From Kiplinger Magazine, we’re not doing too bad in term of the amount we pay in taxes:
Read it all here at Kiplinger.
So when Jay Williams says we’re not taxed enough, and we have both Congressional Candidate Paula Hawks, and State Legislative Candidate Cory Heidelberger saying we need an income tax, they’re not looking at the big picture. In the face of our sparse population and agricultural based economy, it’s what balances us out, and makes us an attractive place to invest and retire. (We’re also #9 on their top ten states for retirees.)
Welcome to South Dakota! The home to about 867,000 happy people and a few soreheads.
Let Jay, Paula, and Corey move to New Yawk or California and pay more taxes, if they wish. Why turn every state into a piece of crap just because you see yourself as some kind of savior to all the people who don’t have as much as others? I don’t know that they’d be missed.
Coincidence or not? The least friendly tax states are some of the most Democratic states.
Nothing surprising about that!
Considering a majority of South Dakotan’s barely make anything, I can see why they are always so concerned about their tax rates.
When compared to New York or Minnesota Daniel, then yes you are correct. That is comparing dollar to dollar you are correct. If you take cost of living into consideration then SD are paid about average to other states. Plus I think South Dakota has other things to offer that one cannot get in Minnesota, California or New York.
Cost of living? The only thing cheaper here is housing and that doesn’t make up for it. Everything else I’ve looked at is almost identical, with SD coming in higher in most rural areas when it comes to food costs. I think what is keeping most people here has more to do with quality of life, but even that can be found in other rural states where they pay quite a bit more.
Daniel, I have had offers to move to the Twin Cities, Denver and California. All offers were for about 25% more than what I make here in SD. Turned the all down, can make more money in SD. If you want I can go into details. When recruiting people from other states to work her in SD they say the same thing as you do Daniel. Once i break down the math, I get them to work here except once.
I’m not sure why you think housing does not make up for it. I visited a friend of mine in San Diego. He has a condo that cost in the neighborhood of 1/2 million. That same condo in Sioux Falls would probably go for around $200 K, maybe a little higher. My house of 1550 square feet plus a basement is in the neighborhood of $250 K. That house transplanted in many areas of California would be valued at north of $1,000,000. Go to Phoenix. Even with the real estate crash, houses there are way more expensive than here.
As for food, I think you will find fresh meats and veggies costing less than in most major cities. When it comes to transportation, I am willing to bet it costs a lot less to travel to and from work in Sioux Falls or most any other place than it does in most major cities. Have you ever spent a half an hour to get one mile in Minneapolis? And to top it off, our tax bill is a lot less.
So after 15 years there, I own a half million dollar home or i can stay here for 15 years and own a 200k home. Pretty easy to double your mortgage on a 30% pay increase, not to mention in some fields you can double your pay. There is a reason why it makes sense for professionals. You can put up with the rat race, live cheap, and sock enough away to make your trip back here to live like a king.
Coincidence or not? The most tax friendly states are also the most federally dependent and vice versa.
If you do some research Porter, you will find out why some of these states are dependent on the federal government. I could go into details but I would be called a racist, bigot and most likely not very compassionate about others. I do enjoy your comments though Porter.
It’s not racist to say it until you’re shown the truth. Then if you continue to repeat it, knowing you’re wrong, then it’s racist.
You’re probably referring to the inaccurate argument that it’s the Indians and the highways that make the state need so much federal money every year. All states have roads and many states have Indian reservations that pay more in fed taxes. The truth is that the wages are so darn low that nobody pays enough income tax and the liberal states have to give welfare to SoDak. We all even have to subsidize airline routes just so the country is prepared in an emergency. We’re not telling you to raise taxes or telling you what to do but it’s ironic how a state that depends on liberal states subsidies hates Washington so much. It’s guilt, I suppose.
Mr. Lansing, there’s nothing to feel guilty about. Federal money flows wherever its rules and regs dictate. That’s especially so in rural states, and South Dakota by definition is the most rural state in the nation with the fewest number of cities with 2,500 population. So the “welfare” numbers skew in our direction. No shame in that.
That said, yes, the combination of having three of the poorest counties in the nation, combined with the infrastructure challenges in wide open spaces, does uptick the amount of fed money per capita to South Dakota in comparison with other states. Higher taxes would not change that calculus.
They don’t even have the current tax rates. It’s 4.5% state and up to 3% local not to mention contractors excise tax. With very few exemptions I don’t think it’s much to brag about.
This calculation that results in South Dakota being “tax friendly” is ridiculous. If wages here were better we’d all pay more income tax. If wages here in South Dakota compared to other states’ we would not have the highest percentage of working mothers of any state. We would not have the highest or near-highest percentage of people working more than 2 jobs. If wages weren’t so crazy low huge box stores like Menards wouldn’t be whining that they can’t find enough workers.
Oh, wait, the only way for a town like Pierre to get a Menards or an O’Reilly Auto Parts to move there is to do a huge tax increment finance district. Menards put a South Dakota family-owned hardware and lumber store there out of business, and I just bet the NAPA store was thrilled to see a TIF done to bring in O’Reilly, and how about that sweetheart of a deal Pierre Economic Development came up with to buy a huge tract of land and sell it to Menards for a pittance? Hogen’s Hardware downtown must have just been tickled pink about that.
This state takes in millions in farm programs, and we’ve got no shame about taking money like EB5 or Essential Air Service to subsidize an airline to a place like Watertown that has to play games with mileage calculations to qualify for it, and even their mayor says they have options like driving a little more than an hour down the interstate to a city with dozens of flights a day. Did any of those who call themselves fiscal conservatives out in Pierre think twice about taking $11 million for an airport building thanks to President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act? That for an airport that boards about 30 passengers a day, at most. How about the millions we grabbed for a railroad from Mitchell to Presho? Look how much of State Government is funded with federal money, and look at how much of that is spent on pursuing more federal grants like the Department of Health does day in and day out.
We pay very low property taxes, no income tax, and thus we manage to maintain that dubious distinction of being dead last in teacher salaries year after year. Yep, it’s easy to be “tax friendly” when we’re so willing to jump for every federal dollar that comes along.