Senate approves property tax relief fund through state sales tax
$110 million coming online next year will be used to offset homeowner tax bills
PIERRE – The South Dakota Senate voted Wednesday to create a property tax relief fund that will be financed with $110 million in state sales tax revenues.
Senate Bill 245 also transfers nearly $56 million out of reserves into the property tax relief fund to get it started.
The $110 million will automatically kick into the state budget when a tax sunset expires next year, sending the state’s sales tax rate from 4.2 percent to 4.5 percent. Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, said using sales tax dollars to buy down part of the education mill levy that local taxpayers finance through property taxes would get “more people with skin in the game” of funding education.
Financial incentive for new Smithfield packing plant in Sioux Falls clears first City Council test
Smithfield Foods cleared a public hurdle on Tuesday on the way to approval of a financing plan for a portion of a new $1.3 billion pork processing plant in northwest Sioux Falls.
