Problem worth solving:

Our money leaves the state through a home financing system built on compounding interest. Families can pay for decades and still owe most of the original loan, while sophisticated borrowers use legal and financial loopholes to protect assets and grow wealth without ever fully paying for what they own. Homeownership becomes a lifelong payment instead of a path to stability.

Citizen-led solution:

We are not eliminating mortgages. We are modernizing them. By offering alternative home financing through a State Bank with simple interest options, clear payoff timelines, and citizen first lending standards, South Dakota can help families actually own their homes faster while keeping interest dollars local. Housing finance should build equity for residents, not extract it indefinitely.

Problem worth solving:

Taxpayers funded the energy grid, but families face rising rates while profits and preferential pricing flow upward. Deregulated energy markets reward scale and consumption, shift risk to citizens, and treat essential infrastructure like a profit engine instead of a public service.

Citizen-led solution:

We’re not nationalizing energy we’re restoring public value. By aligning grid investment, local generation, and rate design with citizen ownership, South Dakota can stabilize prices, reduce household energy costs over time, and ensure public investments pay residents back first. Managed responsibly, energy becomes infrastructure that lowers the cost of living, and can eventually deliver near-zero baseline power for citizens.

Problem worth solving:

Housing has been financialized. Homes and land are treated as investment vehicles instead of places to live, driving prices beyond wages while citizens compete with corporations, funds, and leveraged buyers who never intend to sell.

Citizen-led solution:

We’re not banning ownership we’re restoring balance. By prioritizing residents, limiting speculative advantage, and aligning financing with long-term living instead of short-term profit, South Dakota can expand real homeownership, stabilize prices, and return land beneath homes to the people who live on it. Housing should build roots, not extract rent.

Problem worth solving:

Our food system prioritizes scale, processing, and profit over nutrition and human health. Small producers are squeezed out, grocery shelves are dominated by ultra-processed products, and citizens pay rising prices for food that contributes to chronic illness instead of nourishment.

Citizen-led solution:

We’re not banning food, we’re rebuilding supply. By supporting local farmers, regional processing, and direct-to-community food systems, South Dakota can lower costs, improve health outcomes, and keep food dollars circulating locally. When food is grown closer to home and aligned with human health, it becomes preventative care, not another extractive industry.

Problem worth solving:

South Dakotans are told an eight billion dollar state budget is too large while private infrastructure projects costing double that amount are quietly built on public energy, public water, and public risk. The scale is hidden, the costs fall on citizens, and the benefits leave the state.

Citizen-led solution:

We are not anti investment. We are pro accountability. By matching infrastructure rules to the true size and impact of massive private projects, South Dakota can protect public resources, demand fair contribution, and ensure growth strengthens citizens instead of overwhelming them. Public systems should not quietly subsidize private power.

Problem worth solving:

Patients and taxpayers are overcharged not because care is expensive, but because layers of administration, billing complexity, and opaque pricing extract billions without improving outcomes. This system quietly transfers wealth through paperwork, coding games, and middlemen while citizens pay more and receive less.

Citizen-led solution:

We are not attacking healthcare workers. We are restoring honesty. By simplifying billing, enforcing price transparency, and removing unnecessary administrative layers, South Dakota can reduce costs, protect patients, and ensure healthcare dollars pay for care instead of bureaucracy. Healthcare should reward healing, not complexity.

Problem worth solving:

South Dakota is preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new state prison while continuing to incarcerate large numbers of people for non violent offenses. This approach is expensive, ineffective, and creates a revolving door where taxpayers keep paying and individuals leave worse off than when they entered.

Citizen-led solution:

We are not going soft on crime. We are being smart with public safety. By diverting non violent offenders into treatment, work programs, and rehabilitation and reallocating prison construction funds toward recovery and reintegration, South Dakota can reduce repeat offenses, lower costs, and create safer communities. Accountability should lead to restoration, not permanent punishment.