Prison funding still up in the air

At the crackerbarrel in Fall River County last weekend, I asked the question, “Who acknowledges that we need a new prison?” Practically everyone in the room raised their hand. My follow-up question was, “How many of you want to pay the $860 million price tag?” Absolutely no one raised their hand.
Friday we voted to move $148 million from the general fund to the Incarceration Building Fund. This will be paid for with existing funds. It does not approve the project, but simply transfers the dollars laterally to the incarceration fund. The vote was 35 yes and 34 no with 1 absent. There was a motion to reconsider, which means that we will revisit the issue on Monday. Although, like my friends in Fall River County, I realize that we need to build a new prison, I want to see some form of accountability.
I agree with President Trump’s comment about bloated government bids and contracts.  At one time, my husband and I were partners in a construction company. One day we had a call from a government entity requesting an estimate for their upcoming project. During the course of the conversation, they told us to make sure we inflated the bid and included several change orders in the initial bid … make sure they are priced high because we couldn’t come back and ask for any additional change orders. True story!
That leads me to ask the question, does the State of South Dakota have an outside agency that stands for our interests and monitors the spending of our tax dollars? If we move forward on this project, we need to ensure that the materials purchased for each phase of this huge project are at the best price and on time when they are needed.
Personally, I’d like to see the second floor hire an independent agency to oversee purchases and monitor the expenditures for the prison project. We must ensure that we are getting the best value for our taxpayer dollars…I believe it must be an outside agency.
As of the writing of this article, property tax legislation is still in limbo. I was told there were approximately 17 to 25 bills brought by various legislators from across the state. House leadership made the decision to send all the proposed bills to State Affairs Committee. This committee is “affectionately” known as the “killing fields,” the place where all good bills go to die! In my opinion, the bills pertaining to property taxes should have been sent to the Taxation Committee.
The governor also has a property tax bill that is still pending. His bill (for years 2026-30), would cap valuation growth to an average of 3 percent for each county. It caps county new growth to 2 percent. New growth will no longer include property improvements such as paint, new deck, etc. New growth will now be defined as new builds that increase the use/need for infrastructure like roads, law enforcement, fire, sewer, etc.
The governor’s bill also addresses our seniors on fixed incomes. He has raised the income level maximum from $35,000 – to $55,000 (one income family) and from $45,000 to $65,000 (two income family). It also raises the property valuation limits to $500,000 to qualify for the senior tax freeze program. To qualify for this program, you would have to have owned a single-family home in South Dakota for at least five years. Households who are currently benefiting from this program will be grandfathered in.
Three weeks left for the 100th Legislative session and my goal is to work on and pass legislation that will really help South Dakotan citizens. We will know the outcome soon.