Property Taxes: Hard data tells different story than debate
Analysis reveals property tax spikes leveling off for most Minnehaha and Lincoln counties homeowners
Chris Lilla’s office in the historic Minnehaha County Jail in downtown Sioux Falls is the center of the world.
If your world is local property taxes, that is.
The topic roiled the halls of the State Capitol in Pierre last year and flowed into this year’s legislative session. Many lawmakers assert the best example of property tax strain is the Sioux Falls area and parts of the Black Hills.
Lilla is the Minnehaha County director of equalization, which means he’s the guy who decides how much your house is worth for tax purposes. If there was general discontent about taxes going up in Sioux Falls, Lilla would be on the front lines.
He’s not.
“My ear is not bitten off about taxes,” Lilla said in an interview with Sioux Falls Live recently.
That’s a sentiment expressed by most local government officials in the Sioux Falls metropolitan area, who agree that taxes did go up, but they merely reflect the jump in post-pandemic inflation and have since flattened.
The contradiction between state and local leaders is a subtext of the current debate, which is often long on rhetoric and short on data.
What’s the problem, how do you define it and is there data to back it up?
To answer that question, Sioux Falls Live compiled and analysed the last five years of property taxes paid by homeowners in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties. The results provide the first detailed look at where they went up and by how much.
Check out the map and the full story below:
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