Attorney General Marty Jackley has posted his draft explanation of the proposed initiated amendment to ban property taxes and replace them with a retail transaction tax of $1.50 on every purchase of $15 or more and 10% on purchases under $15.
When the draft initiative proposed by radical West River right-wingers Mike Mueller, Julie Frye-Mueller, and Matt Smith became public, I warned that any delay in submitting a final draft to the Attorney General would allow Jackley to sit on the dubious and GOP-establishment-disfavored proposal long enough to make it impossible for the sponsors to meet the November 3, 2025, deadline for submitting to the Secretary of State all documents necessary to launch an initiative petition drive, including the Attorney General’s final explanation.
Jackley actually did the sponsors a remarkable favor, producing his draft explanation in just 37 days, less than the 60 days allowed by statute. But the sponsors dinked around for 27 days before submitting their final language to the A.G. for review. They received the Legislative Research Council’s legally necessary response to their proposal on August 14. Mueller, Frye-Mueller, and Smith sent their revised amendment to Jackley on September 10.
And in four weeks of delay, the only change the sponsors made to their five-page proposal lies in Section 4, where the sponsors decided to remove 16 words, the grandfather clause that would have exempted existing tax increment districts from the property-tax ban. That change denies local governments of even more revenue that the retail transaction tax won’t come close to replacing. The sponsors made no changes to the other eight sections of their amendment.
The Attorney General lays out the timeline that kills the sponsors’ hopes of circulating a petition to place their property-tax ban on the 2026 ballot:
Once the Attorney General has filed and posted the draft explanation, the public has 10 days to provide written comment. The explanation was filed October 17, 2025, and the deadline for comments on this explanation is October 27, 2025 at the close of business in Pierre, South Dakota. The final explanation is due to the Secretary of State on November 5, 2025 [Office of the Attorney General, press release, 2025.10.17].
November 5, two days after the deadline for submitting final documents to the Secretary of State. Jackley could do the sponsors another favor (hey, how many favors do you think you get from Marty Jackley?) and take less than full ten days allowed for his review of public comment and revision of his final explanation, but given Mueller, Frye-Mueller, and Smith’s inability to light a fire under their own asses and turn around their post-LRC revision in time to avoid this time crunch in the first place, Jackley could ignore all the public comment, stamp his draft explanation as final the day after public comment closes, and Team Mueller probably still couldn’t type and format their petition, circulator handouts, notarized affidavit, and campaign finance statement of organization in the maximum eight days that Jackley could give them if he’s feeling really ambitious and generous.
Note to Mike, Julie, and Matt: I could do all your final paperwork in a day. I could have it in the chute, ready to go, now, so that all you have to do on the morning Jackley issues his final explanation is paste that text onto the petition and circulator handouts with the LRC’s fiscal note, hit Print, go get your signatures notarized, and run to Pierre to give Monae your papers.
But if Jackley takes his sweet and statutorily allowed time, my offer and your initiative are moot, because you piddled around debating TIFs—oh, and Julie, because as Senator in 2021, you voted for this ridiculous and mostly useless public comment period on the Attorney General’s initiative explanations, the 20-day delay that now all but guarantees your petition drive to ban property taxes and tax retail transactions instead is dead before it begins.
If Ms. Frye-Mueller’s prettier sister were in charge, this mess wouldn’t be happening.
Bob Newland has been preaching a transaction tax for decades.
Grudz, maybe if Smith and Mueller got rid of their 6 packs, this mess wouldn’t be happening.
Seriously, we’ve gone from mediocre to stupid in SD. We got rid of Noem, but another idiot replaced her, just male and less testosterone than G. I. Kristi.
Anything they accomplish in Pierre DOES NOT benefit the citizens of this state, yet the citizens keep electing these traitors to democracy. I wish Jackley the worst of luck in his next political endeavor. Maybe when he loses, he can hunt rattlesnakes like his relative A. M. Jackley to make a living.
I was at the NO KINGS rally in Aberdeen yesterday and it was invigorating. There were around 250 people with wonderful signs, flags, and some dressed in costumes. It was along 6th Avenue, and the horns were honking the whole two hours the event was held. Way more positive responses than not. SO COOL.
I was there in May with way less attendance and held at the courthouse. Sixth Avenue was great as we were so visible. Missed you, Cory. I was at your March for Science in 2017. It was my first rally ever and I was 62 then and I’m not stopping till I drop.
Pierre needs a whole new set of young leadership. We need fathers, mothers, and those who plan to grow this economy for the youth. Politicians are supposed to be our humble public servants. I don’t see one single one in Pierre or in the national Republican party.