Governor Larry Rhoden appears to be telling the Legislature to shelve the great goo-gob of property tax reforms that the Comprehensive Property Tax Force proposed in October and focus instead on his plans for property tax relief… whatever they may be:
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, who has his own idea to reduce property taxes, does not sound impressed with 19 recommendations from a legislative task force.
“I’ve realized that there’s not much I’ve seen that I could support,” Rhoden told South Dakota Searchlight during a visit to Rapid City last week.
The governor’s own proposal, which he announced in March, would authorize an optional sales tax for counties. The revenue would be used to reduce property taxes for homeowners.
“And I’ll say this, too: I’m not done yet,” Rhoden added. “We’re still looking at some other ideas” [Seth Tupper, “Governor: ‘Not Much I’ve Seen That I Could Support’ in Legislative Property Tax Proposals,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2025.12.08].
The Legislative task force avoided wholesale reform and recommended mostly little fixes, plus some edge-frittering that mostly enable local yahoos to hamstring their public schools. By kicking all of their ideas aside, Rhoden appears to be saying he wants to own the conversation about property tax relief. But the only idea Rhoden has put forward abdicates his responsibility to lead and shifts the responsibility/blame onto counties who would dare to impose an additional sales tax. Maybe he (or, more likely, the brain trust behind him) will think up something else, but so far, Rhoden isn’t working very hard to deliver real, comprehensive property tax relief.
The Republicans drive to reduce taxes on those who can afford them to those who can’t is never ending. Those extra sales taxes won’t drive those small town businesses out of business will they?