Property Tax Relief… – The Spearfish Speakeasy’s Substack
The gaslighting and blame-shifting circus over property tax relief is in full swing here in Lawrence County, District 31, and the ringleaders showed up in rare form.
Sam Kephart—better known as Rep. Mary Fitzgerald’s loyal attack dog and self-styled Temple Dog—rolled up to a local Lawrence County event I hosted, arm-in-arm with the good Representative herself. I should’ve booted them out the door right then and there, but honestly, I relish watching Rep. Fitzgerald unravel in public. She didn’t disappoint. Misery loves company, and she and her sidekick Sam delivered a performance that was equal parts cringe and comedy gold.
Picture this: the dynamic duo actually trailed me outside to ambush the guest of honor as he pulled up. It was a pathetic parade of self-importance—two peacocks strutting for an audience that wasn’t clapping. No shock there; subtlety’s never been her strong suit. Back inside, between the two of them, they commandeered the mic no fewer than five times. Five. You could practically smell the desperation wafting off them—or maybe that was just the faint whiff of cheap whiskey on the breeze.
The room was packed mostly with patriots eager to hear our guest drop some truth, though a handful of TransRepublicans—those squishy, half-hearted pretenders—somehow slinked their way in. And who kicked things off with the very first question? You guessed it…Sam Kephart, wasting no time. I should’ve slipped my moderator a heads-up to brace for the inevitable.
Sam seized the moment to sling mud at our conservative leadership—specifically, IMO, targeting House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach, a Lawrence County conservative champion who’s been fighting the good fight. In a video clip that’s now making the rounds, Sam smirks and insinuates that our leaders dropped the ball on property tax relief. The gall of this guy—casting shade while perched on his shaky perch of sanctimony. It’s a bold move for someone tethered so tightly to Fitzgerald’s coattails…or is it she’s tethered to his?
Take Rep. Mary Fitzgerald, for instance. The social media posts below, plucked from the past year, show her campaigning HARD on a promise to deliver “meaningful” property tax relief to weary taxpayers. She strutted around like some caped crusader, trumpeting her spot on the so-called “task force” and cozying up with a local posse of legislators “working on the problem.” Oh, she played the part—all furrowed brows with grit and determination—while the tax bills kept climbing and the relief stayed a mirage. It’s a masterclass in political sleight-of-hand: loud promises, zero delivery, and now a pivot to finger-pointing at the very people calling out the charade.
The video below lays it all out—every single bill that legislators dragged to the table this session in their half-hearted stab at tackling the property tax crisis. Spoiler alert: it’s a parade of duds. Not one of them hit the mark, not one of them mustered the guts or the vision to actually fix the mess, and—shocker—not one of them passed. Well, except for the limp, milquetoast “Governor’s Bill,” which squeaked through like a consolation prize nobody asked for. It’s a pathetic showing— a laundry list of missed shots and weak swings, all while taxpayers are still getting crushed under the weight of escalating bills. This is what passes for effort these days? Pitiful.
Below is EVERY bill Rep. Mary Fitzgerald carried this year—brace yourself for the letdown. Despite pounding the pavement and plastering social media with her loud, chest-thumping campaign promises about tackling property taxes, she didn’t step up as Prime Sponsor for a SINGLE bill on the issue. Not one. Zero. Nada. Instead, she lazily tacked her name onto two bills as a co-sponsor—yep, just TWO. That’s the extent of her “heroic” effort…a pair of footnotes in someone else’s work. It’s all empty campaign bluster and staged photo ops—smiles for the camera, nothing for the taxpayers. She FAILED to deliver, plain and simple, and then—because she knows no bounds—she parades into an event with her trusty Temple Dog, Sam Kephart, to watch him do her bidding and sling mud at leadership for “not doing anything.” The hypocrisy is so brazen it’s almost performance art.
Here are the two bills on property tax relief that Rep Fitzgerald co-sponsored…
Weak sauce doesn’t even begin to cover it—Rep. Mary Fitzgerald is a one-trick pony who’s been trotting out the same tired act for too long. She sank her teeth into this property tax issue like it was her big moment, but it’s painfully clear she bit off way more than her limited chops could chew. Her track record’s a mess: she voted yes on SB201, that corporate land-grab bill that greenlighted big businesses to swipe private property out from under folks’ noses. And don’t get me started on her cluelessness about our elections—she’s blind to the fact they’re being hijacked right in front of us. So, her floundering on property tax relief? Hardly a shocker. It’s just another chapter in her saga of overpromising and underdelivering.
The scorecards are still in the works, but the Property Rights team has already weighed in with a brutal verdict on her and her property tax BFF, Rep. Trish Ladner. Rep. Fitzgerald’s grade? A measly D+. Pitiful doesn’t even scratch the surface—it’s a glaring neon sign of failure. She’s stumbling through the game, racking up fails while posing as a champion. What a letdown.
And then there is this…the pre-emptive CYA that we “shouldn’t care about scorecards”…
Sam Kephart and Rep. Mary Fitzgerald—two peas in a pod, thick as thieves, and absolutely relentless in their petty crusade to sling mud at House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach. This duo’s got a knack for sniffing out any chance to cast shade, and they’re working overtime to smear a solid conservative leader who’s actually in the trenches for us. It’s a tag-team effort dripping with desperation and sour grapes, and they’re not even subtle about it.
Oh, and Sen. Randy Deibert is just as guilty. More on him later.
District 31, consider yourselves warned—this isn’t just political theater; it’s a calculated sideshow.
