale of higher blends of biofuels like E15 through the summer months supports the domestic fuel supply, reduces consumer costs, and promotes American biofuels and agriculture feedstocks.

Currently, the eight Midwestern governors’ petitions to sell E15 year-round has allowed for an agreement between both ethanol and petroleum stakeholders in support of a permanent legislative solution to allow nationwide, year-round E15 sales.  In the interim, taking action to permit the sale of E15 nationwide during the 2025 summer driving season also will be beneficial for consumers, the domestic energy industry, and agricultural producers. And to ensure nationwide uniformity in the gasoline market, we urge you to apply the temporary emergency waivers to E15 in all states as well as to E10 in the eight states who petitioned EPA to opt out of the RVP waiver program.

Utilizing American ethanol year-round is a direct solution to reinforcing our energy supply and reducing consumer costs, and the issuance of a nationwide waiver for the 2025 summer driving season is a clear path toward these shared goals.  Thank you for your timely consideration of this request.

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Rounds Introduces Legislation to Prevent Rural Hospital Closures
Legislation would codify a USDA pilot program that provides technical assistance to hospitals

 WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) today introduced legislation to help rural hospitals that are at risk of being closed. The Rural Hospital Technical Assistance Program Act would codify an existing pilot program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to rural hospitals to prevent closures, improve their financial and operational performance and strengthen essential healthcare services in rural communities.

“Rural hospitals are a lifeline for the communities they serve, and far too many are struggling to keep their doors open,” said Rounds. “Providing technical assistance to rural hospitals at risk for closure gives providers and administrators a fresh set of eyes on their operations and allows for new ideas to help stabilize their operations. The Rural Hospital Technical Assistance Program Act would codify this pilot program and help rural hospitals continue to provide the critical care that South Dakotans need.”

“The health and wellbeing of Vermont’s rural hospitals impact the health and wellbeing of every Vermonter—but our rural hospitals need help to keep their doors open for our patients,” said Welch. “I’m proud to partner with Senator Rounds on this bipartisan bill, which will strengthen hospitals across the United States and help rural hospitals improve their care and services.”

Through an agreement with USDA, the National Rural Health Association provides several types of technical assistance to include expert guidance on optimizing billing processes, addressing reimbursement delays, improving collections and maximizing available reimbursement opportunities. Any rural hospital is eligible under this program, with preference given to hospitals in persistent poverty communities of less than 20,000. Participating hospitals are provided with a contractor specializing in rural health care delivery, who then reports back on goals and next steps to get the hospitals to financial and operational stability.

To date, 17 hospitals have participated in the pilot version of the program, including four in South Dakota: Bennett County Hospital in Martin, Freeman Regional Health Services in Freeman, Landmann-Jungman Memorial Hospital in Scotland and Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Viborg. The program has been highly effective in assisting rural hospitals.

“The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations would like to thank Senator Rounds for introducing this important legislation to support South Dakota’s rural hospitals,” said Tim Rave, President and CEO of the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations. “In a state where our population density is 12 people per square mile and 57% of our residents live in a rural area, it is critical to ensure access to quality health care for our rural and medically underserved communities. The Rural Hospital TA Program Act will help our hospitals identify needs, access resources and strengthen their operations to maintain essential health care services.”

“As a rural CEO, I am incredibly pleased with the process and action plan developed to help ensure our continued viability,” said Melissa Gale, CEO of Landmann-Jungman Memorial Hospital Avera. “It was uniquely tailored to our facility, addressing the specific concerns raised during the site visit. The recommendations are both practical and achievable for our small, rural community in Scotland. This approach truly reflects a deep understanding of our needs and challenges.”

“The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) applauds Senator Rounds for his introduction of the Rural Health Care Facility Technical Assistance Program Act to expand and codify the existing USDA pilot program,” said Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. “This legislation will help prevent hospital closures, improve financial and operations performance for facilities, and strengthen essential healthcare services in rural communities. NRHA looks forward to working with Congress to keep hospital doors open and continue providing care for the 60 million residents living in rural America.”

BACKGROUND:

Since 2005, 186 rural hospitals have closed nationwide, and over 400 rural hospitals are currently vulnerable to closure. 28 percent of hospitals in South Dakota are considered vulnerable to closure. Many rural hospitals face significant infrastructure needs, including updates on aging facilities, implementation of electronic health records and expansion of facilities to meet the changing needs of their service area.

Click HERE to read full bill text.

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Last fall, Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken had expressed that he wished that the South Dakota Legislature would focus on real issues, and not the culture war nonsense that was tending to be brought up by legislators.

“We’re in a divisive time right now. Politics is gross and people are mad,” TenHaken said. “How do we put just put some of that anger aside, culture issues aside, what’s the basic tackling and blocking we have to do to keep up with a city growing 5-6,000 people year. Keeping a couple books out of our library is not high on our priority list.”

and..

TenHaken said “culture war issues” take a lot of time and the return on investment isn’t there to benefit the community.

Read that all here at KELOland.

Of course, the legislature did the opposite, and people like Rep. Bethany Soye pushed forth efforts to lock up librarians, etc.

Today in the Argus Leader, Mayor TenHaken reflected back on the failure of a legislative session we just had:

“I don’t think bills that force the hanging of Ten Commandments in school classrooms is a priority in our state right now,” TenHaken said. “As a guy who tries to live his life by the Ten Commandments and thinks it’s a fantastic, fantastic set of words to live by, I think it’s a dangerous precedent when you start saying, ‘I’m going to impose my religious values at a legislative level into my public school base.’ I think we’re kind of messing with fire a little bit there.”

TenHaken bemoaned that bills regarding school lunches and public school initiatives were “quickly discounted” while legislators spent “a lot of time dealing with library issues” and not with housing, public safety and other things that the mayor said “I hear about in my office way more than some of the stuff that ate up a lot of the time in the session.”

and..

“They love local control until we don’t take cash and then they want to step on local control,” TenHaken said. “And they love local control until they want to tell you when to have your elections. And they love local control until they want to tell you you can’t be a sanctuary city or whatever the topic might be.”

He also said he felt there had been a lack of communication between the city and legislators, saying that he had struggled to get responses from legislators when he reached out about questions or concerns on bills.

Read that here.

And that was the 2025 South Dakota State Legislative session.