Politics

Legislative special session likely needed to redo state budget due to COVID-19 pandemic

The South Dakota Legislature will likely hold a special session by the end of June to address financial uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to potentially remake the coming year’s spending plan passed earlier this month, legislative fiscal leaders say. Members of the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee

Matt McCaulley: Sioux Falls lawyer has become a behind-the-scenes power broker in Pierre

PIERRE, S.D. – For someone who doesn’t hold elected office, attorney Matt McCaulley of Sioux Falls has amassed a significant amount of political clout, and he is among the most influential people in Pierre during South Dakota’s annual legislative sessions. Throughout his more than 14 years of lobbying,

Concerns arise that new SD electronic bill monitoring system makes state government less transparent

A new online system for drafting, co-sponsoring and tracking bills through the South Dakota Legislature has some people concerned that the modernized system has made the legislative process less transparent and has removed some of the human element from lawmaking. State officials said the new system was needed to update

New elk hunting season proposed to reduce feed loss and property damage on S.D. prairies

North American elk are returning to the prairies of western South Dakota after more than 100 years of absence, a migration seen as a win for wildlife conservation but which has farmers and ranchers bothered by feed losses and property damage. The herding of Rocky Mountain elk as far east

Reform of agricultural land taxation could help farmers but shift burden to homeowners and businesses

As the property tax takes a larger share of their incomes — and at a time when many are hurting financially — South Dakota farmers and ranchers are pushing for reform of the state’s system of valuing and taxing their lands. But as a decade-long process of updating the system nears

Poor SD residents hit hardest by state debt collection efforts

Thousands of South Dakotans have lost their privileges to hunt, fish, or drive in the state since 2016 because they owe money to government agencies for unpaid fines, fees or even college tuition, but often the people hardest hit by state debt collection efforts are low-income residents who are the

Juvenile drug arrests rise in SD despite reform efforts

Over the past decade, South Dakota saw a significant increase in the number of juveniles arrested for drug crimes, and officials see few signs that the arrests will fall anytime soon despite recent reforms of the state juvenile justice system. According to state crime data, the number of youths arrested