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Fee/Tax Increases in effect on July First
By Jason | July 6, 2009
The following is a Guest Editorial that I wrote for the Watertown Public Opinion that was published in the July 1, 2009 edition.
Many of us rely on the State of South Dakota to provide services to us as taxpayers and citizens. Perhaps registering a corporation through the Secretary of State, licensing a motor vehicle, or indirectly through a visit to a healthcare facility would be just a few examples. After the 2009 Legislative Session many state services became more expensive to utilize.
Throughout the Legislative Session various State Department employees would lobby us on behalf of their bill that will send more revenue to the State of South Dakota. These employees of the State wear a blue badge which is different than the contract lobbyists who have a white badge. Many times in the morning before a session the floor of the House of Representatives would be covered with “blue badges” in an attempt to shore up the needed votes for their fee/tax increase to pass.
The days leading up to the Legislative Session I was never crazy about supporting the fee/tax increases, and throughout the Session I continued to oppose these increases on South Dakotans. The only fee increases I supported were those dealing with increasing professional fees and those who are late on child support.
I encourage all of you to examine where you are required to “file” State paperwork or receive licenses, registration, and permits, because those fees will most likely be increased on July First.
Healthcare facilities were the recipients of some of these fee increases, over $200,000 extra will be deposited in the State’s General Fund. We all know that long-term care facilities are strapped to make ends meet in rural South Dakota, so these fee increases will be an extra burden. Thanks to the efforts of some legislators a portion of the fee increases were reduced from what the Executive Branch requested for raising taxes on South Dakotans.
I had the opportunity to be involved from the beginning on the agriculture related fees that were presented to the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. An increase in fees on the seed/nursery/greenhouse facilities was one bill and another bill increased the fees on dairy operations. These two pieces of legislation troubled me. First off, many greenhouse operators do it as a service to the community and run on thin margins; so why increase their fees? Next, the Dairy Industry is going through very difficult times with extremely low milk price/hundredweight; with some even selling their cows and getting out of the business.
Almost all of these fee increases were “sold” to Legislators on the basis that the program is do or die. If we didn’t support the fee increase; the state service would be gone. Ridiculous and I didn’t buy that argument. Do you really think they would discontinue a dairy inspection program that ensures safe, clean milk and dairy products for consumers? That would be foolish, and that’s exactly what these fee increases have accomplished, foolishness.
A positive alternative to these fee increases could have been an across the board percentage cut to State Government and force State Agencies to look for and find inefficiencies to save money.
There is a fee increase that I would have been glad to support. It was a bill that would attach a fee for each barrel of oil that travels in a pipeline through South Dakota. The sheer purpose of this fee would be to create a cleanup fund for any problems with the pipeline. However, this bill was killed in the Senate State Affairs committee, so I didn’t get a chance to vote on that bill.
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