PIERRE, S.D.(Press Release) –On Tuesday, Governor Larry Rhoden will deliver his 2025 Budget Address to the South Dakota Legislature. This address will take place in the South Dakota House of Representatives at 1:00 pm.
Governor Rhoden’s budget principles:
“I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of time with family and friends, great food, and gratitude for our abundance of blessings. As Thanksgiving turns to Christmas and gratitude turns to generosity, I’m preparing to present a balanced budget to the South Dakota Legislature.
We do a lot of things right in South Dakota. Our people are some of the most generous in the nation. A big reason for that is our government doesn’t tax them to death, so they have the flexibility to give more of their own hard-earned income in support of their neighbors.
I’ve served in the Capitol for over 20 years, including 16 years in both chambers of the Legislature and six years as Lieutenant Governor under Governor Noem. For all of those years, I was engaged in the budget process – but this will be the first budget with my name on it, so I’d like to set the table with some core budget principles for how I approached this budget.
First and foremost, this money is the people’s money – not ours. So we spend it wisely and return it to the people when we can. We balance our budget. Every year. For 136 years in a row – and this budget will make the 137th. And we don’t use any gimmicks to do it – we structurally balance our budget. To achieve that, we don’t spend money we don’t have.
More specifically, we don’t spend one-time money on ongoing expenses. We use one-time dollars to pay debt, invest in projects that will have a long-term benefit, or endow an ongoing cost to save taxpayer money over the long haul. We don’t engage in wishful thinking – we conservatively project revenue and expenses. We maintain at least 10% of our budget in reserves to save for true emergencies. And we fully fund our pension and protect our AAA credit rating.
These are principles we have followed in the past, and I am strongly committed to following them as well. If we do, we’ll be in good shape, no matter how tough it gets.
My budget invests in our people. It keeps South Dakota strong, safe, and free by making targeted investments where we should, saving extra money for the future, and still paving the way for property tax relief. We recognize these dollars aren’t ours. They belong to the good people of South Dakota. As our state motto says: “Under God, the People Rule.”
I look forward to sharing my budget with the Legislature and the people of South Dakota, then working through it in the upcoming legislative session. In the meantime, may God continue to bless the great state of South Dakota.”
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