‘We’re asking for just compensation’

The Custer County Commission fired its first shot across the bow of the State of South Dakota as the county digs in over its desire to receive more money from the state for what it says is all of the first responder services it provides in Custer State Park at the expense of the county, and more importantly, its taxpayers.
“They are receiving services far beyond what they are paying,” commission chairman Jim Lintz said at the Dec. 4 meeting of the Custer County Commission. “I feel it’s a burden on the taxpayers of Custer County.”
The state gives the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, Custer County Search and Rescue, Custer Volunteer Fire Department and Custer County Dispatch around $8,700 each annually, while also paying some bills for magnesium chloride for the four county roads (Lame Johnny, America Center, LH and Lower French Creek) that access the park. The county received the requested amount of $48,114 in 2023 for the roads, but the figure will be half of what was requested for 2024, county highway superintendent Jess Doyle said.
“We can’t continue to give these services out and not collect and expect the taxpayers of this county to cover it,” Lintz said.
Lintz said the county expressed its concerns to the Department of Game, Fish & Parks a year ago, but nothing came of the discussion.
“They said they would work with us more,” he said. “They really haven’t done a damn thing. It’s time they step forward and get some stuff accomplished for us.”
Lintz said all the county was asking of the state is the same thing it asks of county residents—to pay its fair share. Instead, Lintz said, the state gets all the benefits of the revenue generated at Custer State Park—which Lintz said was $21 million at the gate alone last year—while the county provides most of its first responder services.
He pointed out the county charged the Town of Hermosa $80,000 for a deputy to cover that town, while the state pays roughly $35,000 for complete first responder coverage in Custer State Park.
The county also does not receive the benefit of a share of the sales tax the park brings in from the park proper or the people it brings to the City of Custer, as counties do not receive sales tax receipts from the state.
“They can’t afford to pay for fire service or sheriff’s office or search and rescue at a rate that compensates us for what we put in?” Lintz asked. “There is a disconnect there. We just have to come closer to what services they are getting and they need to pay for it. We can’t continue to carry it.”
Commissioner Mark Hartman said while he didn’t expect the park to make a payment in lieu of taxes for its land, he felt asking for it to pay such a payment on its income-producing property was not out of line. Hartman pointed out a few years ago the state cracked down on the county doing weed spraying for citizens because it was in direct competition with private business, but the state itself is in competition with private businesses in the area in everything it does in the park, from the campgrounds to the restaurants to the alcohol it serves.
“It’s a double standard,” he said.
Custer Volunteer Fire Department member Matt Spring, who was at the meeting, said the park has 450 structures.
Lintz said even the buffalo the park raises is in competition with private business, as there are local ranchers who raise buffalo.
Both District 30 representatives—Trish Ladner and Dennis Krull—were at the meeting, and Krull said he agreed with everything the commission was saying.
“Trish and I are elected by the people in this room. If you give us some marching orders, we will go forward with them,” Krull said. “I firmly believe Custer County is not getting its fair share from them.”
The way to go about initiating the change—whether it be legislation or through direct talks with GF&P officials—was discussed, with all parties agreeing the starting point should be going through the state’s Legislative Research Council to find the value of the buildings in the park. Krull said those numbers could be gleaned through the maintenance and repair function of the state’s budget, which assigns a value to the buildings so that the maintenance costs can be figured.
“If we can get that information and then determine what they would pay as taxpayers, that would give us a base of what we should be aiming toward and at least get a percentage of that,” Lintz said.
On the fire department front, it was pointed out that Custer Volunteer Fire Department, along with the help of other departments (including the Battle Creek Fire District, which gets no money from the state) have responded to many calls in the park, including saving Sylvan Lake Lodge when it caught on fire a few years ago.
Not much was discussed on the law enforcement front at this meeting, although in the past sheriff Marty Mechaley has made it clear he doesn’t want more money from the park, but, rather, wants the state to police the park with his office being at most supplemental to that effort.
On the road front, Doyle reiterated the state plans to cut its mag water budget in half next year, while the highway department still takes care of the access roads.
“I’m not asking for the moon here,” he said. “I’m not asking them to take over ownership of the road.”
Doyle said the state couldn’t have possibly ignored the extra use Lame Johnny Road would receive when its new Bison Center was constructed near the park corrals.
Krull and Ladner both agreed the more hard numbers they could be supplied with—from first responder calls to the park, to what the park would actually pay toward education if it were taxed, etc.—the better chance they would have of getting traction on the issue.
“One of the hurdles I see going forward with a bill is Trish and I have to convince 103 other legislators that this is a good bill,” he said. “What they are going to say is the only one (benefitting from) this is Custer County.”
Ladner also asked if people in the room would be willing to testify at committee if a bill were introduced, which many said they would. She referred to the grassroots effort to kill the planned new campground at Custer State Park during the legislative session a couple of years ago when all state legislators had their inboxes flooded with comments against the planned campground.
“We need to have a loud voice,” she said. “It really helps move things along.”
Later in the meeting, when Regency Custer State Park Ventures’ (the park’s concessionaire) request for alcoholic beverage licenses came forward for 2024 renewal, Hartman told the commission it should table the renewals in an effort to get the state’s attention on its money plight.
“I’m dead serious,” he said.
Linde said he would second a Hartman motion to that effect, and the motion passed unanimously to a smattering of applause and cheers from those in the audience.