Noem’s legacy as she gets ready to leave South Dakota? Pretty much ho-hum, particularly when it comes to the economy.
Researching a piece I wrote about South Dakota’s 2025 economic outlook a few days ago, I reviewed how our state’s economy performed in 2024 by checking out South Dakota’s GDP growth compared to the rest of the country’s during the first three quarters of 2024.
It hasn’t been pretty.
I’ll have numbers in a minute, but let’s talk about Kristi Noem for a second. As most of us know, Noem has spent much of her tenure as governor bragging about the great economy we have here and, by association, taking credit for it. Just last summer, Noem was at the Republican National Convention saying, “South Dakota’s economy has been a beacon of freedom for America,” an observation that’s a head-shaker for anyone who follows economic reality in this state.
I mean, a “beacon of freedom?” Please. Our so-called “beacon” couldn’t even generate enough sales tax revenues to make for a state budget that keeps up with inflation.
As we know by now, sales tax receipts in the state fell significantly in 2024, causing Noem to cry poor as she gave her 2025 budget address a few weeks ago, a budget which reduced spending by 0.27% compared to this year’s. That may not seem like much, but factoring in inflation of around 3% and a bit of population growth, the cuts are significant.
A revealing statistic explains much about the decline in state revenues. Our state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has fared poorly relative to the rest of the country.
During Q1, GDP was -4.2% compared to the country’s overall +1.4%.
During Q2, GDP was +2.3% compared to the country’s overall +3.0%.
During Q3, GDP was -0.8% compared to the country’s overall +3.1%
If you check out the links, you’ll see that our entire region was a soft spot during the year. There’s a touch of mitigation going on, but the fact that we couldn’t even outclass our neighbors, much less the entire country, exposes Noem’s braggadocio for what it is, empty rhetoric.
That our economic performance has been a dud certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed. The widely followed financial information resource WalletHub last summer ranked South Dakota’s economy 41st in the nation.
Gov. Noem is leaving behind a state that can’t keep up with the rest of the country and is having trouble keeping its budget in line with last year’s. That may or may not be a reflection of her leadership, but it’s fact and it certainly belies her absurd claim that our economy is some sort of beacon.
John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
