HARRISBURG CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO NOT ALLOW PROPOSED PRISON ACCESS TO CITY WASTEWATER FACILITIES
HARRISBURG, S.D. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight) – The Harrisburg City Council rejected an agreement Tuesday evening that would allow the state to connect its proposed men’s prison to the city’s wastewater treatment facility, but a state official said the decision wouldn’t prevent the state from moving forward.
The vote came after months of pushback from some locals opposed to the proposed prison location near the city, culminating in a tense council meeting. It was attended by over 100 people, many of them members of the local opposition group, Neighbors Opposing Prison Expansion (NOPE).
Some residents described the proposed deal as the state “dangling a carrot” in front of the city.
“Have you looked over this thing with a fine-tooth comb? Have you really dove into it? Because I guarantee there is fine print,” said Sam Eiesland, a NOPE member with land near the proposed prison site.
Ryan Brunner, a senior policy adviser to Governor Kristi Noem, attended the council meeting. He said the state is looking at two wastewater options: connecting to the city’s system, or building settlement lagoons.
“That’s it,” Brunner said. “Those are the options.”
Tobin Morris, vice president of Colliers Securities, has worked with the city and state. He was invited to offer a neutral perspective.
Morris told the council it would gain from the deal. He said the state would pay $7.1 million to the city upfront, which could be used to pay off debt on municipal water projects, ultimately lowering residents’ water bills by 20% to 30%. Plus, wastewater service payments from the state would net the city about $500,000 annually.
Some residents testified that the long-term costs of the prison outweigh the benefits.
“We always think about economic development, we always think about taxes, but we need to think about quality of life,” said Lincoln County Commissioner James Jibben. “If you lose quality of life, you never get that back.”
Some residents shared their concern that becoming a “prison town” would hurt future development and that prisoners and their families would stick around the area.
The state Department of Corrections announced last fall that it had selected a parcel of state-owned farmland about 6 miles south of Harrisburg to build a men’s prison. The announcement surprised neighboring landowners.
The Legislature has set aside $569 million for the project over the past several years while awaiting a final cost estimate. The 1,500-bed facility would largely replace the Sioux Falls penitentiary, which dates to 1881.
NOPE members filed a lawsuit last November challenging the state’s ability to bypass local zoning regulations. A judge heard arguments in January but has not issued a decision.
SENATOR JOHN THUNE CRITICIZES FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TRADE PROPOSALS
MITCHELL, S.D. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight) – U.S. Senator John Thune, R-South Dakota, criticized former President Donald Trump’s sweeping trade policy proposals on Wednesday at Dakotafest, calling them “a recipe for increased inflation.”
“There clearly is a different philosophy that is expounded by former President Trump and some of the folks who share the view he does about tariffs,” Thune said.
A tariff is a tax imposed by a government on imported goods.
Thune made the remarks to reporters following a panel appearance alongside the rest of the state’s congressional delegation.
Trump recently called for a 10% tariff on all imports and a 60% tariff specifically on Chinese goods, policies he argues would help protect American industries from unfair foreign competition.
“What’s been suggested by some in my party is just uniform, across-the-board tariffs, and I don’t subscribe to that view,” Thune said. “I get concerned when I hear we just want to uniformly impose a 10% or 20% tariff on everything that comes into the United States.”
Thune said the blanket measures would likely backfire.
“Generally, that’s a recipe for increased inflation,” he said.
Republicans have traditionally argued that tariffs are a tax on consumers because they raise the costs of imported goods, leading to higher prices for everyday products.
Thune said targeted tariffs can be necessary to address specific threats.
“For example, our trade relationship with China, if they’re cheating, the use of tariffs in a selective way to sort of punish that bad behavior makes sense to me,” he said. “But it’s selective. They’re targeted, as opposed to uniform.”
Economists with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan nonprofit, estimate that Trump’s 10% tariff on all imports could raise $300 billion in revenue over a decade, or lose as much as $50 billion — depending on the share of Chinese imports replaced with domestic goods. The Tax Foundation, another nonpartisan organization, estimates the plan would shrink the U.S. economy by 1.1% and threaten more than 825,000 U.S. jobs.
The committee also says the proposed 60% tariff on Chinese imports would result in an 85% reduction in trade with China, ultimately decreasing overall federal tax revenues and causing a net loss for the U.S. government.
Thune has long been a proponent of free trade and voiced concerns about the direction of U.S. trade policy under both Democrats and Republicans. He’s said roughly 20% of jobs in South Dakota are directly tied to international trade.
During the Dakotafest panel discussion, Thune told the audience trade has been “dramatically, profoundly overlooked by the current administration.” The nation had a roughly $17 billion agricultural trade deficit last year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Thune pointed out that this year’s has been estimated at $30.5 billion.
“And what that means is, we aren’t winning the war when it comes to competing and getting access for our commodities to markets around the world,” he said, which also drives down the demand for ag commodities, and therefore the price farmers and ranchers can charge.
Plus, Thune said undemocratic nations are filling the void left where the U.S. decides not to do trade.
“What’s happening, because we’re not present, is China is sucking up all the countries in the Indo-Pacific into their market, into their orbit,” he said.
Thune’s position reflects a broader division within the Republican Party over trade policy. While Trump’s protectionist approach has gained significant support among the GOP base, Republicans like Thune continue to advocate for a more free trade approach.
PROPOSED PETITION TO REQUIRE PRAYER IN SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOLS NOW IN ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
PIERRE, S.D. – A petition for a ballot measure in the 2026 general election has been submitted to South Dakota’s Attorney General for public review. If passed in 2026, the proposed ballot measure would require non-denominational prayer in South Dakota’s public schools.
