New Year, New Tax Code
By Rep. Kristi Noem

It’s a new year, and Americans have a new tax code. On January 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act took effect, delivering relief to families across the spectrum. I’ve received many questions from folks since the bill’s passage: How will it impact my family? What does it mean for South Dakota? During the first few days of January, I fought the frigid temps and hit the road to answer many of these questions.

The first stop was Black Hills Bagels in Rapid City. Debra Jensen first opened the bakery in 1997 and has since expanded to two locations. South Dakota is home to around 83,000 small businesses like this. They employ nearly 60 percent of our state’s workforce, and through tax reform, many will have access to a new small business deduction, lower tax rates, and better expensing tools. Each of these provisions were designed to keep more money locally, better ensuring that what we make in South Dakota is spent in South Dakota to grow wages and create jobs at home.

After making a few more stops in Rapid City, we headed east. In Brookings, I dropped by the home of Luke and Emma Perkins. They’ve been married a little over four years, have two beautiful children with another due in March, and work for Equip Campus Ministries at SDSU. For young families like theirs, we double the standard deduction, meaning the first $24,000 a couple makes is tax free. The Child Tax Credit is doubled to $2,000 per child. And on top of that, we lowered tax rates.

Let’s say Luke and Emma make $78,000 as a couple. Under the old tax code, the family’s 2018 tax bill would be more than $2,600. With tax reform, it would drop to $99.

Next, I held a lunch with some young, Sioux Falls moms. We talked about the standard deduction and Child Tax Credit as well, but we also spent some time discussing the Child Care Credit. South Dakota has the highest rate of working moms in the country. The Child Care Credit is specifically designed to reduce the burden of day care expenses for working families.

Additionally, we touched on some of the other individual benefits that are there to give a little boost when you reach big life milestones. This includes the mortgage interest deduction, retirement savings options, and the enhanced 529 education savings plans.

After a stop at Double D Western in Huron and a night at home with my own family, I stopped in at Titan Machinery in Watertown. Farmers need a lot of expensive equipment to operate each year. To help producers manage cashflow, tax reform includes immediate expensing of the equipment they buy at places like Titan.

The week’s final stop was at Aberdeen’s 3M plant. By bringing our business tax rate in line with the rest of the developed world’s, we make America a more competitive place to do business. Through tax reform, we also eliminated the incentives that currently reward companies for shifting jobs, profits, and manufacturing plants abroad. It’s time to put America first.

Already, we’re seeing new jobs being created while dozens of American companies have given hundreds of thousands of employees significant raises or bigger Christmas bonuses as a result of tax reform.

I believe it’s incredibly important that South Dakotans understand exactly what was included in the tax reform package, which is why I took to the road in recent weeks. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and you deserve the facts. While no tax reform package will be perfect for every family, this legislation is packed with benefits for hardworking South Dakotans that keep more money in your pockets and our communities. I was proud to be part of negotiating this landmark legislation. Happy New Year – and welcome to a new tax code.

Another Way To Manage The Cold
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

With the extremely cold weather we have recently experienced, I am reminded how important it is to plan for it. This doesn’t just mean stocking long underwear and packing emergency kits in cars. It can also mean incorporating energy efficient designs into our homes and businesses. This can help keep heat bills under control and keep us comfortable everywhere, not just next to a heating vent.

My interest in energy efficiency goes back to the 1980s when Linda and I built our home on the family farm. I began reading about wall assemblies and window sills in my free time. Back then, the energy efficient lingo of the day was “super-insulated.” I made sure that the R-values in the walls and ceiling would keep my energy costs low. I put no windows on the west side and only one small window on the north side. To reduce electric demand, and help cool the house in summer, I installed a heat-pump water heater.

I am very proud of the house, and Linda and I are very eager to return there once we finish our stay in Pierre. It remains comfortable and solid yet today. The energy cost savings I have realized have paid for the extra costs at construction many times over.

Since then, some features in my house have become more mainstream and energy efficiency has become a more common aspiration. Building science has seen additional advances since the 1980s and I’ve recognized a few mistakes that I made in building my house. Today, the leading standard for energy efficient building is the Passive House standard. The standard defines needed elements with rigor, but still allows customization. It can be tricky to build a home that meets all passive house standards, but even if a building cannot meet the full standard, many of the concepts can be applied to provide significant savings. The standards are outlined at phius.org.

