Resorts, parking, Netflix: Noem goes out spending during last months in office
Nearly $30k charged to state credit cards during Republican's final weeks as South Dakota governor
PIERRE — South Dakota taxpayers shouldered nearly $30,000 in expenses of former Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration as she transitioned to President Donald Trump’s cabinet in Washington, D.C.
That’s according to a review of the former governor’s state-issued credit card records, obtained by The Dakota Scout through a settlement between the newspaper and the South Dakota Auditor’s Office agreed to after Noem became U.S. Homeland Security secretary in late January.
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Those records show the president’s selection of Noem to his cabinet — announced on Nov. 12 — did not slow the spending on the former governor’s credit cards. Rather, repeated travel to places like West Palm Beach — the home of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort — and Washington, D.C., for activities related to the confirmation process Noem went through were paid by state funds.
A charge from a West Palm Beach vehicle rental company shows Noem in the vicinity of Trump’s permanent residence on the eve of her selection. A vehicle rental receipt there shows a $537 charge. Less than a week later, after being named the nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security under the incoming president, the governor returned to Trump headquarters. She went back to the same Florida car rental shop, that time spending another $2,441 for vehicle rentals.
At the same time, a member of the governor’s security team charged $2,137 for a hotel stay over several days at the Tideline Palm Beach Ocean Resort and Spa in Palm Beach. Records indicate Noem did not use state funds to pay for her own room, however — often the case when the governor traveled on non-state-related business.
Noem’s office card was incurring post-nomination charges at home as well. Records show a Nov. 18 charge for $38 at Big Tom’s Diner in Pierre — a favorite of the Governor’s Office based on the invoices. Other meals charged included $184 in Sioux Falls and another at Big Tom’s around the New Year holiday — among others.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office defended Noem’s usage of the taxpayer-funded credit cards, contending that others in her administration had access to the credit cards — noting that the governor’s office had two separate charge card accounts.
“The expenditures for this time period on Gov. Noem’s credit card were $0,” said Josie Harms, Rhoden’s press secretary. “Each one was a legitimate state expenditure related to the official duties of the governor’s office or protective detail, all of which have been reviewed and verified by the state auditor.”
The executive branch’s expenditures, though, were not submitted without skepticism on behalf of the State Auditor’s Office. Email exchanges and notes submitted with receipts and credit card statements show the two offices frequently butted heads about the legitimacy of certain expenses.
On Dec. 19, Auditor Supervisor Jenna Latham flagged three purchases made with the card in the prior month.
“Two-bedroom suite waterway view — how is a suite a state obligation?” Latham wrote, referring to a $449 room charge on Election Night. Noem was with Trump the morning his electoral victory was confirmed.
In a response to an inquiry by The Scout, Latham said the office holds the expenses up against state statute to determine their validity. The auditor has final authority in deciding whether to issue a payment.
“Often, vouchers can be returned purely for clarification,” Latham said in a statement. “It needs to be clear, not only for the agency and our office before payment, but also for any post-audits that may arise during the voucher’s retention after payment is made.”
Noem’s spending continued through the U.S. Senate confirmation process. Over several days surrounding her hearing before the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, the former governor racked up over $1,000 in parking charges. In January until her resignation on the 25th, the state credit cards incurred more than $22,000 in expenses. Personnel under the governor stayed in Washington-area hotels, flew back and forth between South Dakota and the nation’s capital, and appeared at hotels in both Minnesota and Illinois. Among the final charges to the card was a Netflix subscription for $24.42 on Jan. 17 — a recurring charge on the former governor’s credit card during Noem’s six years in office.
The expenses on the governor’s credit card likely don’t paint the full picture. Those traveling with the governor would have been entitled to meals and other miscellaneous expenses as part of their work. Those expenses would have been reported on their personal expense reports.
The Scout sued South Dakota State Auditor Rich Sattgast in September after his office refused to turn over the detailed billing statements from Noem’s credit cards. In six years in office, Noem’s credit cards were charged more than $700,000, and The Scout is performing a review of where the money was spent with assistance from Sioux Falls Live.
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For the sake of full disclosure, I was Dakota Scout's attorney in the open records lawsuit to obtain access to records of the governor's office credit card expenditures. Consequently, I had a vested interest as both lawyer and citizen—and still do. As the lawyer, I have left it to my clients to pore over the thousands of pages of records that the governor's office was so obstinately reluctant to share with the public. But in reading this article as a member of that public, it appears the second batch of records, which included post-DHS nomination spending, begs the question: Why should South Dakotans be paying a single damn dime for a state public servant to travel ANYWHERE in pursuit of a new job? And why are state staffers tagging along at our expense? I think we all deserve an answer to both questions.
In 2022, the state's Government Accountability Board considered the issue of Noem's private use of the state planes. The GAB dismissed the complaint on the ground South Dakota has no statutory definition of "state business." The term is conspicuously axiomatic and requires no detailed definition to be plainly understood and applied. And that is what is involved in the "interpretation" of SDCL §3-9-4. That statute reads, in part: "No state officer or employee shall incur any expense payable out of any appropriated funds or other agency funds for travel or other personal expense, including meals, lodging, transportation, or other miscellaneous expenses, except on official state business." Navigating her way into Trump bureaucracy is pretty clearly federal business, not state business.
If anybody can rationalize our having to pay for Noem and her entourage to fly around the country so she can secure a new position in Trump's cartoonish cabinet, please offer your defense. We'll be waiting with bated breath.
Well, I'm sure she was doing all this for the good of the South Dakota people. She probably is going to donate her federal salary to the state, isn't she? Someone as humble and selfless as Noem couldn't possibly be taking advantage of everyday South Dakotans' money for her own benefit.