When rookie Senator John Carley (R-29/Piedmont) filed his Senate Bill 58, I called his plan to eliminate property taxes without any suggestion of how to replace that revenue “unserious“. The South Dakota Municipal League agrees:
“This bill is not serious public policy,” Yvonne Taylor of the South Dakota Municipal League told the committee. “It is not worthy of your time” [Meghan O’Brien, “Proposal to Alter South Dakota’s Gold Severance Tax Is Defeated in Committee,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.01.21].
Taylor was one of 14 opponents who testified before Senate Taxation yesterday that eliminating property taxes without a plan for sustaining schools, roads, police, fire trucks, and other basic services is a terrifically bad idea. The only person Senator Carley brought to back him up was SB 58’s only other sponsor, rookie Representative Dylan Jordan (R-4/Clear Lake). Given such overwhelming opposition and the lack of vision from the sponsors, Senate Taxation killed SB 58 on a 7–0 vote.