With a slate of hot-button policy issues on the table and limited funding to work with, state Sen. Jim Mehlhaff of Pierre said it is difficult to predict how the 2026 legislative session will play out in the Capitol this year.

“A legislative session is just like the rest of my life — it usually goes just the way I didn’t plan,” the Republican Senate majority leader said of the roughly two-month session that convenes Tuesday, Jan. 13. “Maybe we can have respectful discussions and find good compromises, but it could also become a rodeo-and-a-half, too.”

All joking aside, South Dakota lawmakers are expected to tackle a roster of topics that could have long-lasting impact on the state and its roughly 925,000 residents.

Mehlhaff said that in addition to the annual battle over how to spend state money, legislators are also sure to dive headlong this session into property tax reform and legislation regarding data centers.

Rep. Mike Derby, a Republican from Rapid City, said other major policy issues on the 2026 agenda include efforts to change the state’s electoral process, possible regulation of tax increment financing districts and refining how economic development tools are used in the state.

Hovering over any policy debates, however, will be the difficult task of developing and passing an annual state spending plan following a year when overall tax revenues fell by 1.4%. In response, Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden has proposed no funding increases for schools, state employees and government-funded health programs.

“That’s what we’re going to spend all session talking about,” said Derby, who will lead budget discussions as chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee. “We have a long list of ideas people want to discuss.”

Passing a spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year is the Legislature’s only required action each year. After several years of receiving a total of roughly $1.3 billion in federal funds related to the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers are back into what Derby describes as budget “normalization” mode.

In his budget address in December, Rhoden proposed a lean budget but did include $14 million in discretionary funds lawmakers could possibly use to advance one-time local, regional or statewide projects.

Derby noted that the governor’s budget recommendation is subject to review and alteration. For instance, some lawmakers might try to use the discretionary money to give one-time bumps to state employees, schools and Medicaid providers, he said.

Other ideas that could rise up during budget negotiations include funding of airport expansions, finding ways to tap into funds from unclaimed property and using money Rhoden targeted toward boosting state reserves to fund new or ongoing projects instead.

Lawmakers tried and failed in 2025 to reform the property tax system, which largely funds local schools and county governments.

The push to reform the property tax system comes as many South Dakota homeowners have seen sharp increases in property valuations that have correspondingly caused their tax bills to jump. Most state government operations are funded through the state sales and use taxes.

A summer task force made 19 recommendations on how to reduce the burden on homeowners, and those ideas are still on the table.

Rhoden has offered a plan to allow counties to vote in a local sales tax to offset a reduction in property taxes, and gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson has floated a plan to give homeowners a $400 annual property tax credit.

Mitchell Republic file photo

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Mehlhaff told News Watch he will offer a plan this session to increase the statewide sales tax by 2% and use that money to remove the burden of funding schools from local taxpayers.

The decision on whether to allow construction of data centers that use extensive electricity and water to store huge amounts of computer data is perhaps the hottest topic in South Dakota right now.

The issue

drew a large crowd and high emotions

at Tuesday’s Sioux Falls City Council meeting.

“There’s going to be a robust debate about whether we should incentive data centers to come to South Dakota or put up barriers to them,” Mehlhaff said.

A bill

has already been filed to provide tax exemptions for data centers in an attempt to encourage their development in the state.

Mehlhaff, who is a co-sponsor of that bill, said he would rather see data centers built in the United States, including South Dakota, instead of in foreign countries such as China.

The recent large expenditures related to building new prisons for men and women in South Dakota will translate into efforts in the upcoming session to reform elements of the state judicial system and current criminal sentencing laws, said Rep. Erin Healy, a Sioux Falls Democrat who is the House minority leader.

In the past two years, lawmakers have approved construction of a $650 million men’s prison for a site in eastern Sioux Falls and an $87 million women’s prison now being built in Rapid City.

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Healy said she expects to see legislation filed to keep low-level offenders out of prison and to provide better prison programs to reduce recidivism.

“I think people are realizing that incarcerating people is a very expensive endeavor and that if we take care of people after arrest or before re-entry (into society) that we can avoid some of those costs,” Healy said. “We can help people before they enter the system because it costs us less money but also because it’s the right thing to do.”

Healy expects to file a bill to provide some criminal immunity from drug charges to anyone who witnesses someone else suffering an overdose.

Amid a tight budget year, Democrats will be looking for new revenue streams in 2026 to counter the funding freezes Gov. Rhoden has proposed for schools, state employees and Medicaid-funded health programs, Healy said.

