BILL REQUIRING PUBLIC VOTES FOR SCHOOL OPT OUTS PASSES SOUTH DAKOTA SENATE
PIERRE, S.D. (Todd Epp / SDBA) – The South Dakota Senate passed legislation Wednesday requiring school districts to hold public votes before implementing property tax opt-outs or issuing capital outlay certificates.
Senate Bill 208, introduced by Sen. Sue Peterson, R-Sioux Falls, passed 19 to 15.
The bill, amended on the Senate floor, mandates that school boards must put opt-out decisions and capital outlay certificates to a public vote rather than the current system that requires citizens to gather petition signatures to force a referendum.
From 2019 to 2023, South Dakota school districts opted out for $165 million and issued capital outlay bonds exceeding $413 million above existing funds, Peterson testified.
“Any property tax relief the legislature passes is futile without this bill,” Peterson said.
Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, raised concerns about the timing of required elections.
“That election has to occur between July 15th and October 1st,” Wheeler said. “It’s going to be a special election just for this issue.”
Sen. Stephanie Sauder, R-Bryant, pointed to a school in her district that has responsibly managed a $250,000 opt-out over 14 years, reducing it to $100,000 annually for the past nine years without community opposition.
“This bill would require them and every other district to hold a vote each time with an obvious cost to run the vote,” Sauder said.
Sen. Taffy Howard, R-Rapid City, said the bill burdens the proper party.
“In some cases, yes, the system may be working well, but the system as it is right now is putting the burden on the taxpayers, and this bill will shift that burden back to where it should be to the government agency requesting to opt out of the limits currently put on them,” Howard said
The bill, as amended, would require a simple majority of voters casting ballots to pass the opt-out.
The legislation now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
ATTEMPT TO END NEST PREDATOR BOUNTY PROGRAM FAILS
PIERRE, S.D. (Austin Goss / SDBA) – A bid by a member of South Dakota State House leadership to end Game Fish and Park’s (GF&P) Nest Predator Bounty Program failed to garner enough support in a legislative hearing.
Lawmakers on the House’s Agriculture and Natural Resources committee gave a warm endorsement to the program — ushered into existence by former Gov. Kristi Noem during the earlier years of her tenure — despite evidence presented by opposition to suggest the program was not doing anything to improve the state’s pheasant population.
The former governor breathed life into the program in 2019, touting it as a way to expand trapping to future generations, and to help protect duck and pheasants from common predators.
From April 1 until July 1, all South Dakota residents are encouraged to capture and kill raccoons, striped skunks, badgers, opossums, and red fox, and then turn them into a GF&P office where they are awarded ten dollars per tail. Each household is entitled to to up to $590 until GF&P expends $500k on the program.
House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach pointed to recent reports by GF&P themselves that suggest the program has not substantially helped improve pheasant population numbers in the state. According to a report by South Dakota Searchlight during last year’s legislative session, GF&P is unable to provide evidence that the program has improved the state bird’s numbers.
“I have hunted pheasants my life so I know a thing or two about this,” Odenbach explained. “If we had South Dakota version of DOGE this would probably be on the top of the list.”
The Spearfish Republican’s measure called for the money — all of which comes from the department’s own revenues — to instead be devoted to helping create more pheasant habitats, which he and conservation organizations like the Izaak Walton League, the South Dakota Waterfowl Association and the South Dakota Wildlife Federation all said offered more support to birds than subsidized trapping. Furthermore, federal aid through the Wildlife Restoration Act provides funding for state wildlife agencies via an excise tax on firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment to support habitat restoration. More of that money could become available to the state if the sole focus of GF&P was habitat preservation.
“It is 97 percent about habitat,” said George Vandel, representing both South Dakota’s Waterfowl Association and Wildlife Federation. “If you don’t have the habitat you aren’t going to have pheasants.”
Opponents of Odenbach’s House Bill 1262, including a representative from GF&P, noted the increase in youth participation the program has seen through the last several years. Those under the age of 18 are able to participate in the program a full month in advance and be entered into various giveaways through their participation. Overall participation by minors rose from 32 percent in 2022 to 46 percent in 2023.
