Don’t Build More Pedestrian Deserts Downtown
Sioux Falls has created some wonderful downtown gathering places. The next challenge is to expand them, connect them, and create more. Downtown Sioux Falls has become one of the city's great success stories. It is a point of pride in the city. Twenty years ago, few...
Stay Republican to Have a Voice in South Dakota
South Dakota's closed primary system has turned Republican registration into something other than a measure of political identity. The state now has 329,769 registered Republicans, 53% of all registered voters. Are 53% of South Dakotans really Republicans? Probably...
Who Owns South Dakota’s Constitution?
The Legislature Doesn't Trust South Dakota Voters This November, South Dakotans will once again be asked whether they want to give up some of their own power. Amendment L would require future constitutional amendments to receive 60% of the vote instead of the simple...
Voters Opened Our Closed Primary
South Dakota's Republican runoff for governor produced an unexpected experiment in election reform. Thousands of Democrats and independent voters changed their registrations so they could participate in the Republican primary. They didn't suddenly become Republicans....
The 156 Votes That Changed Sioux Falls
Thirty-two years ago, Sioux Falls made one of the most important political decisions in its history. By a margin of just 156 votes, residents approved a new home rule charter that replaced the city's commission form of government with the mayor-council system we still...
The Case the Supreme Court Never Decided
It began with an unexpected phone call from the downtown Sioux Falls library. A librarian had received an inquiry from a researcher on the East Coast looking for information about a long-dead Sioux Falls attorney: my great-grandfather, Joe Kirby. Knowing I had become...
One Election Is Enough
Sioux Falls voters went to the polls on June 2 to elect a new mayor and fill four city council seats. Yet only one of those five races was actually decided that day. The other four required runoff elections three weeks later. And in the runoff, the mayor's race is...
The Political Parties Control South Dakota’s Elections
South Dakota just conducted an important primary election that will likely determine who becomes our next governor. Yet hundreds of thousands of citizens were prevented from participating, not because they were ineligible to vote, but because they did not belong to...
South Dakota’s Economic Paradox
Our traditional model has left many wage earners behind. The populist alternatives could make that worse. South Dakota likes to tell itself a simple story: low taxes, small government and fiscal discipline have produced one of America’s best-run states. There is truth...
Stop Playing Politics with South Dakota’s Taxes
No one likes paying taxes. South Dakota’s tax system is often debated, frequently criticized, and periodically adjusted. Yet one important fact is often overlooked: by national standards, our state already has one of the strongest tax climates in America. The Tax...