Ryan Gebauer for County Commissioner

Property Taxes - Looking at two specific meetings, on June 20th of 2023, the current Commission discussed an Opt-Out Road & Bridge Levy. This meeting highlighted a vote by the current Commission NOT to bring the resolution to a vote of the people. Whereas on July 6th, resolution 2023-09/Resolution for Opt-Out – Notice of Property Tax increase of nearly $3M was voted unanimously by the current County Commission.  Why did this bother me?

• Both of these meetings had minimal input from citizens of Lake County 
• In the first meeting, it was specifically discussed NOT to bring it to a vote of the people. In my eyes that is simply a lack of transparency on such a major topic affecting Lake County residents
• There was minimal discussion or education/awareness to the community until it appeared on social media that the Commission made this decision
• No budget shortfalls or specific dollars were shared in the minutes of the meeting to support such Opt-Out, however, they were looking to increase the budget by nearly 30%
• The Commission didn’t try and explain themselves until September 2023 with municipal resolution #2023-25 being published to sway your vote

So how did our community respond?

Approximately 82% of the 1800 voter’s in the special election on September 19th, 2023 voted against the County Commission.  Whereas the unanimous vote of the Commission, was overwhelmingly overturned by the residents of Lake County.

My father always gave me sound advice and one of those educational moments included, “don’t bring me a problem unless you also bring me a solution”. The fact is, our county may have a shortfall of its financial needs but to simply slap a approximately 30% property tax increase does not appear to be a solution to me. In fact, it sounds like a bigger problem in the future if the cause is not corrected. When I decided to run for County Commissioner, I was fortunate to spend some time with our Director of Equalization. Learnings certainly took place and that was the first step to finding a solution, I understand the cause.

CO2 Pipeline – Not only is carbon dioxide a hazard such as asphyxiation, frostbite, explosion and environmental damage if they leak or rupture, what about basic concerns for Lake County residents like the farmers and ranchers.  Imminent domain can be defined in many ways, but doesn’t always mean it’s the best for the greater good.  How many people will offer to have a pipeline of anything installed on their property?  What about the lack of controls and technology to safeguard such a pipeline?  CO2 monitors with intervals every 20 miles doesn’t even sound remotely satisfactory.  

In 2023, I listened to several members of our community who reside in the city limits and outside the city of Madison speak to the County Commission on their views of the CO2 pipeline. These individuals spoke of how this may negatively impact Lake County.  Unfortunately, it appeared to me the comments fell on deaf ears as no action was taken but to simply wait and see what the state legislature would do in 2024.  In my opinion, the very least, the commissioners should have discussed an impact study looking out for the farmers & ranchers as well as potential damage to our lakes in the County.  In my opinion, the County Commission should have acted.

I have lived in Lake County for nearly 3 years with several years of coming to the lake for recreation dating back to 1995.  I have an amazing better-half and her name is Beth Gebauer.  We have 6 kids ranging from 11-34 and 4 grandchildren with 2 more on the way.  Our youngest is attending Madison Elementary. I am currently a Risk Consultant serving clients in South Dakota as well as on the National level.  My past includes serving South Dakota as a State Trooper for nearly 8 years and serving our country as a U.S. Marine for 4 years.  Locally, I have served as the President of Fischers Resort Resident Owners Association, and as one of the founders of that organization. My role and responsibilities were to negotiate a purchase of leased land into individual ownership on behalf of its 86 members and create a sustainable home owners association at the lake. This was accomplished in 2023 with a fantastic group of board members. I was also fortunate to coach my son's flag football team in 2023 and work with some great kids in the community .