Toby Doeden is running for Gov in SD and claims he will eliminate property tax. He reminds me of Tommy Boys dad, and looks like he likes whiskey and could have the widowmaker anytime. But, I like him. Can he do what he says??

It's a matter of math ... If you eliminate one revenue stream from the state budget you have to 1) reduce state expenses ( provide less services) or 2) increase other revenue streams, either existing or new, equal to the eliminated stream or 3) a combination of 1) and 2) as a state does not have the option of printing money as the Fed does.

By himself no, the state's Congress and Senate will be responsible for budget. He may suggest, influence, and if passed by the legislature, may approve such budget measures.

It would be great and it's possible, but not likely. Increase sales taxes is what he's alluding to I believe. Property taxes are the worst of all taxes and should be abolished.

The governor can't do it on his own - he has to have the right people in the state house to make it happen.
The Iowa legislature is in unpaid overtime right now trying to pass a property tax relief bill. Because they waited to the end of the session to start on it, we'll end up with some meaningless crap that really does nothing, They're not getting paid to be there anymore and they all want to get home and plant corn.

All these states need to stop spending as well as these cities, even in SD the city we are in has nothing but multimillion projects going on steady. My property taxes went up 30% in one year and now the city is coming out to look at my house to see if that's enough.

Im in a county that LOVES spending money. Property taxes are enormous. I didnt mean can he do it alone, I meant is it possible to run the government without property taxes. I dont think it will ever happen. Right now we dont have a state income tax.

Probably won't happen

while it sounds nice here is where I think it starts to run into trouble


first I think a man should be able to own his home outright and never worry about someone taking it from him over a tax he voted against.


That said

IF you were to abolish property taxes it should be only on privately owned primary residences, if a corporation owns it , it is leased , or rented it needs a tax still think of the million air BnB properties that are not someone home they are a business that doesn't have the occupants living and working and paying to the community needs.

I deal with some of the numbers concerning funding services in my town. while we may gripe about our personal property taxes the reaility is that the larger businesses in town that have many millions of dollars of manufacturing facilities in town pay a lot of the property taxes right now.



it would be smarter to give credits to single family home owners on a given number of square feet like say you don't get taxed on your first 1500 square feet of your primary home.
this ensures a way to keep your citizens in their homes long term , even allowing for multi generational transfer of the property.
while at the same time ballancing it with a sales tax or other revenue generation or cost reduction possibly service reduction to balance that ledger.

While taxing the people who built very large because they have the money , have additional properties that they don't live at.

a way to balance a place for your service and essential workers while taxing those who have enough cash to toss an extra 10 million at a beach side condo.
this is an issue in Coulier County where my parents live , Ammokalee Rd is packed with traffic morning and evening , a significant portion of their labor population in Naples lives almost an hour inland in Ammokalee while this isn't neccesarily the issue in SD
a balance of taxing to pay for services is needed

a strait sales tax is an option I am not sure if it is enough especially in a county where sales would be very low as it very few stores , would you collect it on a state wide basis then distribute it on some basis to fund all the counties.

it sounds good but it raises a lot of questions and the devil is always in the details.

Never happen. SD is already a low tax state which barely generates enough revenue to take care of regular expenses. We are highly reliant on federal money. It will be another try like "Doge" and we all know how well that went. I don't like my property taxes either, but at least I see where they go. I'm much more concerned about my federal income tax which continues to go to a government that cannot say no to spending.