When Governor Daugaard gave the annual State of the State address last week, he highlighted several benchmarks which demonstrate the advantage of having economic policies based on reality. What do I mean by reality? I’ll tell you in a bit, followed by some ways we are in danger of ignoring reality. But first, some highlights.
South Dakota’s unemployment rate is the second lowest in the nation at 3.6%, and we have added enough jobs in the past years to exceed our recession losses by 2.5%. We’ve been named the #1 State for business by CNBC, and we have the highest personal income growth in the nation. One study of photos posted on the internet even found that South Dakotans smiled more than any other state!
South Dakotans recognize economic reality. Our state has a balanced budget, meaning we don’t put any of our regular expenses on the credit card, and we haven’t increased the tax rates on the economy in order to do so. If we would have increased the sales tax by “1 penny” as the last election’s ballot measure proposed, that would have been a significant drain on economic growth, and a state tax increase of 25%.
But there is another constraint that reality places on South Dakota, and rightly so: Continue Reading »