Bluestem Prairie Too: South Dakota Standard on Noem's economy
While I wait for Bluestem Prairie's host site to recover from vexing problems that make it unusable, I've set up this temporary blog. When the orignal Bluestem returns, I'll transfer any posts here to the "real" Bluestem Prairie.
Although South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and her campaign carry on about the supposed strength of the Rushmore State's economy, that's some sort of political creative writing.
At the South Dakota Standard, John Tsitrian notices some facts about that economy in
I’ve always been skeptical about the lame explanation that Kristi Noem has been using to justify her gallivanting all over the country, mainly because her politically-oriented missions have had absolutely nothing to do with her work as our governor. When queried about it in a piece for Raw Story last year, her spokesman Ian Fury said "Governor Noem follows the law when weighing whether it is appropriate to use state aircraft. One of Governor Noem's primary roles as Governor is to be South Dakota's top ambassador to the rest of the nation. She has made this a big part of her governorship, advertising to attract businesses to our state, to drive tourism to our state, and to appeal to particular industries...."
The more relevant consideration is this: How has jet-setter Noem’s commitment to shoring up South Dakota’s economy turned out so far in 2022?
The answer? Not so well. In fact, it’s been a bust. Tourism in the National Park Service sites in our state (and nearby sites in North Dakota and Wyoming) was mainly down, and significantly so. Through September, Rushmore is +1.8%, but Badlands National Park is -17%, Wind Cave is -14%, Minuteman Missile site -3.3%, Devils Tower -13%, Theodore Roosevelt National Park is -16%. Jewel Cave joins Rushmore in bucking the trend, +40%, but from a very small base that I believe was affected by repair work closures.
Meantime, the 2022 Sturgis motorcycle rally’s sales tax receipts were down sharply, -14% As to another telling indicator, rally week garbage tonnage was -12%.
On a macro level, looking at the state’s overall economy, South Dakota in 2022 has so far significantly underperformed the rest of the country. First quarter GDP was -3.5% here, vs. -1.6% nationally. Second quarter was the same story. South Dakota was -1.7%, the country as a whole was -0.6%.
WalletHub has South Dakota coming in 37th in the national economy derby, with our economic activity ranking coming in at 42nd and our innovation potential coming in at 47th. WalletHub does score us well when it comes to economic health, but if you review the methodology, you’ll see that the findings on economic health are more a snapshot than an indicator of how things are likely to move forward. Factors like our low unemployment rate, our balanced state budget, our steady personal incomes are meaningful but static. They don’t say much about the vibrancy, or lack of it, of South Dakota’s economy. Factors that really matter, activity and innovation, are among the weakest in the country. ..
Who knew?
Image: From Dakota Free Press.
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