South Dakota
Pace of Medicaid enrollment remains slower than expected – South Dakota Searchlight
Fewer people than expected are signing up for Medicaid through an expansion backed by voters in 2022, and the state Department of Social Services is adjusting its budget to reflect the slower pace.
That’s at least partially because the state hasn’t publicized the expansion. Most enrollees sign up when they have a medical issue and need coverage to help pay for it, DSS Deputy Secretary and Director of Operations Brenda Tidball-Zeltinger told the budget-setting Joint Appropriations Committee this week.
Medicaid expansion opened the subsidized health care program to people whose incomes sit at 138% of the federal poverty level or less, which is up to $41,400 for a family of four or $15,060 a year for a single person.
Enrollment for Medicaid expansion opened on July 1, 2023, after South Dakota voters approved the expansion in 2022.
The appropriations committee typically has one budget hearing for each state department during the regular legislative session. For DSS, the committee set aside a second meeting date explicitly to dive into Medicaid and Medicaid expansion.
Initially, state officials projected that about 57,530 people would be eligible for expanded services, Tidball-Zeltinger told the committee. But those figures were pulled from 2015 data, and assumed that all eligible residents would sign up.
“Now, as we examine and have a few months of data in terms of how many people have enrolled in the program, we’re really revising that,” Tidball-Zeltinger said.
At the end of December, she said, the state had 17,520 people on the expansion enrollment list.
Based on that slower uptake – enrollments have grown a little more than 26% each month for the last three months – Tidball-Zeltinger told lawmakers that about 40,000 people will have expanded coverage in 2025.
Those people are mostly adults without children, she told the committee. That group makes up 67% of the expansion population, the rest being parents. Sixty-five percent of enrollees also qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps.
Minimal outreach
Another figure offered during Monday’s meeting in Pierre caught the attention of lawmakers: 80%. That’s the number of newly enrolled Medicaid participants to have signed up with a medical claim.
“Oftentimes people come to us when they’ve got a health care issue, or they come to us through a provider as they’re seeing them,” Tidball-Zeltinger said.
Rep. Linda Duba, D-Sioux Falls, pressed the deputy secretary on why the agency hasn’t been more proactive in seeking out eligible adults.
“I can see billboards about vaccinations, and I can see billboards about STDs, but I have never seen any advertisements or any proactive community health workers that are out in communities as a result of DSS encouraging enrollment in those populations,” Duba said.
The department doesn’t intend to advertise, Tidball-Zeltinger said, but there are community organizations encouraging sign-up. The Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas has worked to guide potential enrollees through the process.
The department sees providers as partners in sign-ups, as they are often the ones who suggest that coverage might be available when someone shows up seeking care.
“We have done a lot of stakeholder webinars and communication work with our partners,” Tidball-Zeltinger said.
Duba pointed to North Carolina to suggest that South Dakota could do more. She said she’d recently visited and saw ads encouraging sign-up.
Tidball-Zeltinger said that “some states took an approach very much like South Dakota,” which involved outreach to providers, while others used ad campaigns.
“It’s really a mix,” she said.
She also pointed to a chart in the DSS presentation that compared rates of Medicaid expansion take-up in states surrounding South Dakota. Some states, like Iowa, had faster uptake for Medicaid initially. Others saw rates similar to South Dakota. But all of them saw steadily increasing numbers during the first two years of expansion.
Adding around 2,000 people a month, Tidball-Zeltinger said, is “in the ballpark with what we’ve seen in other states that surround us.”
Duba suggested, however, that the DSS work to track how much the state pays per enrollee and separately report the cost for those who sign up when seeking care versus those who sign up beforehand.
Duba argued that the second group of enrollees is likely to be less expensive to cover in the long run.
“If we were more proactive, people would be using preventative services, instead of coming in when they’re sicker, or they’re in greater need, which drives our utilization costs up,” Duba said.
Budget adjustments
Lower enrollments have also had an impact on the DSS budget, at least for 2024 and 2025. The federal government covers 90% of the cost for Medicaid expansion, and South Dakota also gets 5% more per year in federal dollars until 2026 to help the state ease into the expansion.
Lawmakers set aside about $54 million in state money for the first year of expansion. The department needed $37.5 million less than that.
