I’m all for raising fees on billboards, especially after you hear how little it costs
to license them a year;
Part of the reason for that surprising contrast is that South Dakota’s billboard permit fees have gone unchanged for 24 years, since 1985. The biggest billboard size allowed in South Dakota is 1,200 square feet, and the annual fee for a billboard of that size is $32.
WTF! No fee increases for 24 years!? I have often said the advertising and marketing business gets off easy in South Dakota (there is no tax on print advertising). Of course the billboard companies are crying;
Not surprisingly, Wall Drug owner Ted Hustead was one of 10 people listed as opponents to the original version of Kirkeby’s billboard-fee increase during the bill’s first legislative hearing.
Several other influential figures also lined up against the bill: Gov. Mike Rounds’ sister, Michele Brich, who lobbied on behalf of the South Dakota Inn Keepers Association; David Owen, who represents the state’s entire business community as president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Dick Gregerson, who not only lobbies for billboard-industry giant Lamar Advertising but also is a member of the state’s Transportation Commission.
Lamar, one of the largest billboard companies in the country, that continues to eat up the little guys is a against a fee increase – SHOCKER!
You have to realize this is a YEARLY FEE, they are virtually paying $.10 a day to have a billboard in SD. That’s it! They want to raise the fee to about $.80 a day. Big whoop! Once again big business skirts paying it’s fair share, and ironically they could pass on to their customers.
The biggest shocker of this whole thing is that the state has all of the information in a database it can’t search.
Do you think Ted is paying for all of his signs?
They should raise it to $10 day if you ask me. Anything that would eliminate a few of those eyesores from our highways would be ok with me.
I liked this quote from the article;
“At nighttime it looks like a landing strip for aliens that want to come and land down here along Interstate 90,” Kirkeby said.
I think raising the fee to $3,000 is reasonable. I just don’t understand how the state doesn’t raise fees for 24 years and then when they suggest a fee increase the industry freaks out.
Driving into Rapid City on I-90, you can hardly see the hills over all the stupid billboards.
When people go on vacation these days, chances are that they already know where they want to stay and what they want to do. The billboards are useless antiques that do nothing but block a great view.
It’s a racket they have. They have gotten off on the cheap for far too long, and that ‘landing strip’ is proof of that. Same goes for VL. If there wasn’t any easy money in owning a telephone booth casino, why do we have one on every corner in SF?