The state, the department claimed, already spends millions on habitat preservation — $24 million in the last year.
“Youth engagement continues to rise with the program,” said GF&P’s Tom Kirschenmann, citing a study they conducted showing that 83 percent of respondents approve of the program. “The opportunity to talk about habitat preservation with all people involved is absolutely imperative.”
Rep. Spencer Gosch, one of five lawmakers who voted unsuccessfully to advance the bill to the full House for consideration, challenged the success of the program over time.
“There are no metrics, we don’t do bird counts anymore,” Gosch said. “The nest predator program has done a good job of making sure there is no roadkill in my area with tails on them.”
But arguments about the programs success in driving up youth participation in a practice that has existed in South Dakota for decades won the day. Members of the committee relayed their own experiences with trapping within their families and what characteristics it had helped to form.
“Back in the day there was a gopher tail program, my husband learned patience, entrepreneurship and he was a sharpshooter in the service,” said Rep. Trish Ladner. “I am fully behind this program, I think it is doing a lot to train and bring up the next generation.”
Though GF&P signaled strong support for the program Tuesday, the future of it could be in question. The department’s webpage for the program notes that the GF&P Commission has only approved the program to run through 2026 thus far.
EMINENT DOMAIN BILL FAILS IN COMMITTEE, MORE TO COME
PIERRE, S.D. – SB 49, a bill that would prohibit the use of eminent domain for several projects, failed to make it through the Senate State Affairs committee.
The bill would have prohibited the use of eminent domain for the construction of certain facilities. It also addressed the preemption of zoning requirements. The bill said that eminent domain, as laid out in South Dakota Codified Law could not be construed to constitute approval of the use of federal eminent domain.
It also stated that the right of eminent domain could not be exercised to construct:
A pipeline designed to transport carbon dioxide
A pipeline designed to transport hydrogen
Any facility that qualifies for a tax credit pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 45Q
A solar energy facility
A wind energy facility
The bill added a pipeline company could exercise the right of eminent domain in acquiring right-of-way for a pipeline that is a common carrier, as prescribed by statute, but not for a pipeline used for the transportation of carbon dioxide or hydrogen.
A motion to send Senate Bill 49 to the 41st day effectively killing it was passed by a vote of 7-1.
There are still several bills in the legislature dealing with eminent domain working through the process.
JOINT RESOLUTION TO CREATE A TRUST FUND FROM UNCLAIMED PROPERTY ON ITS WAY TO SENATE
PIERRE, S.D. – On a committee vote of 8-0 a resolution calling for a statewide vote next year on whether a trust fund for unclaimed property revenue should be created is being sent to the Senate for further examination in Pierre.
Senate Joint Resolution 505 would seek to propose and submit to the voters at the next general election an amendment to the State Constitution that would establish the trust for unclaimed property fund.
The resolution states that a trust fund will be created and named the trust for unclaimed property fund: “Upon passage of this Act and after each receipt of any unclaimed property thereafter, the state treasurer shall, after paying all claims, expenses authorized by law, and deposits into the general fund as authorized by law, deposit into the trust fund the net receipts from unclaimed property.”
The bill adds that beginning July 1, 2027, and each July first thereafter, the state treasurer will distribute a portion of the interest and income of the trust fund into the general fund. The calculation of the amount to be distributed must be determined by law.
South Dakota has an entire chapter of state laws on unclaimed property and defines it as “money, rights to claim refunds or rebates, postal savings deposits, bonds, United States savings bonds, notes, certificates, policies of insurance, other instruments of value, choses-in-action, obligations whether written or unwritten and anything of value of any nature whatsoever” that has been abandoned or forgotten.
No one spoke in opposition of the resolution on Wednesday.
In 2024 the state received what was then a record amount of unclaimed property totaling $133,617,777, minus $38 million paid in claims. This year the state has taken in an estimated $247,259,387 as of February 12, plus another $60 million targeted for the state budget.
