The 2026 South Dakota Legislative Session wrapped up last week, and as your Representative, I wanted to share a straightforward recap of what happened in Pierre this year. Especially the parts that matter most to us in the rural northeast corner of our state.
The session ran from mid-January through mid-March, with the heavy lifting done by March 12. We passed a balanced $7.5 billion state budget for the coming fiscal year. This is a modest 2.4% overall increase from last year. That included a 1.4% bump for the “Big Three”: K-12 schools, state employee pay, and Medicaid health care providers like our nursing homes, clinics and hospitals. It wasn’t a substantial boost that is needed (the Governor’s initial proposal had zero for education), but it’s better than nothing, and it helps keep our rural schools and healthcare stable amid rising costs.
Property taxes were a huge topic again this year. Everyone who owns a home has seen an increase in owner occupied taxes in recent years. We made some progress with targeted relief, like allowing counties more flexibility to use sales tax revenue to ease property tax burdens on homeowners. This is an option for $.05 sales tax in the county that comes directly back to owner occupied taxes. The statewide sales tax is moving from 4.2-4.5% in July, and when this happens, this .03% tax will also be coming back to the owner-occupied portion of our taxes. This will be approximately $110M in relief. I voted for the county option tax, and also voted for an amendment to take the first $60M in the .03% for property tax reduction and use the remaining $50M for ongoing funding for schools and nursing homes. At the end of the day, we ended up with both plans.
Other highlights included efforts to protect local control over things like large data centers (no statewide moratorium, but counties keep their say), some education wins like partial state help for free/reduced school lunches, and routine but important updates for things like wildland fire support, funding for fire department equipment, and prescribed burning on state land. We also secured the allocation of $403M over the next two years for Rural Health Transformation Funding for a Federal investment into our rural health facilities like ambulance, hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. The applications are just beginning in this major investment into SD.
It was a busy, sometimes tough session with tight funds and lots of competing needs. As always, please reach out whether it’s questions about a bill, concerns from our district, or just ideas for next year.
Thanks for reading your local paper and staying engaged. This being my first year, I’ve learned the decisions made in Pierre affect us!
Rep. Nick Fosness, District 1
605-228-5555
