Giving Back – Permanently
By: Governor Kristi Noem
March 24, 2023
Every time I travel our state, the best part of my day is just meeting people. I run into old friends at Culver’s or HyVee all the time. They usually introduce me to whoever they’re with, whether it’s family or friends. And that often starts another new relationship that I will treasure for years to come.
Our people are incredible, and they’ve proven it with more than just their friendliness and common sense. It just so happens that they’ve also built the strongest economy in the nation with the lowest unemployment rate. Under my leadership, we embraced liberty and personal responsibility. But what that did was give the people the opportunity to succeed. They built it – not me. Freedom generated our record growth; Freedom generated our historic tax revenues.
I have advocated for permanent tax relief for the people of South Dakota because I believe that they know how to spend their own money better than the government does. Yes, state government must invest in agencies and programs that take care of people. But we shouldn’t do so wastefully. We must be efficient and respectful of taxpayer dollars.
It is no secret that I advocated for a full repeal of the grocery tax. It’s a tax that burdens every single person who buys food in South Dakota. Our citizens overwhelmingly support eliminating the grocery tax because they recognize that it will benefit everyone. It doesn’t pick winners and losers.
Unfortunately, the legislature chose to provide a different sort of tax relief. They gave the people a temporary tax holiday by means of a $100 million reduction in the overall sales tax. This holiday goes away in four years, meaning the legislature can raise taxes without ever having to vote for it. I don’t want that to happen. I don’t want to see the tax burden on our citizens rise. So I will continue to push for permanent tax relief for the people of South Dakota.
I signed the temporary tax holiday because some help for our people is better than none at all. But public sentiment shows that South Dakotans want a permanent tax cut. The legislature has failed in that regard, but I believe that we can work together to achieve it for the people.
I am glad that the legislature changed their mind and did provide some relief to the people of South Dakota, even though it’s temporary. Many in legislative leadership came into the session not wanting to give any kind of tax relief to the people – they just wanted to spend our record revenues. So we have made progress in that regard.
The people still have the opportunity to pass permanent tax relief for themselves by eliminating the grocery tax, and the legislature should be prepared for that to happen.
I will not stop advocating for our people. They are the reason I get out of bed in the morning. I want to give every person in our state the Freedom and opportunity to chase their dreams – to make life better for themselves, their kids, and their grandkids. My honor and good sense require me to continue to fight for the permanent tax cut the people have earned.
And that’s what I will do.
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Correction: Every time I travel our state which is rare these days that I am even in South Dakota, the best part of my day is just meeting people. They are surprised to see I am in the state and not in Palm Beach or some warm location rubbing elbows with wealthy out of state donors. Shopping at Rodeo Drive in LA is one of my favorites but it is nice to go back and visit with those who I govern and are eager to be my props for a national campaign to promote my brand.
And that’s what I will do.
Saw you on fox and friends this am. You looked great. Stopping evil in its tracks. Fighting for food tax freedom. Stopping at Culver’s. It’s all very impressive.
ps-the taxpayers will have you and you alone to thank when the ballot measure in 24 passes. Free advertising for Nesiba’s cause. Will you be appearing with him supporting the measure?
“I don’t want to see the tax burden on our citizens rise.”
Hey Gov, not sure if you noticed, but property taxes for education ARE going up and you haven’t said or done a dang thing about it. The tax burden is rising on one tax base while going down on another.
Anonymous at 7:46 the cost of education keeps going up because teachers hate their jobs and if we paid each of them a million dollars a year they would still complain about how nobody works as hard as they do for such low wages.
There is really nothing the Governor can do about this other than tell them to get jobs in law enforcement or agriculture.
Most teachers Ive met loved their job, which is an insanely important one. They just want more support. You just made up your claims. If you have any evidence for you claims, put up or shut up.
people who love what they do don’t complain about the money. Period. Normal people who decide they aren’t getting paid enough for what they are doing get different jobs. When you really enjoy what you are doing, the money isn’t what keeps you there, because it doesn’t feel like work, it just feels like life. You adjust your lifestyle to your income, because while you could probably make more money doing something else, you don’t want to. So when people complain about what they are getting paid, what they are really saying is that they hate their jobs.
This logic is asinine. A person can love their work and want to get paid more. And I see you have no evidence, btw. Color me shocked.
Yep, it’s come to this, Repubs like you not even pretending anymore to want to give educators the support they deserve, but choosing to call them whiners instead.
Nobody DESERVES support.
“The legislature has failed in that regard, but I believe that we can work together to achieve it for the people.”
No, Kristi – You failed in working with the legislature to achieve it for your constituents. Its your job to work with legislators, and you were unable or unwilling to put in the work to see this through. You made a promise, and didn’t deliver. Its one or the other – you were ineffective in pushing your huge promise and convincing legislators why they should support your legislation – or did not have the relationships and understanding it wasn’t possible with the current electorate to be passed.
Either way, you failed. That’s on you, and you only. Don’t make promises you cannot keep.
One word describes this situation Noem finds herself in: Ineffective.
With the grand scheme of things I would not be surprised that she looks at legislators as her underlings. Our Governor being “America’s Governor” is on to bigger and better things. South Dakota will be her roots and we will gladly be her props from our South Dakota National Guard to everyday working stiffs from Milbank to Edgemont.
Kristi Noem for President of the United States of America.
Wow…herr cory the shorty heidelberger has sent his Noem hating sycophants out on their weekend crying mission already.
This is so petty and sad.
Who? Herr cory the shorty? I agree.
I recall being called “short” once as an insult on this site, now I understand the attempted insult. Are you really an adult making fun of someone’s height or other feature that cannot be changed? You sound like Bud May….
Rather than defend her, you show how CAH lives rent-free in your head. Pathetic.
Noem can do better than this childish garbage. I’d advocate the legislature save the taxpayers $200k from the budget by eliminating the emotions Fury and Joy.
Seriously, blatant waste of tax dollars right there.
Temporary tax cuts are like Botox and lip plumpers, they’re not permanent. The simple solution is to take the yearly surplus, put 10% in the reserve fund and rebate the rest to to taxpayers. If the year ends short, pay from the reserve, no rebate that year.
Kristi should have pushed them on the Partridge Amendment. That was a promise made to the people of South Dakota, and they broke that promise.
Anonymous at 6:38… Good point. And don’t forget that we were supposed to see tax relief when collections through internet purchases reached an agreed level, $10 million if I recall. But, in true Emily Litella fashion, we’re expected to “never mind.” The money got spent for other stuff.