Politics

Investigation Part 2: South Dakota outsourced management and auditing of COVID relief grants

The state Bureau of Finance and Management is not conducting its own auditing of individual grant applications or grants awarded under the Coronavirus Relief Fund, according to Colin Keeler, director of financial systems in the department. The state hired an independent firm to manage both the application and award process

Despite sales tax hike, average teacher pay in South Dakota returns to near bottom in nation

In 2016, South Dakota set a goal to put more money into the K-12 public school system after years of ranking last in the nation for teacher pay. The plan included a sales tax hike with new revenues directed to school districts to raise teacher salaries and be competitive with

Political partisanship and GOP messaging driving vaccine hesitancy in South Dakota

Even as COVID-19 infections and deaths are rising once again in South Dakota, resistance to getting vaccinated remains entrenched among some state residents, and the political divide over whether to get vaccinated shows no signs of narrowing. Two new sets of polling data on vaccine-hesitancy rates and reasons have raised

Native American leaders in S.D. keeping close eye on legislative redistricting

Native American voting-rights advocates are concerned that the voices of South Dakota’s largest minority group may be excluded from the redistricting process.

Juvenile justice reforms working, but not as well for minority offenders in South Dakota

A series of juvenile justice reforms enacted in South Dakota over the past decade has kept more low-level youth offenders out of detention centers and away from criminal activity that could land them in the adult system, according to state officials. But state data show that youth of color — who

Halt to abortions in South Dakota during pandemic led women to get procedure in other states

A temporary halt to abortions in 2020 at the only clinic in South Dakota where the procedures take place led to a big drop in abortions performed in the state last year, but it did not prevent women who wanted to terminate their pregnancies from doing so elsewhere. During the

Economists: Eliminating sales tax on food would aid low-income families in South Dakota

Economists: Eliminating sales tax on food would aid low-income families in South Dakota

Charging sales tax on food purchases is regressive by nature but is especially unfair to low-income South Dakotans who already spend a disproportionate amount of their income to meet basic needs, two prominent South Dakota economists said. Eliminating the sales tax on groceries could help alleviate some of the financial