The department also revised its ask for 2025 downward by $16.4 million based on the lower enrollments.
South Dakota voters approved Medicaid expansion, but implementation may not be easy
Those budget revisions don’t signal savings, though. The department also set aside $11.4 million in “buy-down” dollars in 2024, and will ask to set aside another $18.3 million for 2025, in hopes of softening the budgetary blow when the 5% federal boost dries up in 2026.
Jason Simmons, the budget director for the DSS, told appropriators that the $29.7 million set aside over those two years still won’t be enough come 2026.
“That’s still going to leave $34.5 million that the state is going to have to come up with (for 2026) just to maintain that baseline level of services,” Simmons said. “Any additional enrollment, any provider inflation, anything we see added to Medicaid is going to make that number go up.”
The DSS, Bureau of Finance and Management and the Legislative Research Council worked to adjust projections after enrollments began. The revised projections are a sign that a work group that met last year to discuss Medicaid expansion did its job, according to Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls.
“This is a big area in our state budget with a lot of unknowns right now and a lot of future growth, and it’s going to take up a lot of ongoing revenue into the future,” Venhuizen said. “And I think we’ve done a very good job of working together to project this to the extent that we can and to plan for building it into our budget.”
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South Dakota
PBR | No. 1 John Crimber goes 4-for-4, tops final three rounds to win First PREMIER Bank PBR Sioux Falls
Using his pick for an opportunity to compete head-to-head against Lights Out, who has now paired in the Championship round on seven event-winning rides this season, Crimber punctuated his 4-for-4 weekend with a round-winning 91.50 points on Western sports’ ultimate money bull.
The 20-year-old took home 196.5 UTB points for his second event win of the year and improved his lead to 220.5 points over No. 2 Sage Steele Kimzey (Strong City, Oklahoma) – the largest lead the tour’s No. 1-ranked cowboy has had over No. 2 all season.
After his shoulder dislocated on his first attempt earlier in the round, Kimzey made the most of his Round 3 re-ride dance with Jameson (89.30 points) to sneak into the short go with one ride score. However, he finished the weekend 1-for-4, unable to end Magic Potion’s PBR record-holding buckoff streak, which the bovine advanced to 59 in bucking off the only cowboy who has ever lasted 8 seconds on him in 4.51 seconds.
Claudio Montanha Jr. (Ribeirao dos Indios, Brazil) exited Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in second place as the top-performing rider to go 3-for-4. The 36-year-old cowboy wasn’t able to convert in Round 3 but rebounded in the Championship Round in thrilling fashion.
Montanha Jr. opted into a short round dance with Hard Times and matched the bull’s every move en route to recording a career-high 91.25 points.
Successful in seven of his last eight outs, he netted 110 UTB points for his season-best runner-up finish and improved from No. 18 to No. 13.
Daniel Keeping (Montague, Texas) recorded a season-high third-place finish in Sioux Falls after becoming the first man to go 3-for-3 Sunday. Keeping bested Tecovas Triple Aught for 88.20 points in Round 3 to earn the second selection in Sunday’s bull draft.
The top-ranked contender in this year’s YETI Championship bull race, No. 1 Pegasus, tossed Keeping to the ground in 4.06 seconds to end the rider’s perfect showing while defending his spot atop the world title hunt.
Keeping earned a crucial 91.5 UTB points and advanced from cutoff bubble territory at No. 32 all the way up to No. 20 courtesy of his clutch weekend.
Luciano De Castro (Guzolandia, Brazil) finished in fourth place as the third and final rider to produce a 3-for-4 slate.
The veteran began his afternoon by going the distance atop Best Bet (87 points) to punch his ticket to Sunday’s short round. Castro later survived the requisite 8 aboard Ice Tray and earned but declined a re-ride, opting to keep his 72.15 points and end his weekend with a 245.50-point aggregate score.
He gained 61 UTB points for his fourth-place finish and improved from No. 26 to No. 19.
Dener Barbosa (Paulo de Faria, Brazil) rounded out the Top 5.
Barbosa parlayed his career-high 93.10-point ride on Pegasus in Round 1 on Friday night with an 84.85-point conversion atop Rip in Round 3 to earn fifth-place honors.
