Legislature fails again on property taxes

Last spring and fall, at the height of election season, many future legislators both locally and across the state ran on the promise that if they were sent to Pierre, they would make sure the crush of property tax burden the property owners in the State of South Dakota were feeling would be their main focus. Things have to change, they said, as people are getting taxed out of their homes. Elect me, they said, and I’ll get to Pierre and we will get this fixed.
Whoops.
Despite a large array of bills being introduced during this year’s session with that exact goal in mind, exactly one of them made it across the finish line, and that was the governor’s bill that does absolutely nothing to address the assessments and taxes that have doubled, tripled or more since the pandemic. Instead, the governor’s bill, which caps the amount assessments can rise over the next five years, is nice for staving off future increases, which were already tapering off in many cases. It does nothing to help the aforementioned people who have done nothing to their house but are paying twice what they were only a few years ago.
It’s not like our District 30 legislators didn’t try. A bill that Rep. Tim Goodwin championed that would have provided property tax relief via a small additional sales tax failed. Sen. Amber Hulse’s bill, which would have rolled property assessments back to pre-pandemic levels and then capped the annual increase, passed unanimously in the Senate before Gov. Larry Rhoden and other state officials mobilized to get it killed in the House floor. Rep. Trish Ladner was on board with these bills, as well.
What should be clear by now to all residents of Custer County is that the state is never going to give up the money this county and state produces through property taxes without a fight. The state’s Department of Revenue came out in full force to lobby against Hulse’s bill. It is reminiscent of the public meeting attended by that same department at the school theater a few years ago where the message was basically, “shut up and pay your taxes.”
Shockingly, some legislators have started to come out and say property tax relief won’t be achieved until counties and schools get their spending under control. What a preposterously tone deaf thing to say.
We sit in every meeting of the Custer County Commission and Custer School District Board of Education meeting. We listen as they craft their budget and agonize over where to spend their money. We dare say there isn’t another county in the state that has worked as hard to hold the line on its budget as Custer County. Should we remind them that Custer County pays not only for its own school budget, but also helps pay for other school districts’ budgets? South Dakota’s teachers are continually some of the worst paid in the country. Where is this supposed excess?
Maybe allowing counties to implement a sales tax if they desire is the answer. Think of the money the county could raise from a small sales tax in Custer State Park.
Big promises were made, but none were delivered. Again. Shut up and pay those taxes, we guess.