The state flag flies in front of the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Two legislative groups will meet in Rapid City this week to discuss South Dakota’s criminal justice system and property taxes. The public is invited to testify at both meetings.
Criminal justice committee
The Initial Incarceration, Reentry Analysis, and Comparison of Relevant States Interim Committee will meet at 9 a.m. Mountain time on Wednesday — with public testimony scheduled at noon — in the Surbeck Center’s Beck Ballroom on the South Dakota Mines campus. The group is studying the makeup of the state prison population, comparing incarceration rates and sentencing laws in similar states, and identifying barriers to inmates’ reintegration into society.
In addition to taking public testimony, the committee will hear a presentation from the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Civil and Criminal Justice Program, and a presentation about ways to “enhance community re-entry” from a government consulting firm. Lawmakers will also hear from the Pennington County state’s attorney and public defender’s offices and from Sioux Falls-based business management consultant Think 3D Solutions.
The committee’s first meeting in Sioux Falls was sparsely attended. The committee discussed the overrepresentation of Native Americans in state prisons, a lack of rehabilitation programming, and a need for more intervention to keep people out of prison.
South Dakota has the nation’s 15th-highest incarceration rate, according to The Sentencing Project. Forty-three percent of adult offenders in South Dakota return to prison within three years of release, according to 2023 statistics from the state Department of Corrections.
Property tax committee
The Comprehensive Property Tax Task Force will meet at 9 a.m. Mountain on Thursday, also in the Beck Ballroom at Mines. The group aims to cut the average South Dakota homeowner’s property taxes by at least 50%.
The task force is scheduled to take public testimony at 10:15 a.m., and the agenda also includes a presentation from the Legislative Research Council about local government tax limitation opt-outs, tax increment financing districts and the property tax discretionary formula.
The task force is exploring local government spending as a potential way to cut property tax burdens by reducing local government budgets. The group is also discussing an optional county-level sales tax of a half-percent to offset participating counties’ property taxes on owner-occupied homes, and a new state sales tax of 1% dedicated to education funding. The 1% tax would apply to most of the products and services that are currently exempted from sales taxes, and would stack on top of the existing state sales tax rate of 4.2% for other transactions.
Earlier this year, lawmakers adopted Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden’s proposal to slow property tax increases with multifaceted reforms including a five-year, countywide 3% cap on growth in owner-occupied home assessments. That new law took effect July 1.
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