This story was updated to show Sen. Maher’s fourth proposal and reflect the deadlock that remained after the 5 p.m. CT meeting on the proposed sales-tax reduction.
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — There won’t be a $425 property-tax credit for South Dakota homeowners. And lawmakers have just 48 hours left to decide what tax cut, if any, they’ll deliver from this session.
The state Senate voted 27-3 on Wednesday morning to accept a conference committee’s recommendation and killed its version of HB1141. But a conference committee working on a sales-tax reduction left the Capitol Wednesday evening without any result.
Senators had originally approved the property-tax plan 31-2 on March 2. But the House of Representatives wouldn’t agree to it.
A House-Senate conference committee then decided that the plug should be pulled on it. The House voted 65-5 on Tuesday to accept the report.
No one spoke Wednesday when Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden asked whether any senator had any comments.
The death of the Senate’s property-tax refund came shortly after another House-Senate conference committee met Wednesday morning to discuss HB1137 that seeks to reduce the 4.5% state sales-tax rate.
The March 6 version of the sales-tax reduction from the Senate calls for a dip to 4.3% that would last two years.
Republican Rep. Chris Karr, the original bill’s sponsor, meanwhile has proposed returning it to 4.2% with no end date, as the House had approved by a 66-3 vote on February 22.
Republican Sen. Ryan Maher proposed two alternatives Wednesday morning. One calls for a 4.3% rate lasting four years. The other is a 4.2% rate for three years.
House Republican leader Will Mortenson and Senate Republican leader Casey Crabtree both expressed continued support during the meeting for accomplishing a tax reduction this session.
Maher put forth a third proposal when the committee returned at 3 p.m. It calls for a 4.1% rate lasting two years. The committee took no action.
Said Crabtree, “We’re focused on getting something done in a big way for the folks of South Dakota. We continue to work on those discussions. We just had a great meeting a couple of minutes ago. We’ve got a lot of work left to do.”
Maher brought back a fourth proposal when the committee met again after 5 p.m. He had difficulty explaining how it would work, describing it as written in Greek.
Karr raised questions, as did Democrat Sen. Reynold Nesiba. A confused panel took no action.
“Call it a recession trigger,” Maher told reporters afterward. Maher then tried to explain it to Jim Terwilliger, the governor’s finance commissioner.
“I haven’t seen it,” Karr told KELOLAND News as the meeting broke up for the night. “If they can’t explain it and it’s their amendment, it doesn’t bode well.”
As of 6:30 p.m., Maher’s latest proposal hadn’t been published online yet by the Legislative Research Council. The LRC posted it later Wednesday night.
The panel plans to meet again at 8 a.m. Thursday, the final day of the 2023 session’s main run. Lawmakers are scheduled to return to the Capitol on March 27 to consider any vetoes and unfinished business.
