South Dakota’s economy is strong. Our population and tax base is growing. Businesses continue to move here and expand. Our politicians proudly point to a balanced state budget and year-after-year budget surpluses.

In Pierre, this sounds like a success story. But for many working-class families across the state, we’re left wondering, what’s in it for us? If the economy is so great, and if we generate a budget surplus every year – why are our property taxes still skyrocketing?

The answer is straightforward. Government spending is growing faster than the economy, and the system is designed to allow politicians to spend excess revenue dollars on whatever they want, rather than return it to taxpayers.

This year’s legislative session made the problem glaringly obvious. Lawmakers introduced 28 different property tax relief bills—an acknowledgment that the problem is real and urgent. But nearly every proposal fell short of actually providing meaningful, long-term relief. Most offered temporary relief, shifted the burden to other taxes, or targeted only narrow groups. None of this year’s proposals addressed the cause of tax increases: politicians spending your money.

South Dakota now has one of the fastest-growing state budgets in the country. Lawmakers approved the largest sales tax increase in state history and the largest single spending project the state has ever undertaken. Yet meaningful, long-term property tax reform remains unresolved.

Many of this year’s proposals were little more than band-aids. Some shifted taxes rather than reducing them. Others allowed new local taxes in exchange for modest relief. These approaches let policymakers claim progress without changing the structure that continues to push taxes upward.

At the same time, the state continues to collect more revenue than it needs. Over the past decade, the budget has grown from roughly $4 billion to more than $7 billion. Recent years have ended with significant surpluses, including tens of millions left in the general fund and additional funds moved into reserves.

Surpluses are often framed as fiscal responsibility. But they raise a fundamental question: if the state consistently collects more than it needs, why isn’t that money returned to taxpayers?

Instead, surplus funds are rolled into future budgets, new programs, and expanded spending. Meanwhile, property tax bills continue to climb.

This is a structural problem, both in state government and in the culture of politics. South Dakota lacks any statutory or constitutional limit on government growth, we don’ have any rules for handling surplus revenue, and we still haven’t seen a process capable of delivering lasting reform. The result is what we saw this year: dozens of proposals, months of debate, and no durable solution.

Frustrations are reaching a boiling point outside Capitol chambers – some citizens have started a petition to eliminate property taxes entirely. That reflects how serious the problem has become—but it is not a realistic path. Property taxes fund essential local services like sheriff’s departments, 911 communications, jails, schools and highways. Eliminating them overnight would leave major funding gaps and create more problems than it would solve. However, this is something we can and should look at doing in the future, but my approach first is to focus on one simple concept: limit government spending by law, and return excess funds to taxpayers.

What South Dakota needs is neither temporary fixes or unrealistic utopian pipe dreams, what we need is reasonable and meaningful structural reform that addresses spending and growth.

A Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) offers a practical path for this type of structural reform. The concept is simple: set a clear limit (into law, not promises) on how fast government spending can grow, tied to population growth and inflation. Spending can only exceed the statutory limit with voter approval. Otherwise, when the state collects more revenue than it needs, the excess revenue must be returned to taxpayers rather than used for slush funds or government growth.

This approach does not eliminate government or reduce essential services. It establishes guardrails—limiting government growth with the consent of the people who fund it.

Reforms like TABOR are rarely pursued because they limit political discretion. Without structural limits, elected officials retain control over expanding revenues and surplus funds. Structural reform shifts some of that control back to taxpayers.

South Dakota prides itself on responsible government. But responsibility requires more than balancing a budget. It requires transparency, accountability, and limits on growth.

Right now, those guardrails are missing. Instead, taxpayers are left with rising bills, temporary fixes, and repeated debates that never resolve the core issue.

South Dakota does not need more short-term solutions. It needs a system that protects taxpayers, restrains government growth, and ensures that when the economy prospers, the people who built it share in the benefit.

A Taxpayer Bill of Rights would move the state in that direction—and help end the cycle of rising taxes and recurring frustration.

Learn more about my campaign for State Representative and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights at EmmettforSD.org

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