Apparently, to attract large new projects to South Dakota, we need to make offerings of no-strings-attached cash. This is, of course, in addition to the fact that corporations already are enticed by our lack of a corporate income tax.
All of this is done under the pretext that new large projects will go to where the best deal is.
Well, people make those same calculations.
As Gov. Dennis Daugaard demanded draconian cuts to education and other social investments, people were listening. Teachers looked at each other and wondered about leaving the state. College students are considering a change of majors and looking outside of our borders for their futures. High school students are being shown that teaching is not valued as the noble profession it is.
So when we get another big box chain or large corporation that extracts wealth from our state, we should think about what we gave away, not just in taxpayer money but in ourselves.