We have applied some of these standards to the Governor’s House program. The program builds houses for income-qualified individuals and families using inmate labor. A few years ago, we upgraded insulation, tightened the envelope in the homes and added an air exchanger. More recently, we added a high efficiency heat pump system. The homes are comfortable and affordable to heat and cool.

If you are considering remodeling your current home or building a new one, I encourage you to look towards energy efficiency. A modest investment in the short-term can reap long-term rewards by making your house more economical and more comfortable.

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TenHaken Surpasses Fundraising Goal 

(Sioux Falls, SD) – Sioux Falls businessman and mayoral candidate Paul TenHaken ended 2017 by exceeding his campaign’s fundraising goal.

TenHaken reported raising $94,760 for his election campaign since entering the race in August 2017. Nearly 50 percent of donors contributed $100 or less.

“I am overwhelmed by the support and excitement around my candidacy for mayor of Sioux Falls,” said TenHaken. “My passion for people and vision for Sioux Falls is resonating with a broad spectrum of our community. People are hungry for change and our fundraising success is a testament to that.”

Paul’s executive leadership experience, passion for people, and message of transparent government, crime reduction and innovation have made him a frontrunner in the race. His successful fundraising period helps Paul reach the voters he has not yet had an opportunity to meet in person.

A Sioux Falls resident for the past 18 years, TenHaken spent the last 10 years as the founder and CEO of Click Rain, one of the largest marketing technology agencies in the Upper Midwest. Paul and his wife Jill are the proud parents of three children who keep them involved with school, community, and church activities.

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I’m hearing today that Secretary of State Shantel Krebs campaign confidant and public information officer Jason Williams is calling it a day and leaving the Secretary of State’s office for greener pastures.

No specific word on what the Aberdeen native (and recently betrothed) Williams will be doing, but best wishes to him in his future endeavors.

STAR Academy sold for 2.34 Million yesterday (subject to the Governor’s approval), but Watertown State Seantor and possible congressional candidate Neal Tapio doesn’t like it. And plans to fight the sale during the upcoming legislative session:

One of those legislators, Sen. Neal Tapio, R-Watertown, said recent juvenile-justice reforms by state government have not worked as intended, and have instead passed the burden of juvenile behavior problems down to local governments and schools. He said a facility such as the STAR Academy is still needed to treat troubled youth.

Speaker of the House Mark Mickelson is on the WNAX website today speaking about the political differences between Republicans in the legislature.  Because Republicans hold super-majorities in the legislature, it’s the splits in the GOP which prevent legislation from moving forward.

And Mickelson has specific opinions about what causes disagreements in the legislative process

“What really gets in the way is if you have a legislator that has not done their homework, and is trying to grab a headline with some hot button issue that… all of us…. it doesn’t matter if you agree with the issue or not.. if the legislator has not done their homework, well, that aggravates all of us… or almost all of us.”

Listen to the audio clip here.

From KDLT, Marty Jackley announces his campaign is doing well, and has raised over 1 Million:

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today his campaign has reached a record fundraising level in the governor’s race.

His campaign office says they raised over $1M in 2017, which breaks the single-year record for money raised by a gubernatorial campaign in a primary.

Read it here.

The Associated Press is reporting this morning that the Secretary of State has approved the Mickelson backed ban on out of state funds for ballot measures with about 1000 signatures to spare:

A South Dakota ballot measure that would ban out-of-state fundraising for citizens’ initiatives will go before voters in November, the state’s chief elections official said Thursday.

The measure would impose major new restrictions on how South Dakota ballot questions are funded, but experts have said such proposals are unlikely to survive a legal challenge. Secretary of State Shantel Krebs’ office said in a statement the ballot question will be named Initiated Measure 24.

And…

Backers needed nearly 14,000 valid signatures for the South Dakota initiative to go before voters. Supporters turned in roughly 18,000 signatures, and a random sampling found about 81 percent were valid.

The deadline for a citizen to challenge the measure’s approval for the ballot is Feb. 5.

Read it all here.

There’s no word yet whether outside groups will be challenging the petition approval.

While I was sitting down with Congresswoman Kristi Noem this AM in Brookings, Attorney General and GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Marty Jackley held a town hall in Aberdeen, which the Aberdeen American News captured live on their facebook page: