Attorney General Marty Jackley's fall-guy "investigation" and questionable financial and legal dealings in the Governor's Office of Economic Development and EB-5 visa investment program have many South Dakotans doubting our state government.
But on some metrics, South Dakota is one of the better-run states. So concludes frequent list-maker 24/7 Wall Street with this mostly fiscal survey of the best- and worst-run states in the Union. They consider income, dropout rates, employment, housing values, crime, and other factors that don't directly measure whether elected officials are making good decisions... but then those are the same kinds of metrics for which governors and other elected officials take credit and on which voters often base their ballots.
By 24/7 Wall Street's methodology, South Dakota ranks ninth:
9. South Dakota
> Debt per capita: $4,321 (14th highest)
> Budget deficit: 11.0% (24th largest)
> Unemployment: 4.4% (3rd lowest)
> Median household income: $48,362 (22nd lowest)
> Pct. below poverty line: 13.4% (18th lowest)South Dakota has not experienced the same oil boom as North Dakota, and it effectively had flat GDP growth last year versus a 13.4% increase for its neighbor. Agriculture accounted for more than 10% of South Dakota’s total GDP in 2012, the most of any state in the nation. Last year, output from agriculture and related industries actually shrank, reducing total GDP growth by 2 percentage points. Despite this, the state’s economy is extremely strong by many measures. The median home value rose by 13.1% between 2007 and 2012, and just one in every 410 homes was in foreclosure last year, both among the best in the country. Also, the state’s 2012 unemployment rate was just 4.4%, better than all but two other states [Michael Sauter et al., "The Best and Worst Run States in America: A Survey of All 50," 24/7 Wall Street, 2013.11.21].
I'm trying to figure out the deficit figure. South Dakota runs a balanced budget every year, by law. Maybe they are looking at gross public debt rather than budget deficit, but 24/7 thinks we owe someone something, and that drags down our ranking.
So who beats us? Pretty much everyone else in the upper Great Plains neighborhood:
- North Dakota
- Wyoming
- Iowa
- Nebraska
- Utah
- Vermont
- Minnesota
- Alaska
- South Dakota
- Texas
That top ten support the notion that this list has more to do with regional economics than state governance. Six of the ten slots are occupied by Northern Plains states that were somewhat insulated from the last recession. Four of the top ten are bolstered by energy extraction, which the Middle East tells us isn't the best guarantee of effective governance.
The 24/7 compilation is fiscally wrong by any common sense of the word. The idea 24/7 Wall Street "awards" federal welfare states for being "well run" defies common sense, any meaning of fiscally responsible, and is a public disservice. States like South Dakota that receive far more in federal benefits and revenues than they pay the federal government for year after year - then bank the "surplus" are little more than poorly run and managed leaches on the federal deficit and debt. The place to BEGIN ranking how well run is a state is whether the state is self-reliant, receives what it pays into the federal government, and then generally audits and balances its books routinely.
These numbers are worthy. Any idea why the population has such self esteem issues with the state? The continual attempt at justifying and bolstering the state's identity is concerning. Maybe it's just hard to be content when the damn wind blows all the time and the men are so taciturn.
I think John has this nailed. It's pretty easy to cover up your fiscal mismanagement if there is a huge federal gravy train bailing you out every year.
I wonder about the self-esteem thing too. I think a large part of that comes from SD's bottom-of-the-barrel ranking on so many things. SD is disregarded by most states for the same reason.
I don't see that changing until SD takes a big leap completely out of the box and into doing new things in new ways. It will require a great deal of courage and buy-in on the part of the citizens.
I don't see that coming, but ---- anything is possible. I'm hoping.
Would it make a difference in the 24/7 Wall Street report if they were include the massive amounts involved in the EB05/GOED scandal.
It seems that a culture of corruption would be included in their analysis.
Nah. A "Culture of Corruption" is what Wall Street is most familiar with.
Porter, Deb, interesting that you mention self-esteem. A friend raised that subject with me just the other night. South Dakotans seem to get defensive about their state pride and blame other states for ignoring us... even while, as John and Donald note, we rely heavily on federal funding contributed by other states to pay for basic state functions. Could it be that at some level we recognize our dependency and feel ashamed of it?