Governor Larry Rhoden was throwing cold water on a group of legislative proposals from the legislature to reduce property taxes led in part by one of his primary election opponents, as they only proposed tweaks around the edges, when they weren’t trying to blame state government for the problem.
According to the article by South Dakota Searchlight:
“I’ve realized that there’s not much I’ve seen that I could support,” Rhoden told South Dakota Searchlight during a visit to Rapid City last week.
and..
The speaker of the state House of Representatives, Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, was the vice chairman of the Legislature’s Comprehensive Property Tax Task Force. He’s also one of the candidates challenging Rhoden for the Republican nomination for governor next year.
When the task force announced its 19 recommendations in October, Hansen framed high property taxes as a government spending problem. He authored two of the recommendations, including a request for the governor’s cooperation in cutting 5% of the spending from the state’s general fund.
and..
“I share the desire to cut property taxes,” Rhoden said in the speech. “But slashing health care, education and public safety is not the way to do it.”
Read the entire story here at South Dakota Searchlight.
The legislative property tax committee was not much more than a train wreck whose main solution was to tell state government to figure it out by cutting services, when they could not come to a consensus after throwing out numerous taxes to raise.
This session is going to be a clown show with lots of posturing and nothing happening. Hanson has the luxury of grandstanding and blaming others if nothing happens. Rhoden actually has to govern.
40 days of campaigning and South Dakotans will pay the price.
The property tax summer committee was a joke. It’s interesting that many of the legislators screaming the loudest for property tax relief are the same ones who chased GEVO to North Dakota and who will demonize data centers in the upcoming session. If these right-wingers are reelected South Dakota’s prospects for economic growth will completely dry up.
Some swift talking out of staters are not people with whom to entrust ” economic development.” They don’t care about us.
Anyone who has read any of the 19 recommendations knows they’re all crap and none of them do anything to eliminate or replace property tax. It’s almost like we’re only talking about property tax because it’s the “Trump” thing to do. Can we move on past Trump, please? Hansen is going to make a fool of himself with this.
It’s also very Trumpian to make a fool of yourself but not care, just keep firing at your opponents (or “enemies”)
I haven’t seen the 19 proposals, but the governor’s 1/2% optional sales tax seems to be a good solution. It’s simple, easily implemented, and is consumption based which will be supported by nonresidents.
I know the people pushing the 1$ transaction tax have good intentions, but that is just a terrible plan for a number of reasons. It will hose those at the bottom the most, while saving the slumlords of the state thousands per month.
I don’t believe we will get meaningful property tax reform this next session or under Rhoden at all. It’s going to take a real leader to make something happen. Last guy to do that was Janklow.
isn’t gambling money supposed to be going towards education? Oh wait, the worthless legislature doesn’t know what they’re doing.
No. It never has.
Yes it was suppose to but never has. It goes into general fund and gets used for other things. When we voted in gambling it was to help teachers pay but never did