He took home a critical 64 UTB points, advancing from No. 45 to No. 38 with two events remaining before the tour invades Cowtown Coliseum and Dickies Arena for the PBR World Finals (May 7-17) in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ransom earned the YETI “Built for the Wild” Bull of the Event title for bucking off Brady Fielder (Clermont, Australia) in 5.63 seconds during the opening round.
Several of this year’s YETI World Championship Bull contenders produced 45-plus-point scores throughout the weekend, including Ransom (46.15), Eyes On Me (45.60), Red Demon (45.40), Fire Zone (45.15) and No.1 Pegasus (45.60, 45.30), who remains atop the title race standings.
PBR’s Unleash The Beast next bucks into Metra Park – First Interstate Arena in Billings, Montana, for PBR Billings April 17-18.
Action for PBR Billings, the penultimate event of the 2026 regular season, starts at 6:45 p.m. MT, with Round 1 coverage set to begin on Paramount+ at 7 p.m. MT.
Unleash The Beast – First PREMIER Bank PBR Sioux Falls
Denny Sanford PREMIER Center – Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Event Leaders (Round 1-Round 2-Round 3-Round 4-Event Aggregate-Event Points)
1. John Crimber, 86.95-89.4-89.95-91.5-357.80-196.5 Points.
2. Claudio Montanha Jr., 86.95-87.7-0-91.25-265.90-110 Points.
3. Daniel Keeping, 89-86.65-88.2-0-263.85-91.5 Points.
4. Luciano De Castro, 0-86.25-87-72.15-245.40-61 Points.
5. Dener Barbosa, 93.1-0-84.85-0-177.95-64 Points.
6. Alex Cerqueira, 0-88.55-87.7-0-176.25-52 Points.
7. Daylon Swearingen, 88.55-86.05-0-0-174.60-37 Points.
8. Alex Junior da Silva, 87.75-86.65-0-0-174.40-33.5 Points.
9. Sage Steele Kimzey, 0-0-89.3-0-89.30-23 Points.
10. Jess Lockwood, 89.15-0-0-0-89.15-21 Points.
11. Eduardo Aparecido, 88.85-0-0-0-88.85-18 Points.
12. Cort McFadden, 88.25-0-0-0-88.25-14 Points.
13. Kase Hitt, 0-87.7-0-0-87.70-16.5 Points.
14. Bob Mitchell, 0-87.35-0-0-87.35-15 Points.
15. Julio Cesar Marques, 0-0-87.15-0-87.15-15 Points.
16. Bruno Carvalho, 0-0-86.95-0-86.95-13 Points.
17. Alan de Souza, 0-86.8-0-0-86.80-14 Points.
18. Marco Rizzo, 0-85.85-0-0-85.85-9 Points.
19. João Ricardo Vieira, 0-84.45-0-0-84.45-8 Points.
Brady Fielder, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Paulo Eduardo Rossetto, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Maverick Smith, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Kaiden Loud, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Koltin Hevalow, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Cassio Dias, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Thiago Salgado, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Kaique Pacheco, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Lucas Divino, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Manoelito de Souza Junior, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Mauricio Gulla Moreira, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Andy Guzman, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Mason Taylor, 0-0-0-0-0.00
JaCauy Hale, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Elijah Jennings, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Damien Krushall, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Romario Leite, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Zane Cook, 0-0-0-0-0.00
Macaulie Leather, 0-0-0-0-0.00
2026 Professional Bull Riders Unleash The Beast Standings
(Place, Rider, Events, Wins, Top 5’s, Points, Total Winnings)
1. John Crimber, 16, 2, 6, 899.50, $193,100.00
2. Sage Steele Kimzey, 14, 3, 4, 679.00, $178,737.62
