After revelations over State Senator Tamara Grove maintaining a residence claiming a tax break in Sioux Falls due based on the residence being owner occupied, despite representing a legislative District that’s at a minimum a 4 hour drive away, the Dakota Scout is reporting that after calls from Republicans and Democrats alike, Grove is refusing to resign her position.
And that’s after the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney has announced an investigation into the arrangement for possible issues over the status of the Minnehaha County “tax break.”
A Lower Brule lawmaker will not resign after tax records revealed her primary residency is outside of the South Dakota legislative district she represents in the state Senate.
and..
Grove acknowledged in a statement to The Scout that she maintained an owner-occupied home in Sioux Falls that allows a reduced property tax bill while claiming to reside in Lower Brule and called the discrepancy — revealed through an investigation by The Scout Saturday — an “omission” and pledging to amend her property status.
and..
Republican state Rep. Rebecca Reimer, who is challenging Grove in the June 2 GOP primary, criticized Grove’s effort to revise her tax records only after questions emerged publicly.
“My opponent knew exactly what she was doing when she ran for office last time and again this time while these records remained unchanged,” Reimer said. “She has had more than enough time to correct them and did not. Now that she has been caught, suddenly she wants to fix it. She can either resign, suspend her campaign or face the fate of the voters on Election Day.”
Tamara Grove is supposedly a state senator or plays one in the South Dakota State Senate during session. One would think as a lawmaker dealing with the details of proposed legislation and existing laws since she was an activist prior she would realize the what the actual issue is.
Many moons ago when there was a Republican Party didn’t their elected officials tout and believe in personal responsibility?
No way Grove wins in a general after this scandal. Republicans should get behind Reimer.
Should vote for Reimer over Grove regardless of her trying to cheat the government of property taxes. Reimer is a better candidate.
In the fairly recent past, there was a seated legislator from Rapid City who had received some government funds for a business they owned/operated that were later deemed as inappropriate to have received as a state legislator. This former legislator had even asked private counsel’s opinion before accepting the funds and that advice was to the effect of it being okay to receive the funds. Later, it was determined these funds should not have been received/accepted by a seated legislator. A financial agreement was reached with the state to repay the funds AND the legislator accepted the fact that the only right and prudent thing to do was to resign from the legislative seat.
Two differences with this current Sen. Grove situation:
1.) The legislator in the former situation was proactive and understood there could be an issue, got advice (albeit it turned out to be bad advice) prior to any financial exchange/benefit, and then later, after resolving the financial matter, did the right thing and stepped away from the elected office.
2.) Sen. Grove, even though property taxes (especially owner-occupied classification) has been talked about more this past year or two than most any other time in state history, just happened to be clueless about her personal situation and had an “omission”… How many times will the ‘lack of knowledge of the law’ work for the rest of us, much less a STATE LAWMAKER…? (try running with an “I didn’t know what the law was” excuse past a law enforcement officer on a traffic violation and see how you fair…) And yet, she still refuses to accept responsibility (ie. do the right thing and resign)???
Some people just believe they are above the law and/or play the victim card their whole lives apparently.
Doing right ain’t got no end . Besides it’s expensive to live in Sioux Falls without that tax break
So a citizen legislator with no staff or research team who isn’t a lawyer made an oversight and didn’t change tax status when doing missionary work. When she was notified, she fixed it. I think it speaks volumes about her opponent that she doesn’t have anything productive or solutions focused to run on so this “controversy” is what she’s pushing to make herself seem better while the Dakota scout is milking it for viewers like a daily rag. I don’t particularly care for Groves’s views but this isn’t the way to win for Reimer.
I don’t see that Sen Grove needs to be painted as the victim here. If you are a state legislator and can make state laws and you can’t understand the most basic of state tax laws, especially the ones that directly affect you, then I don’t think you’re qualified to serve in that role. I sure wouldn’t be voting for you.
She fixed it how?
And did she pay the tax lost?
But wait, there’s more. In a post on Facebook, Groves husband, Ian, stated the following: “For over three years, we have lived, worked, and built community full-time right here on the Lower Brule Reservation.
As Assemblies of God missionaries, we live in the church parsonage and pastor our church, the Hope Center of Lower Brule. Over the years, we’ve offered regular services and held weekly Christ-centered meetings for men, women, and children.
While the church owns the parsonage and leases the land from the tribe, we’ve poured our own money and time into rebuilding the parsonage from the inside out. This is truly our home, from cultivating our big gardens to caring for our little flock of chicken friends.
We chose to follow God and serve this community long before politics called.”
Notice all the plurals and possessive plurals? “We” and “our.” Ian is stating that he has lived in Lower Brule for three years. Guess where he is registered to vote? Sioux Falls. If he has lived in Lower Brule for three years, then for the last three years he has illegally been registered to vote in Sioux Falls.
