Home for the Holidays
by Senate Majority Leader Casey Crabtree
For generations, home ownership has been a goal that families plan for, budget for, and work hard to achieve. Thinking back to when Ashley and I were newlyweds and planning for a family, we dreamt of the day when we would establish roots in a community and buy a home. I’m sure like us, that was a milestone for many of you as well, especially around the holidays with memories of the first time putting up a Christmas tree, celebrating Christmas at home with a newborn, and sending out Christmas photos from in front of the fireplace.
South Dakota’s record population growth in recent years has been a boon for construction, but that demand has also put financial pressures on working families—especially first-time home buyers. Compile that with economic inflation due to Bidenomics and supply chain issues, it has become harder for some to achieve their version of the American dream. While the national economy is out of the hands of South Dakota’s Legislature, we have worked hard on local solutions to help reduce new home costs, reduce taxes, and strengthen the local economy for South Dakotans.
In 2022, when federal dollars came to South Dakota for COVID relief, the Legislature had a choice: return the dollars to the federal government and watch the feds turn around and give the money to other states or invest those dollars in impactful ways to advance the state and help our residents. Thanks to the efforts of many including local mayors, city councils, county commissions, Realtors, homebuilders, and ordinary taxpayers, the Legislature invested $200 million into the Workforce Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Through SB 41 in 2023 and HB 1033 in 2022, I was able to work with my colleagues to establish this fund to help communities reduce the costs of infrastructure needed for new homes throughout the entire state. Applications began earlier this year and dollars have already been awarded from our most rural areas to our biggest cities. So far, 57 projects have received investments leading to the development of more than 6,000 single-family lots and 3,700 multi-family units.
Innovative ideas like the Workforce Housing Infrastructure Fund are ways Republicans have taken a conservative, pro-responsible growth approach to helping our communities and our residents to incentivize economic strength instead of government handouts. This one-time investment will provide a return to the taxpayers for generations while reducing costs for new homeowners. It will help our kids and grandkids build the foundation of their families here. These are the South Dakotans leaping to a new phase of life to set deeper roots in our communities, lend their talents to local economies, and help raise the next generation of South Dakotans.
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