3. Leandro Zampollo, 14, 0, 6, 595.50, $121,150.12
4. Brady Fielder, 16, 2, 4, 593.00, $151,204.17
5. Alex Cerqueira, 16, 0, 3, 502.50, $87,565.00
6. Paulo Eduardo Rossetto, 16, 1, 6, 492.00, $106,855.00
7. Dalton Kasel, 14, 2, 4, 488.50, $130,098.33
8. Clay Guiton, 8, 0, 4, 409.50, $89,715.48
9. Cort McFadden, 13, 0, 2, 406.00, $50,280.48
10. Keyshawn Whitehorse, 15, 1, 1, 405.00, $71,991.67
11. Julio Cesar Marques, 15, 0, 3, 392.00, $73,105.48
11. Marco Rizzo, 16, 1, 3, 392.00, $94,090.00
13. Claudio Montanha Jr., 16, 0, 3, 389.00, $68,182.14
14. Maverick Smith, 15, 0, 2, 367.00, $64,708.33
15. Daylon Swearingen, 12, 1, 1, 362.50, $109,300.00
16. Cassio Dias, 16, 1, 1, 340.50, $64,240.48
17. Kaiden Loud, 15, 0, 3, 336.00, $54,613.33
18. Bob Mitchell, 13, 0, 2, 303.00, $41,731.67
19. Luciano De Castro, 14, 0, 3, 249.00, $37,952.98
20. Daniel Keeping, 15, 0, 1, 247.00, $35,475.00
21. Koltin Hevalow, 16, 0, 1, 246.50, $40,933.33
22. Jess Lockwood, 6, 1, 1, 236.00, $69,325.00
23. Andrew Alvidrez, 15, 1, 1, 229.00, $60,883.33
24. Thiago Salgado, 14, 0, 0, 224.00, $33,500.00
25. Callum Miller, 14, 0, 2, 209.00, $25,197.14
26. Felipe Furlan, 10, 0, 3, 197.00, $39,197.14
27. Kaique Pacheco, 16, 0, 1, 195.50, $18,225.00
28. Bruno Carvalho, 11, 0, 0, 190.50, $7,600.00
29. Alan de Souza, 15, 0, 1, 190.00, $19,650.00
30. Jose Vitor Leme, 10, 0, 1, 181.50, $25,350.00
31. Eduardo Aparecido, 15, 0, 1, 181.00, $31,890.00
32. Hudson Bolton, 8, 0, 1, 173.00, $38,062.50
33. Kase Hitt, 13, 0, 1, 147.00, $16,132.14
34. Lucas Divino, 11, 0, 1, 141.00, $15,050.00
35. Afonso Quintino, 15, 0, 0, 127.00, $11,307.14
36. Manoelito de Souza Junior, 11, 0, 1, 112.00, $18,000.00
37. Kade Madsen, 5, 0, 0, 106.00, $3,150.00
38. Dener Barbosa, 2, 0, 1, 100.00, $10,000.00
39. João Ricardo Vieira, 12, 0, 0, 92.50, $6,683.33
40. Trace Redd, 5, 0, 1, 87.00, $15,800.00
41. Mauricio Gulla Moreira, 16, 0, 0, 86.00, $11,100.00
42. Austin Richardson, 8, 0, 0, 80.50, $12,875.00
43. Andy Guzman, 11, 0, 0, 78.00, $11,550.00
44. Alison dos Santos, 9, 0, 0, 65.00, $5,100.00
45. Alex Junior da Silva, 4, 0, 0, 62.50, $3,775.00
Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media
South Dakota
South Dakota Cattlemen’s Foundation provides donation matching funds to support Nebraska Wildfire Relief
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(SOUTH DAKOTA NEWS WATCH) – South Dakota has one of the lowest overall state tax burdens in the country, largely because it does not tax individual income and lacks several major statewide taxes.
The Tax Foundation ranks South Dakota No. 2 in the State Tax Competitiveness Index when factoring in corporate, individual, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes. Wyoming is No. 1 overall.
South Dakota is ranked No. 1 in corporate taxes and No. 1 in individual taxes. The state’s lack of an income tax helps keep overall state and local tax burdens among the lowest in the nation.
However, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy regularly ranks South Dakota among the states with the most regressive tax systems, meaning lower-income households pay a larger share of their income in state and local taxes than higher-income households.
South Dakota does not have an estate tax, inheritance tax or corporate income tax.
This fact brief responds to conversations such as this one.
Sources
The Tax Foundation, State Tax Competitive Index
Fidelity, The best state for taxes
Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, ITEP Tax Inequality Index
The Tax Foundation, Taxes in South Dakota
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