What part of “OWNER OCCUPIED” do these people not understand? It’s literally what it says – the owner occupies the house. Nobody cares that you own a house in Sioux Falls but if you don’t live there, you’re not occupying it. Family members living there doesn’t count. They literally keep saying they moved to Lower Brule. So they don’t live in Sioux Falls.
My public school high schooler even understands this owner occupied concept. They talked in their government class about the property tax issues and the fact that vacation homes that are non owner occupied have caused housing shortages in our community. It’s such an easy that a public school high schooler can understand. He even understands that tax evasion is literally stealing even without the 10 commandments hanging on the school walls.
well as Reimer says, she can resign, suspend her campaign, or face the fate of the voters’ on Tuesday. ICYMI, today is Thursday.
I knew she was a fraud when she would go up and testify as “Doctor Tamara Grove” and imply she has some sort of medical background. When you look her up, she has an online PhD in “leadership” or some crap.
Many seem to think we should all know if our real estate is listed as owner occupied, or if the owners are over 65, or disabled veteran, or have Ag status.
I don’t know how they do it in Minnehaha County, but since both the asssessment notice and the tax bill from Moody County were still affixed with magnets to the microwave, I decided to examine them.
Other than the land being classified as Ag, there is no designation regarding the dwelling on either piece of paper. None. So I called the equalization office and asked if I were missing something. Apparently not. They had to check, and called me back.
Long story, short version: my owner-occupied status is still active and on file with the county equalization office, but it does not appear on any of the paperwork they send me.
I was told it took 3 people in the office to figure out the arcane reason why the owner-occupied status was in their files but not on the assessment notification nor the bill. .
So much for the idea that “everybody” receives such information in the mail.
It is stated on my notices from the county and is easy to read. It is important.
it might be important but it is NOT stated on mine. We qualify for the agricultural exemption, the over-65 exemption, the disabled veteran exemption, and the owner-occupied exemption.
All are on file with the equalization office.
Only the Agricultural use of the land appears on the paperwork, nothing is noted that pertains to the house and the three other buildings.
We can’t be the only people who have learned the only way to be sure of what exemptions they are receiving is to make the phone call.
This is a cautionary tale for anybody who runs for office.
http://www.GetToKnowTamaraGrove.com
What is especially disturbing is that a number of her supporters have stated online that breaking laws should be ignored since they ideologically align with her claiming she is a good legislator.
If these laws were broken by an elected official they did not ideologically align with I suspect they would be demanding those elected officials running for re-election or a new candidate should resign, withdraw from the race and be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Btw! Any word from SD Canvassing yet? They should be all over this!
Okay Rebecca. You’ll lose on Tuesday. I’ll celebrate your loss. Your legislating days are done
Young Ms. Tamara or Tamera or whatever her name is now wants this to all blow over, but grudznick suspects it will rez dog her for a while.
She owns a house in Sioux falls and lives in lower Brule she fixed her taxes the first thing on Tuesday. she took accountability and paid a fine. this comes out a couple days before the election as her disgruntled opponent can try to win. Sen Grove is for the people and stands by what she believes in she is the most qualified candidate #rebecca is scared.
You can polish a turd, but it’s still a turd. And this one is still a turd. Her husband, who claims to have also been living in Lower Brule for the past 3 years, is still registered to vote in Sioux Falls. You can’t tell me he went that long, with a wife in the legislature representing a different district than he is registered to vote in, and didn’t know this. But what is even more disheartening is how Tamera handled the situation.
All she would have had to do was apologize, tell the public it was an unfortunate oversight, and that she will get it fixed and pay the back taxes she should have been paying on the SF home. Instead she made a mockery of the very laws she has been elected to create and uphold. This isn’t some “little tax issue” as she claimed. The way she responded was entitled, arrogant, and with a “I’m better than you” attitude. She tried to make herself the victim and play it off as some funny little thing that wasn’t a big deal instead of outright owning her mistake. It’s shameful. If that’s how she is going to view being a legislator, then she has no business being in Pierre. And I sure hope the good people in her district agree.
She literally did pay back the taxes and showed proof that she lives in lower brule she explained that it was an attack by her belittled opponent who visited her parsonage in lower brule. I live in lower brule. Her and her husband have done great things for this community. What has Riemer done? Nothing. I will vote for a candidate who is faithful to the community and is honest. #voteNORiemer
Birds of a feather…. preach you are the most Christian, pro-life, property rights and everything under the sun to everyone else, but truth, honesty and integrity does not apply to them. She promotes Jon Hansen while he breaks promises, hides the truth when he sees it isn’t popular, takes credit for what someone else has done, etc. He has made many mistakes and continues to do so. How many parents of children who wouldn’t have families without invitro fertilization would get to even have a family? What if you only exist because of IVF? He brags about his stance at the last debate, but now is completely silent. Property owners rights have been fought for over the past many years, no thanks to him. That’s why no one lost their land. But one pipeline battle that he raises his hand to lead for political reasons and he claims to the ‘the’ hero. The Tameras and John Hansens do South Dakota more harm than good. Time for those birds to fly north.