Straight Outta Pierre: Property taxes, lobbyist meals, legislator remembrance

Sharp, snappy and South Dakotan — an anonymous shot of insight with a twist of sarcasm

If you thought summer would bring a break from bad ideas and tax math, the Property Tax Task Force is here to disappoint you.

The Comprehensive Property Tax Task Force met in Rapid City. State Rep. Greg Jamison came expecting a policy discussion and instead found himself in the middle of a tax-themed group therapy session. Homeowners lined up to explain that paying property taxes, even after the mortgage is gone, is basically theft. Jamison, bless him, kept asking who they thought was going to pay for roads, cops or schools. The sounds in response ranged from confusion to betrayal, like he’d just suggested charging admission at Walmart. By the end, he sounded like a man trying to explain gravity to a room full of folks who just discovered things fall.