I hate to go through this again, but I guess I must. Pat Powers rails on Gov. Rounds for suggesting modest increases the property tax and spending of reserves. Thus Pat is angry at the governor from straying from the Republican low taxes, small government Gospel. This, says Pat, is the kind of thing that ruined the national GOP.
Once again, let's look at the numbers. Go here and here. South Dakota is #49 in per capita tax burden and #48 in per capita state and local spending (it is #49 per household). Looking at the numbers it is fair to say that no state taxes less nor spends less than South Dakota. The notion that we are on the precipice of a Leviathan government confiscating our hard earned money is just not supported by the facts. As I've said before, it is possible that all the other state governments are so bloated that one can be last in taxes and spending and still have "too much" of those. But I doubt it. The fact is that we have a frugal government that takes very little from us.
Let's get some perspective. First, national government and state government are apples and oranges when it comes to spending. The powers of the federal government are few and defined. The powers of states are many and undefined. Thus states should carry the burden of providing most government services. The problem is precisely that we have located so many of these services at the national level. To put it plainly, the federal government does a lot that it shouldn't do. Republicans got in trouble for lots of reasons, and one reason is that they did not fight this. But one must compare national government to state government with great caution as the two exist for different reasons. While I share Pat's concern with the "nanny state," when one looks at services provided by our state, it is hard to find any that it shouldn't be providing.
Also, comparing our state to North Dakota is faulty. North Dakota has significant oil reserves that we do not have. That gives our neighbors to the north a revenue stream that we don't have, and a revenue stream that has been very generous the last couple years.
South Dakota has a history of balanced budgets. We have a lean state government with low taxes. That is perhaps the result of Republican governance through the years. We should be thankful for this rather than getting the vapors because we might see the most modest increases in taxes and spending.
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