What Gov. Larry Rhoden had to say about the South Dakota budget
“In most respects, I didn’t have any more involvement or any less involvement than I had the previous five years,” Gov. Larry Rhoden said.
PIERRE — South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden is taking over for Kristi Noem at the batter’s box.
The Argus Leader sat down for a short interview with Rhoden, a lifelong South Dakotan and new governor, Tuesday in his first interview with the newspaper since he took office in January.
Here’s a Q&A with Rhoden. Questions and answers were lightly edited for brevity and style.
Argus Leader: You wear the hat of the governor now. How does it feel?
Rhoden: Well, it’s still sinking in. You know we just started a second week. The first week went extremely well. We knew that the confirmation was more than likely going to happen sometime over the weekend, and so it gave us time to plan out the week, and it went very smoothly. We had to deal with issues through that. We had some very talented people on my team that know the legislative process better than anybody in the Capitol and and were able to configure things so the Legislature didn’t have to suspend any rules. We had the process in place to get everything done in four days, culminating with the the approval vote of the Senate and the House for my lieutenant governor pick.
It feels like it’s gone smoothly. Do you credit that to your staff?
Rhoden: Absolutely key to the success. You know, we had existing staff that were very talented and it was tough on them, because through the transition, you know, Kristi Noem was still governor, and we honored that. I had people like (senior adviser Matt) Michels and others that were, you know, the chief advisers that were working behind the scenes to take steps to be prepared.
We started over a year ago — I’ve said it a few times now — we started over a year ago, preparing to be prepared. And so when we got to session there was ups and downs, times where you question whether it was going to happen or not, but we were always keeping it in our minds of what we needed to do and what the order of steps would be given different scenarios. So it was interesting and sometimes it seemed pretty intense to try and figure out how it was all going to shape, come to the surface. But at the end of the day, we were prepared, and it worked out very well.
It’s been encouraging to me to see the Legislature, the House and the Senate leadership and their members, majority-minority parties, all coalescing around some of the proposals and ideas we’ve talked about. Obviously, we have a lot of session and things get more intense as we go through and I know that very well, but right now, we’ve set ourselves up, I think, for success.
What has the discussion been on property taxes? Is it centered around Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen’s bill?
Rhoden: In a one word answer? No. It wasn’t centered around his proposal.
But frankly I think that was a good discussion piece, because the reality is, if you’re going to move the needle on property taxes, and I think Tony’s bill that he sponsored with (Senate Majority Whip Randy) Deibert, I think it was the perfect bill to demonstrate if you want to move the needle significantly on property taxes, you’re not talking tens of millions of dollars. You’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars to move the needle. And so, it made things real for people to realize just how significant the problem is and to look for more appropriate solutions.
How did you end up going to the South Dakota National Guard after high school?
Rhoden: Well, there was one step in there after high school I went to, my plan was to be on the family ranch. I was the youngest son. And typically, a lot of times on the ranch, the youngest son ends up on the place, and it would have been the case with us, too. So, I planned on going to the ranch and living the rest of my life on the ranch. And so I went to (vocational-technical school) and took a year of ranch management and got a lot of good background as far as that job financially and animal physiology and all that.
And then I went to the Guards and I joined the Guards. I grew up with a dad and a lot of neighbors that that were in … World War II and had a couple brothers and uncles and cousins that were in the military, and I really wanted to experience that. Felt called to go into the service.
We were raised with the sense of giving back to the community and giving back to your state, your country, and I wanted to be a part of that, and felt the same urge as they did, so I joined the Guards.
Has not having a college degree come up in some way or have you felt inhibited without it?
Rhoden: No, I haven’t. It never really enters my mind. The only time it enters my mind is when, you know, there’s a whole group of people, and they’re all comparing notes about their college experience and stuff. I kind of smile to myself and just keep my mouth shut.
I think it’s an experience. I don’t recommend to people that they not get a college degree. I think my wife, when I talked to her or other people, that was an experience that helped shape their character.
And so I don’t care whether it’s a college degree or you go to a vocational training. You do what suits you best, and what suited me best was to take a year of ranch management and get a foundation on things that will help me and what I thought my future was.
I don’t think that it had presented itself as an obstruction. Anything I did or decisions I made, obviously, I felt that call to serve. I had done a lot of things in the community. I was a basketball coach and a softball coach. I served on local boards, got on the school board. Like I said in the speech, the reason I ran for the Legislature was, jokingly, so I’d have an excuse to get off the school board.
During that period of time, one of the county commissioners came up to me at a parent-teacher conference and told me that that was a year that term limits kicked in, and so our long-serving House member was termed out. At first, I hadn’t even thought about the Legislature, but I talked to my wife about it on the way home, and, you know, I kind of laughed about it when I told her, Dale had asked me about running, and my wife says, ‘Well, I think you should run.’
That was the beginning. That was a big decision for us on the ranch, because it’s a pretty big sacrifice. It comes at a bad time of the year, but I did that. When I got to Pierre I felt, if I’m going to invest the time to be in Pierre through the winter, I want a seat at the table. So I ran for a leadership position the next year. Majority leader the term after that. It was my second term as majority leader, when Kristi Noem was in the Legislature in 2006, and we immediately became pretty close allies. She had a lot of the same interests. I was in the middle of carrying legislation to change our tax system on ag land productivity — heaviest lifting I ever did in in the Legislature. Major tax reform. And she came alongside me as majority leader, (her) as a freshman legislator, and was a huge help in that. So we’ve got to be very close allies. The term after that, I went to the Senate. She was in leadership in the House, and then we worked across the aisle, across the chambers, on different legislation.
Then, of course, eight years later, she runs for governor and asked me to be her running mate. So no, I’ve not felt inhibited.
How much involvement did you have in the state budget, considering that Noem was at some point during last year considering the secretary of Homeland Security position?
Rhoden: In most respects, I didn’t have any more involvement or any less involvement than I had the previous five years. The governor was very good about including me in a lot of those discussions. I think that the biggest change for me is when I got to this last year, I’ve said it a couple times that it occurred to me that I need to start paying more attention at those meetings and the briefings, because you kind of get a little lazy as far as really paying attention what’s going on, and when I started to think about it in terms of me being in her seat, I started paying a lot more attention.
When it comes to some of the proposals that she offered — the SDPB cut and the State Library cut — did you work with her on those? Did you have a hand in those?
Rhoden: No, they were her initiatives, but we discussed them.
We had a lot in common and we thought a lot alike, and she brought forward initiatives in years past, like the open field doctrine, or concealed carry. She was bringing forward legislation as governor that I carried years before as a legislator and actually fought the governor on and lost as a legislator, and now the governor is carrying those same initiatives, and I get to carry the water and be a big part of getting them passed. That was a big thrill to me. And so to your question, the issues that she brought up were, they were her concepts, but I supported them.