Off With Their Heads

The Governor’s Board of Economic Development should be replaced with a private entity, acting as a state economic development corporation, with a government contract and an end of year performance review by legislative committee. A group of appointed favorites of the current Governor, that has no performance review to determine a satisfactory use of tax dollars and achievement of objectives, has no incentive to produce quantifiable results. If the Board of Economic Development makes poor decisions in the companies it chooses to give tax incentives to, there are currently no consequences for wasting taxpayers’ money. The Board of Economic Development is not truly accountable to the people of South Dakota, and this lack of oversight breeds corruption and cronyism. Other states have successfully privatized similar state economic development boards with positive results and so should South Dakota. The ability to use taxpayers’ money to give tax incentives to businesses to expand or relocate to South Dakota, in order to hopefully increase economic activity and grow the job market in our state, should be carefully awarded to an experienced company that competed for the chance to prove themselves as able to produce real results in developing the business community in our state, and will be accountable to the public through performance reviews.