South Dakota gubernatorial candidates Kristi Noem, Jamie Smith weigh food tax special session

While Rep. Jamie Smith (D-Sioux Falls) was talking to reporters at the Democratic Party headquarters in Sioux Falls about supporting a call for a special session to repeal the state sales tax on groceries, Gov. Kristi Noem was touring Sunshine Food and talking with customers a few blocks over.

Asked if she supported the idea of a special session, Noem said she wasn't sure if the votes for a special session were there.

The special session, if passed by a 2/3 majority of lawmakers, would be scheduled for Nov. 3, less than a week before the Nov. 8 election.

"I don't want to put us in a situation where this bill fails, it's too important for us to get relief to the families of South Dakota," Noem said Wednesday.

The remarks come after a group of eight Republicans, some members of the South Dakota Freedom Caucus, a far-right caucus group, called for a special session Tuesday to cut the sales tax on groceries. The group took initiative after Noem in late September made a campaign promise that if re-elected to a second term next month, she would push the legislature to pass the tax cut, citing rising inflation and policy decisions made by the Biden administration.

More:Gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith joins call for special session to repeal grocery tax

Instead, Noem said she was optimistic that the tax cut, which would be worth up to $100 million, would pass during the 2023 Legislative session. And she believed the state revenue could handle the hit.

"We've already grown our economy, we have the revenue we should be returning [the money] to the taxpayer," Noem said.

Smith, back at the Democratic headquarters, said it was past time for families to get relief. A bill that would've repealed the state sales tax on food was brought to the legislature in March and although it passed the House, it failed in the Senate. At the time that bill failed, Noem said she was hesitant to support it, fearing that a tax cut at the time could mean tax increases in the future.

"Families in our state don't have time for politics and flip flopping. They need the needed relief. They needed it last spring and the governor denied. Now they are told to trust the government and wait another year," Smith said. "Make no mistake, this is an emergency."

How are lawmakers feeling about the special session?

Sen. Jean Hunhoff (R-Yankton), who chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations, said she's not in support of a special session.

"If we can give dollars back to the people, fine, but we have no idea what we're looking at expenses for this coming year," she said. "We have no idea what the revenues if they're going to continue, and there's always unintended consequences of every action."

Hunoff said she had seen the petition for the special session circulating, but she still wants clarity on what the tax cut would look like.

More:What does it mean for Gov. Kristi Noem's campaign to cut the sales tax on food?

"I haven't seen any details, just a generic statement that we're taking that off, so I don't know what that means," she said.

Sen. Reynold Nesiba (D-Sioux Falls) has sponsored bills to cut the tax in the past six years and said there's existing language on what the cut could look like.

"Maybe we should have a compromise," Nesiba said. "If we can't get 4.5% done, how about we have a special session and we take two cents off [the tax]?"

Nesiba added that Democrats across the Senate and the House were united in having a special session.

Sen. Troy Heinert (D-Mission) said a version of a bill to cull the tax on groceries has been brought the past 10 years he's served in the legislature.

"I think special session is a great idea. I mean if the whole goal is to provide some tax relief to South Dakotans, we should have it tomorrow," he said.

Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch (R-Glenham) and President Pro-Tempore Lee Schoenbeck (R-Watertown) did not respond to calls for comment from the Argus Leader.

Is there precedent for a special session ahead of an election?

The last special session held by the South Dakota legislature was earlier in the year to determine if former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg should be impeached. The special session lasted from November 2021, when the House of Representatives convened for an investigation committee, to June when the Senate formed an impeachment court, which resulted in Ravnsborg's ousting.

Mike Card, a political science professor at the University of South Dakota, said he was unaware of a special session happening in November of an election year.

There have been other special sessions held in November in years past, typically to handle redistricting following population changes from the U.S. Census. But those tend to fall not in election years.

In 2006, a special session to investigate former Senator Dan Sutton (D-Flandreau) for alleged misconduct was canceled after he resigned, according to prior Argus Leader reporting.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Noem, Smith weigh in on call for special session to repeal grocery tax