Battle over tax cut ends at hands of senate appropriators

Senators far less confident in a permanent tax cut than House

(Austin Goss/The Dakota Scout)

PIERRE – Almost as soon as the battle started to make last year’s sales tax cut permanent, it ended.

Senate appropriators quashed what hope remained to pass HB 1001, making last year’s .3 percent cut to the state sales tax rate permanent. 

Rep. Chris Karr, the tax cut’s champion, spent Thursday morning next to Bureau of Finance and Management Commissioner Jim Terwilliger, defending the idea to remove last session’s sunset clause. 

“The numbers keep coming in, we are able to take care of our state’s obligations and give folks their money back,” Karr said to lawmakers. 

Unlike in years’ past, making the 4.2 percent tax rate permanent had the backing of the Governor’s Office. Last year, Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration supported getting rid of the state’s tax on groceries over the sales tax cut proposal. This year, the administration locked arms with the state House in an effort to make the cut permanent. 

“The citizens and taxpayers of South Dakota deserve permanent tax relief,” said Terwilliger. “Not temporary relief.”

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