She also said the rhetoric in the Capitol might be heightened due to the upcoming 2026 gubernatorial election as candidates and their supporters seek to drive home messaging they believe will resonate with voters.

Rhoden, one of those candidates, faces primary challengers from within and outside of the state Legislature.

“There are going to be some interesting developments and potentially we’re going to see some new priorities coming out from different camps aligned with gubernatorial candidates,” Healy said.

— This story originally published on southdakotanewswatch.org.

If you want to get one of the two new Wisconsin license plates, you can order them now.

The new plates – the blackout design and the “butter” yellow design – are available on the Division of Motor Vehicles’ new online portal. They’re also stocked at most DMV regional offices and participating car dealerships.

You’ll pay a $15 fee up-front, plus $25 annually. Personalizing the characters is an extra $15 each year.

Along with the new plates, you can order any of the other 60 specialty designs through the portal.

Customers who apply online and don’t want a personalized message could get their new plates within a week.

If you want to personalize the plate, you can see a preview online and check if the message is already taken. DMV staff then review the personalization requests, and delivery can take several weeks.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem clashed with CNN anchor Jake Tapper over her comments shortly after a deadly shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minnesota.

Speaking to the press after a Minneapolis ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, Noem said in a news conference that Good was partaking in “domestic terrorism” and was attempting to “weaponize her vehicle” to attack ICE officers.

Tapper asked Noem about her statements, which he noted were made before an investigation was launched into the incident.

“Well, everything that I‘ve said has been proven to be factual and the truth,” Noem said. “This administration wants to operate in transparency. I have the responsibility as the secretary of Homeland Security to know this information as soon as possible. I had just been in Minneapolis the day before, had already had conversations with officers on the ground and supervisors, and knew the facts and decided that the department and the people of this country deserve to know the truth about the situation of what had unfolded in Minneapolis.”

KRISTI NOEM FIRES BACK AT DEMS AMID IMPEACHMENT THREAT OVER FATAL MINNEAPOLIS ICE SHOOTING

“With all due respect, Secretary, the first thing you said was, ‘what happened was our ICE officers were out in an enforcement action. They got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis. They were attempting to push out their vehicle and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle,’” Tapper said, summarizing her remarks. “That‘s not what happened. We all saw what happened.”

“It absolutely is what happened,” Noem said.

She continued arguing that evidence showed Good had been attempting to block the road and impede federal law enforcement investigations before finally using her car to attack ICE agents.

TOM EMMER PUSHES BACK ON SUGGESTION THAT MINNESOTA ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS HAVE BEEN PEACEFUL

Tapper continued to question Noem’s use of the term “domestic terrorist” and how Noem could be certain of her assertions.

“And the question is, I don‘t doubt…my position is I wasn‘t there,” Tapper said. “I didn‘t see it. Some people say that it clearly showed that she was trying to hit him and did. Some people say no, she was clearly trying to move her car and flee and get away. I don‘t know. What I‘m saying is, how do you know? How can you assert for a fact within hours before any investigation this is what happened?”

“The facts of the situation are that the vehicle was weaponized, and it attacked the law enforcement officer. He defended himself, and he defended those individuals around him. That is the definition. When there is something that is weaponized to use against the public and law enforcement, that is an act of domestic terrorism happened in our shores. It happened here in our country. You don‘t get to change the facts just because you don‘t like them,” Noem said, adding that an investigation is ongoing for potential motivation.

VANCE CALLS CNN, OTHER MEDIA OUTLETS ‘ABSOLUTE DISGRACE’ OVER WHAT THEY LEFT OUT OF MINNEAPOLIS ICE SHOOTING

Noem later accused Tapper of pushing an “untruthful” depiction of the event, leading Tapper to repeatedly push back against her during the interview.

“We’ve all seen the video. I don‘t need to relitigate it. We‘ve all seen the video. She is blocking the street. They approach her,” Tapper said.

“You haven‘t seen the video of the entire morning in the previous encounters with this individual,” Noem said.

“We have aired it. Yes, we have. On Thursday, we were airing and noting the fact that she was there for several minutes, for minutes and minutes and minutes. She was protesting without question,” Tapper responded.

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“At those previous locations that morning, that, absolutely, that these vehicles had been previously down the block on video that you haven‘t seen. There’s more information,” Noem said.

Noem announced earlier on Sunday that the federal government is sending hundreds of additional federal officers to Minnesota in response to the shooting.