Senate increases direct checks proposed for homeowners to $425

Ante upped in tax relief battle with state House, Gov. Kristi Noem

(Austin Goss / Dakota News Now)

PIERRE — Nearly 250,000 South Dakota families would get a cut of a $104 million tax relief package state senators are pushing for entering the final week of Legislative budget negotiations.

Senators Thursday modified their latest iteration of a property tax cut bill that no longer calls for a tax cut at all, but instead would send direct checks to registered owners of single-family, owner-occupied dwellings.

“We hear in Sioux Falls and the Black Hills that property taxes are too high and sales tax is just right,” Senate Majority Leader Casey Crabtree told The Dakota Scout Thursday afternoon. “So this is a meaningful way to send dollars right back to South Dakotans.”

The Senate’s proposal is one of multiple tax relief packages still alive in the state Legislature with four legislative days left to go. The state House is proposing a .3 percent reduction in the state’s 4.5 percent sales tax rate, and a separate measure that would also lower the sales tax rate to 4.2 percent but would expire in 2025 will also be considered in the Senate next week.

NEWS: South Dakota homeowners would get $300 checks under new property tax bill