As the annual South Dakota legislative session winds down, the push for property tax relief is coalescing around plans to provide that relief with money from higher sales #taxes.
The latest episode of the 🎧️ Searchlight Report 🎧️ podcast explains how we got here: buff.ly/jzKwrE0
The United States lost 92,000 #jobs in February, edging unemployment up slightly according to the latest employment figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Via @statesnewsroom.com
Several South Dakota political insiders think #KristiNoem will stick with her new role in the Trump administration following her dismissal as U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary, rather than jump into a political race in her home state.
Police in South Dakota logged fewer theft reports in 2025 than the previous year, but made more arrests for theft. The figures suggest license plate readers adopted in Madison and expanded last year to Sioux Falls can make it easier to find suspects, the technology's supporters say.
Two bills that would allow local governments in South Dakota to impose new #SalesTaxes for specific purposes cleared their last legislative hurdles and are headed to the governor for his consideration.
One of the last remaining bills dealing with #DataCenters in the South Dakota Legislature — a measure that would impose new regulations — passed the state House and now heads back to the Senate for consideration of a House committee’s amendment.
U.S. House Republicans including Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, and a handful of Democrats followed the Senate in blocking a measure to stop President Donald Trump from furthering the war in Iran without authorization from Congress.
BREAKING NEWS: President Donald Trump said Homeland Security Secretary #KristiNoem will be leaving the post for a job as a special envoy. buff.ly/Pu5Due6
The committee that oversees South Dakota’s #MedicalMarijuana program will continue its work for at least another year, a panel of state senators has decided after the House had voted to end it.
U.S. House Republicans spent a Wednesday oversight hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blasting local governments for policies that limit immigration cooperation, while Democrats slammed her leadership of the department.
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden has thrown his support behind a plan to use revenues from an upcoming increase in the statewide sales tax rate to offset homeowner property taxes — something his administration opposed earlier this legislative session.
South Dakota Republicans kicked one of their own out of caucus meetings for two weeks. Meanwhile, writes Dana Hess, "Taxpayers have been shut out for years, with the future of the state being decided in secret."
COMMENTARY:
South Dakota lawmakers have whittled down ideas of how to use $31 million in one-time funding, including money for roads near Ellsworth Air Force Base, grants to help victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, protective gear for firefighters and more.
A North Dakota judge officially ordered #Greenpeace to pay $345 million to the developer of the #DakotaAccessPipeline following a nearly yearlong tug-of-war over a Morton County jury’s verdict.
Via @northdakotamonitor.com buff.ly/tSC4iZO
A lawmaker's comments shed light on an aspect of South Dakota's property tax conundrum: people who work from home, with "no large commercial building paying property tax." That's partly a byproduct of Kristi Noem's "Freedom," writes @sethtupper.bsky.social.
COMMENTARY:
Senate Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanding the administration refund businesses that paid #tariffs to import goods into the United States under authority the Supreme Court has ruled the president never held.
Via @statesnewsroom.com
A state senator from Madison has suspended his campaign for U.S. House of Representatives.
It was a crazy week in the South Dakota Senate: arguments about the lieutenant governor's authority, absent senators, motions and search parties to compel their presence, and more.
A special episode of 🎧️ Searchlight Report 🎧️ podcast brings the experience to listeners:
buff.ly/PFaRMdN
When South Dakota’s governor makes an appointment that requires state Senate approval, the appointee is obligated to file a financial disclosure document.
But a review of last year’s appointees found nearly half of the disclosures were not posted online. ⬇️
American colleges and universities received gifts and contracts worth more than $5.2 billion from foreign entities in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which also recently published summaries of foreign investment in U.S. higher education dating back to 1986.
Pressured by businesses on the importance of immigrant labor, some Republican states are backing off plans to require all employers to check for legal employment status before hiring workers. #eVerify
Via @stateline.org
South Dakota state representatives rejected a proposal that would make it easier to force an election after a school board decides to exceed state-imposed property tax limitations.
"South Dakota’s farms, ranches, rural communities and wildlife advocates are living with uncertainty, and congressional delay on a full #FarmBill is inexcusable."
Commentary:
A new page on South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden’s website shows how much homeowners would save on #PropertyTaxes if lawmakers approve his optional half-percent sales tax for counties.
He didn’t say how much more the average person would spend on sales taxes, so Searchlight asked:
The nation’s main agency for handling disaster response and recovery, #FEMA, is shuttered and its workers are on the verge of missing paychecks, as members of Congress and the White House remain divided in a separate dispute over immigration enforcement.
Via @statesnewsroom.com
South Dakota senators recently nixed two proposals that would have increased property tax exemptions for disabled #veterans, while advancing a related bill.
The question of whether South Dakota moves to ban the use of government food assistance for sugary drinks is in the hands of Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden, who has signaled his opposition to the bill all through the 2026 legislative session.
The U.S. Department of #Agriculture will transfer a large office building to the General Services Administration in a step toward shrinking the department’s footprint in and around Washington, D.C., Secretary Brooke Rollins said.
Via @statesnewsroom.com
A bill that would legalize a psychedelic medication upon its federal approval and legalization as a mental health treatment is one vote away from South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden’s desk.
“I had an eye doctor visit": State Sen. John Carley said his unexplained absence from the entire Senate floor session during one of the busiest days of the annual legislative session — which led his colleagues to launch a search for him — was because of a medical appointment.
