The only thing close to a firm funding mechanism to pay for his radical, unbaked tax cuts that gubernatorial candidate Toby Doeden has offered is a tax on trusts:
External revenue comes from non-South Dakota residents. We’re talking about targeted visitor consumption tax. We’re talking about for the first time in our state’s history, charging all the rich billionaires from around the world that are parking their money here in legacy trusts, charging them a small fee like every other state does. So I am going to bring in some new revenue that’s not going to come from the taxpayers. It’s called external revenue [Toby Doeden, interviewed by Meghan O’Brien, “How Governor Candidate Toby Doeden Says He’ll Phase Out Property Taxes,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.05.15, from transcript].
Tax the trusts! Yeah! Now you’re talking!
And Doeden’s been talking about taxing the trusts since last year:
South Dakota is the friendliest place for the richest people in the world to park their money. We have the most money sitting in blind trusts of any state in the country. You know who number two is? Nevada…. Why do people like J.B. Pritzker, the very, very liberal governor of Illinois, why does his family park their billions of dollars in South Dakota trusts? Because we charge next to nothing for them to do that. If we just raised our fees to be tied for the lowest in the country, we would generate massive amounts of money. I’m talking tens of millions of dollars [Toby Doeden, interviewed by Lori Walsh, SDPB: In the Moment, 2025.07.23].
But now Doeden is not just backing away from taxing trusts but also trying to trick us into believing he never said he’d tax trusts:
This stands in stark contrast to remarks made by Doeden on the Dakota Town Hall podcast last week. When asked if he’s planning to create a luxury tax or tax on trusts, Doeden called bringing in big banks and trusts “the best thing that happened” to South Dakota. He responded to Brad Jurgensen saying he thought Doeden wanted to tax trusts, adding “the trust thing is fake.”
“Doeden: Dusty Johnson told people that, and he had all of the rich people in this state
Jurgensen: I’m broke as (expletive).
Doeden: Toby has trusts. Toby doesn’t own hardly anything anymore. They say, ‘Toby’s company this,’ Toby doesn’t even own anything anymore. Toby has trusts. Why would I get rid of trusts? Trusts are one of the greatest things for South Dakotans. They protect the assets of people that work their butts off for thirty years. No. It’s absurd. So, stop talking about trusts.”
Doeden claimed that people “keep asking for details on, first of all, a lot of plans that I haven’t actually stated” [Jackson Dircks, “Doeden Walking Back Fees on Trust Industry, Claims Never Stated Idea,” SDPB, 2026.07.20].
Toby, Toby, Toby—you’re the one talking about trusts. Taxing trusts was one plan you actually stated, at least twice, ten months apart. You don’t get to memory-hole your own words; you have to own them. If you don’t view taxing trusts as a viable revenue mechanism anymore, just say so: I proposed taxing trusts, but I’ve changed my mind. Taxing trusts is a bad idea; we mustn’t inconvenience billionaires and the handful of Phillips Avenue lawyers making bank on their tax evasion.
Minutes before he was driven from the White House Herr Trump in 2021 pardoned Maria Butina’s lover, Paul Erickson after his conviction for wire fraud and money laundering likely at Denny Sanford’s request. Erickson’s indictment, his relationship with Butina and Dusty Johnson, his efforts to establish backchannel communications with the National Rifle Association and MAGA conservatives covered up the Jeffrey Epstein connection.
Epstein had at least 64 trusts and entities associated with him and there were large amounts of money being moved each day between Epstein’s entities and his associates. Some of those activities included payments to women, tuition to various universities and routine large cash withdrawals for unknown purposes. Butina was deported for being a Russian agent.
Democratic SOCIALISTS of America have a workable plan to make SD’s “quiet trust” laws and “tax shielding position” fair for underpaid young teachers and nurses.