
Delivering for South Dakota
By Sen. John Thune
Republicans are moving closer to finishing work on a bill that fulfills our promise to make America stronger and more prosperous. My biggest priority in that bill is making sure South Dakota families, farmers and ranchers, and small businesses are all stronger and more prosperous. And I’m proud to report that this bill has a lot of good news for South Dakotans.
Most notably, our bill makes permanent the lower taxes for working families Republicans secured in 2017. Without action, those 2017 tax cuts would expire at the end of this year and South Dakotans would see an average tax hike of $2,500 next year. I’m determined not to let that happen. Our bill not only makes those lower tax rates permanent, it improves upon the 2017 reforms. It provides a larger child tax credit and standard deduction and makes them permanent too. It reduces seniors’ tax burdens with a further boost in the standard deduction. It suspends taxes on tips and on overtime pay for hourly workers.
The 2017 tax reform was also great news for South Dakota small businesses. They benefited from lower tax rates, investment incentives, and the small business deduction. Small business owners will now have the certainty they need to invest in new workers and in growing their businesses with those tax policies being made permanent. By one estimate, the small business deduction will help create 40,000 new jobs in our state in the next 10 years, and that’s just one of the pro-growth policies in this bill.
This bill is also good news for farmers and ranchers. By making the tax cuts permanent, we’re protecting farms from an average $5,000 tax hike next year. I’m proud that this bill will also raise the death tax exemption to $15 million, as well as peg the exemption to inflation and make it permanent. These reforms will protect countless family farms and ranches from this fundamentally flawed tax and the headaches of planning that come with it.
After a challenging few years for farmers and ranchers, this bill also makes critical improvements to the programs they depend on. It increases reference prices for all covered commodities, improves crop insurance coverage and affordability, and it supports risk management, disaster assistance, and conservation programs. We can’t have a stronger and more prosperous America without strong farms and ranches, and I’m proud these reforms are part of our bill.
Making America stronger is also about making it more secure. This bill does that with critical investments in building up our military, including investing in the B-21 bomber that will soon be stationed at our own Ellsworth Air Force Base. It funds the Trump administration’s border security and deportation efforts for the long term, including finishing the border wall. And it will help law enforcement combat illegal drug trafficking at the border and in our communities.
Our bill makes America stronger by supporting the people who make America great. It ensures working families can keep more of their hard-earned money, helps small businesses create jobs, strengthens our agriculture sector, and provides critical resources to the men and women on the front lines whether they serve in the military, at the border, or in our communities. I’m proud of the work we’ve done on this bill so far, and I can’t wait to get it passed and get these policies working for the American people.
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