SD grocery tax repeal validated for the ballot

As the photo at the top of this post illustrates, Governor Kristi Noem held a press event at a South Dakota grocery store during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign to express her support for elimination of the sales tax on groceries. She later reneged on this campaign promise.

But there's a new, hopeful development in the effort to end sales taxes on groceries in South Dakota. 

If we South Dakotans want to get it done, we're going to have to do it ourselves at the ballot box.

From the South Dakota Searchlight:

Grocery tax repeal validated for the ballot
By South Dakota Searchlight Staff

The South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office said Monday that a petition seeking to repeal the state sales tax on groceries has enough signatures from registered voters to make the Nov. 5 ballot.

If nobody mounts a successful challenge to the petition’s validation in the next 30 days, it will become the third statewide measure to make the ballot, with several more measures still possible.

The grocery tax repeal is a citizen-initiated proposal, led by the Dakotans for Health ballot question committee. The other two measures already on the ballot were placed there by the Legislature: a proposal to change male-specific officeholder references in the state constitution to neutral language, and a proposal that would allow the state to impose work requirements on some Medicaid expansion enrollees.

Validation is pending for citizen-led petitions that would create open primary elections, re-establish abortion rights and legalize adult recreational marijuana use.

Meanwhile, a citizen-led group is trying to refer a new pipeline law to the ballot. The Legislature passed the law last winter to implement new protections for landowners affected by a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline, while still allowing a regulatory path forward for the project.

In a related announcement, the Secretary of State’s Office issued a warning Monday to South Dakotans about scam phone calls. The calls come from random numbers with a 605-area code, and the caller claims to be with the the Secretary of State’s Office and the “South Dakota Integrity Committee” or the “Petition Integrity Commission.” Scammers are pressuring people who answer the phone to withdraw their signature from the abortion rights petition. People who receive such calls are encouraged to contact the Secretary of State’s Office, Division of Elections, at [email protected] or by phone at (605) 773-3537.

State law dictates the number of petition signatures required from registered voters to place a measure on the ballot. This year, the requirements are 17,508 signatures for an initiated measure or referred law, and 35,017 for an initiated constitutional amendment.

The grocery tax measure would prohibit the state from collecting sales taxes on “anything sold for human consumption,” except alcoholic beverages and prepared food. The measure would wipe out the 4.2% state sales tax on such items, while cities could continue imposing a tax of up to 2%.

Proponents say the measure would help low-income people, but it would also cost the state an estimated $124 million in lost sales tax revenue during its first year of implementation.

Ballot question status update

Measures placed on the Nov. 5 ballot by the Legislature:

• An amendment to the state constitution updating references to certain officeholders and people (replacing male-specific pronouns with neutral language).
• An amendment to the state constitution authorizing the state to impose work requirements on certain people who are eligible for expanded Medicaid.

Citizen-proposed measure validated for the ballot, pending potential challenges:

• An initiated measure prohibiting state sales taxes on items sold for human consumption, specifically targeting state sales taxes on groceries.

Citizen-proposed measures, pending validation of the required number of petition signatures:

• An initiated amendment to the state constitution re-establishing abortion rights.
• An initiated amendment to the state constitution establishing open primary elections.
• An initiated measure legalizing adult recreational use, possession and distribution of marijuana.

Petition still in circulation:

• • A proposed referendum of a new law regulating carbon dioxide pipelines.

This South Dakota Searchlight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Photo: South Dakota News Watch file image.

Related posts

• Group says it’s filing petition signatures to put grocery tax repeal on South Dakota ballot
• Budget reckoning looms in Pierre as Governor Kristi Noem talks tax cuts and discipline
• South Dakota News Watch: Gov. Kristi Noem pulls support for grocery tax measure over jeopardized tobacco money
• A tale of two states, two sales taxes: Jensen and Noem share very different campaign promises
• SD lawmakers (like Dem gubernatorial contender Smith) tried cutting grocery sales tax before 

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