Governor Larry Rhoden’s wimpy Senate Bill 96 will give counties the option to impose a 0.5% sales tax to lower their property taxes.
But counties trying to take a bite of that apple may find lots of local opposition:
More South Dakotans disapprove than approve of recently passed legislation that gives counties the option to raise sales taxes in exchange for lowering property taxes, according to a new poll sponsored by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota.
The survey of 500 registered voters across party affiliation conducted April 7-9 by Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, found 49% of respondents opposed the swapping of lower property taxes in exchange for higher sales taxes, while 33% approved and 17% were undecided. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 4.5% [Alexander Rifaat, “Poll: Nearly Half of South Dakotans Disapprove of Property Tax Plan,” South Dakota News Watch, 2026.04.22].
Opposition surpasses support for the optional tax swap in every demographic slice checked by the poll: men and women, young and old, GOP/Dem/indy, and even region. No matter where your county is—Sioux Falls, south East River, north East River, or West River—selling a county sales tax will be taxing.
The narrowest gap between support for and opposition to SB 96 is in Sioux Falls. Our biggest city shows 40% approval (the highest regional rate shown in the poll) and 45% disapproval (the lowest regional rate). We may speculate Sioux Falls voters would stand to clean up from a Minnehaha County sales tax to lower their property taxes, since everybody from Madison comes to Hy-Vee on the weekend.
The specific poll question was, “Should counties have [the] option to raise sales taxes in exchange for lowering property taxes?” The poll thus directly addresses only SB 96’s county option, not SB 245, the increase of the state sales tax to lower property tax statewide that Rhoden compromise-paired with his county option plan to claim he’s delivering the biggest property tax cut in South Dakota history. But if voters don’t like the mere option of swapping sales tax for prooperty tax at the local level, they may not be keen on a statewide sales tax hike, especially when, as Republican legislators have acknowledged, that swap shifts tax burdens to the poor and mostly benefits millionaire mansion owners.
The Maga boys don’t care. They all see themselves as entrepreneurs with a capital E.
They all picture the mansion they will live in. They will NEVER follow anything sensible or for the overall good. Its the way they R. MAGA Republican or whatever their king is thinking that day.
Well, everyone knows where the money is, and they can be sure the Repubicans will protect the wealthy and corporate elites from taxation. The Rhonden solution is the same as the solution Republican governors have been providing in various ways for over 50 years—find a way to tax the poor and lower middle class more, provide a pittance of property tax relief for some in the middle class while gifting the wealthy a huge share of property tax relief, overlook the vast amount of untaxed wealth that could be taxed at the top end of wealth and incomes that escapes a fair rate of taxation. That most South Dakotans fall in line against their own interests is deeply troubling. It shows a stunning lack of self-preservation. I watched it for decades, and wondered why people were so effing stupid.
How are 66 county seats and their bureaucracies either conservative or sustainable? They’re not; but, it is the way Republican cronyism and patronage built barricades to democracy by providing benefits of the public dole to those who say they deplore big gubmint in a state that hates poor people.
The Wanblee district should be in Oglala Lakota County then Jackson should be rolled into Haakon, Jones, Stanley and Lyman Counties. Mellette, Bennett, Todd, Gregory and Tripp should be one county. Dewey, Ziebach and Corson should be a county. Butte, Harding and Perkins should be one. Lawrence and Meade should be one, Fall River and Custer should be one.
East River is a dead zone: smarter people than i can figure out how to sort out that mess. Everything east of the Missouri River is Cleveland anyway.
grudznick and my good friend Lar are so locked together on this issue we could be buddies connected by an umbilical string. grudznick is OK with Lar drawing the lines, and I shall color the land masses.
During his paltry showing during the latest Earth hater debate Howdy Doody Dusty revealed his fear of the purpling of South Dakota citing Colorado’s blue epiphany as a bad thing even after he took money from Black Hills Energy’s cannabis windfall.
You go, Lar! If that heinous outfit at Catron and Mt. Rushmore Road can sock away money from the toking of the Demon Weed, Mr. Johnson needs to disclose his ill gotten gains!