By PIERRE — Legislation aimed at easing the financial and staffing burden of county offices across South Dakota is gaining momentum at the state Capitol.
The House passed Rep. Drew Peterson’s House Bill 1194, on Wednesday, Feb. 18, which would give county officials the ability to enter into an agreement with one or more counties for the services of director of equalization, potentially cutting costs and helping solve staffing problems in the local offices that deal most directly with the number-one issue in the Legislature this year — property taxes.
Directors of equalization are directly responsible for confirming that all property in the county is accounted for on the tax roll and guaranteeing those properties are assessed in an equal and uniform manner. In addition, Peterson pointed out during a floor speech Tuesday, they are tasked with doing appropriate research about specific properties and classes of property to better figure out the amount of property taxes to levee, and come up with policies to improve the efficient delivery of services.
The New Salem Republican said the measure came as a product of the summer study the Legislature conducted last year to contemplate ways to ease the property tax burden on South Dakotans. He called the job “thankless,” and he noted that retention in the position and its supporting staff was low.
“This is one of the recommendations we came up with,” Peterson explained, noting the unanimous support the proposal garnered from the summer study committee. “It allows for the voluntary cooperation of counties… Allowing counties to voluntarily work together as they see fit should lead to a more efficient and accurate process of assessing our real estate, and it could save our counties money.”
During the bill’s initial hearing in the House’s Local Government Committee, proponents for the measure testified that there was confusion about whether or not the practice would currently be out of step with what is allowed. Certain provisions of state law do allow counties to consider combining certain aspects of services with each other. However, on the director of equalization front, some members of the Association of County Commissioners worried that they were not currently allowed to combine this office according to law.
“This would allow counties to work together in these services,” said Eric Erickson, lobbyist for the association. “We have had some counties, some of our more sparsely populated ones, that have had trouble trying to talk people into this job.”
The South Dakota Retailers Association joined to speak in favor of the bill. Both in committee and in the House, no one spoke in opposition to the idea, though it did manage to garner 13 “nay” votes on its way to a 57-13 vote. Many of the Aberdeen area legislators favored the measure, though Reps. Logan Manhart, R-Aberdeen, and Chris Reder, R-Warner, were among the opposition.
It is one of the smaller of proposals touching the topic of property taxes this year — 26 bills and resolutions have been introduced this 100th legislative session dealing with the issue. Last week, Gov. Larry Rhoden introduced a proposal workshopped by him and members of a legislative property tax workgroup intended to relieve the rising property tax burden on homeowners.