Lawyer and former state and federal prosecutor Brian Murphy is challenging Senator Jim Mehlhaff (R-24/Pierre) in the District 24 Senate Republican primary. While Mehlhaff prefers taxing the poor, Murphy might be willing to tax the trusts:
“We have a yearly surplus of $44 million dollars,” he said. “We need to take a hard look at how to reinvest some of that into a standalone fund or funds designed with a single purpose that meets the South Dakota constitutional standards for a state trust vehicle.” He also said South Dakota should reassess how it taxes large private trusts. “We have almost $800 billion in private trust in South Dakota,” Murphy said. “We need to reconcile raising the tax rates and transaction fees on those trusts at a rate that reflects inflation” [Liz Quinn, “District 24 Candidate Profile: Brian Murphy,” Pierre Capital Journal, 2026.01.20].
Raising the tax rates on trusts? Those rates can go nowhere but up: the tax rate on the $814 billion and rising that plutocrats stash on Phillips Avenue is 0%. South Dakota does impose the ridiculously regressive bank franchise tax on trust companies, but that tax is on the income the trust company makes, not on their wealthy clients’ massive holdings.