The 1977 Time Capsule: How South Dakota’s Road District Laws Became a Roadmap for Secrecy

To understand why your local road district feels like a “shadow government,” you have to look back to 1977. That was the year the South Dakota Legislature passed SDCL 31-12A, the primary chapter governing the formation and operation of road districts.

At the time, the law was written with a “neighborly” intent. It was designed for small groups of rural homeowners to band together to plow snow or gravel a shared driveway. It was never intended to be a weaponized taxing machine.

The Original Intent: A Simple Cooperative

In 1977, the legislature envisioned a road district as a tiny, transparent cooperative. The statutes reflect this “handshake” era:

• Small Boards: Just three trustees were deemed sufficient to manage a few miles of dirt road.
• Direct Voter Control: The law relied on the idea that in a small neighborhood, everyone would know what was happening. If you didn’t like how the gravel was being spread, you’d simply talk to your neighbor—the trustee—at the mailbox.

The 2026 Reality: The “Accountability Gap”

The problem is that while the world has changed, SDCL 31-12A has stayed in a time capsule. This has created three massive loopholes that “Closed Loop” boards are exploiting today:

1. The Levy Without a Limit
Most local governments in South Dakota are bound by strict tax caps (often the lesser of 3% or CPI). But because road districts were seen as “small-time” in 1977, the legislature never gave them a statutory levy cap. Under SDCL 31-12A-23, a board can essentially levy as much as it deems “needed to operate.” In 2026, this “blank check” is being used to bypass the property tax relief efforts happening in Pierre.

2. The Borrowed Authority Trap
Because the road district chapter is so thin on details, boards often “borrow” powers from other chapters. We see this with the “Special Maintenance Fee.” This fee is nowhere to be found in the road district statutes, but boards reach into municipal law (SDCL 9-43-138) to grab it. This allows them to avoid the strict “fronting and abutting” rules of a standard assessment, creating an unlawful “flat tax” that the 1977 legislature never authorized.

3. The “Ghost” Oversight
In 1977, the County Auditor was meant to be a simple record-keeper. Today, because there is no state agency specifically dedicated to road districts, the Auditor has become the de facto “Supreme Court” of local roads. If an Auditor suggests an unlawful fee system to a board, there is no built-in mechanism to stop it. The “Watchdog” has become the “Architect.”

Why It Matters Today

As the 2026 Legislature debates property tax reform, SDCL 31-12A stands as a warning. It is a 49-year-old law being used to run 21st-century “mini-tyrannies.”

When a board uses this antiquated law to hold secret “Ministerial Meetings,” deny citizens the right to copy financial records, and refuse to take a constitutional oath, they aren’t just “managing roads”—they are breaking the fundamental promise of South Dakota’s “government by the people.”

It’s time to bring SDCL 31-12A out of 1977 and into the light of 2026. Accountability isn’t a “special maintenance fee”; it’s the law.