The South Dakota Attorney General’s Office says this proposed measure would require each public school teacher, from kindergarten through 12th grade, to lead students in prayer every morning.
The proposed prayer from the measure is: “Almighty God, who is aware of His creation, who keeps it going and judges it, please have mercy on us.”
The Attorney General’s Office says students would be required to repeat each phrase after the teacher.
However, both teachers and students can choose to not participate in the prayer on religious grounds. Requests to be excused from the prayer must be turned in to the principal in writing.
The measure would require 17,509 valid petition signatures to be on the 2026 general election ballot.
The public is invited to provide written comments on the proposed measure. Comments may be emailed to ATGballotcomments@state.sd.us. You can also mail or hand deliver comments to the Attorney General’s Office at the following address:
Office of the Attorney General
Ballot Comment
1302 E. Hwy. 14, Suite 1
Pierre, SD 57501
Comments must be received by the end of the business day on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024.
REAP FUNDS STILL AVAILABLE THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30 FOR NEBRASKA AG PRODUCERS: CAN BE USED FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY, EFFECIENCY UPGRADES
NEBRASKA Undated (Deborah Van Fleet/Nebraska News Connection) – Nebraska ag producers and small businesses have until Sept. 30 to apply for the latest funding round of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program, part of the Farm Bill providing grants and guaranteed loans for renewable energy systems or energy efficiency improvements.
The Inflation Reduction Act included nearly $2 billion for projects under the program.
Christopher Faber, state energy coordinator for Nebraska USDA Rural Development, said the legislation also increased the percentage of funding allotted to grants from 25% to 50%.
“To be eligible for those projects, you either need to be an agricultural producer which would be involved in the day-to-day operations of the farm production and at least 50% of their income would come from that, or be a rural small business and be in a population area of less than 50,000,” Faber explained.
Darr Grain in Cozad is building two wind turbines with the help of funding from the program which could save the company as much as $10,000 a year in electricity costs. Faber pointed out free grant-writing assistance is available for those wanting help with the application process.
Funding from the program allowed fourth-generation farmer and rancher Alan Koelling in Ord to purchase a new centrifuge for his family’s sunflower oil company, Simply Sunflowers. Koelling said not only is the centrifuge more energy efficient, it was instrumental in growing their business.
“We hit a bottleneck, and the centrifuge was a big help in speeding up our process of cleaning our oil,” Koelling explained. “As we can increase production, we can naturally increase our sales.”
Koelling acknowledged it might have been years before they were able to purchase the centrifuge. The funding allowed them to increase production at a time when there was a void in the supply of sunflower oil. He added it also made it possible for them to employ several people part-time, which was one of their goals.
“Because it’s really challenging in rural Nebraska to make ends meet with one income, and this gives families a chance for a supplemental income,” Koelling noted. “Sometimes that’s just enough to make life easier and better for a family.”
Rural Energy for America Program funding is part of the Biden-Harris Justice 40 Initiative.
LEWIS AND CLARK REGIONAL WATER NOW ONLINE IN MADISON, SOUTH DAKOTA
MADISON, S.D. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) – After waiting nearly 35 years, Madison is the last South Dakota city to connect to the tri-state Lewis and Clark Regional Water System. Local leaders, South Dakota’s three congressmen and economic leaders gathered to celebrate the city’s connection on Wednesday.
Madison’s roughly 6,000 residents tapped into the system earlier this month.
The pipeline delivering the water covers 310 miles and spans southeastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa. The roughly $700 million water system serves about 350,000 people.
The connection means better water quality in the city and economic development, because it increases water capacity, especially for agriculture surrounding Madison, said state Sen. Casey Crabtree, R-Madison.
“This just means a higher capacity for growth that otherwise wouldn’t exist,” Crabtree said.
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds told attendees of Thursday’s celebration that “water development is economic development.” He compared the Lewis and Clark system to the expansion of electricity and broadband in rural parts of the country.
“We’re continuing to make it so that young people want to come back in and stay in the rural parts of our country — not just in the communities themselves but in the ag areas as well,” Rounds said. “It would not happen if it wasn’t for this type of development across multiple states.”
The city will blend its existing water sources with pipeline water to ensure resiliency in supply during droughts and other disasters.
Sibley, Iowa, will be the last to connect to the pipeline. Lewis and Clark Executive Director Troy Larson expects to hook up to Sibley in the fall.
The final step in construction of the “base” water system is to build out a water treatment plant in Vermillion and reach a water capacity of 44.19 million gallons a day, Larson said.
The majority of the pipeline is funded through the federal government. It was supposed to be completed in 2016 but fell behind schedule because of poor funding, Larson said.
The pipeline is now planned to be completed in 2028, after receiving a $152.5 million boost from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Roque Sánchez represented the Biden administration at the celebration, touting the federal government’s role in aiding the project and other rural investments across the country.
None of South Dakota’s U.S. congressional delegates voted for the bill.
“While it took a long time because of federal funding to get where we are,” Larson said, “the last few years we’ve been sprinting to the finish line.”
Larson said Lewis and Clark started construction on the water system’s first expansion in 2022, which is expected to be completed in 2030 and expand water capacity to 60 million gallons a day. The nonprofit expects the second expansion will start shortly after to more than double the system’s capacity as the population grows.
The regional system has “paved the way” for similar water systems in the state and country, Larson said. Fledgling efforts in western, northern and eastern South Dakota are vying for Missouri River water for their communities.
It’s to be expected, since cities and rural water systems across the state are maximizing their groundwater sources and realize other states are looking to tap into the Missouri River, Larson said. South Dakotans want to get there first.
“The only source of really untapped, reliable water in the state is the Missouri River,” Larson said. “What we’re all waking up to is that we need to fully utilize this resource we have.”
