Salute to county leaders: Jim Schmidt

Key Takeaways

After a mid-term appointment to succeed a late commissioner, Jim Schmidt stayed on the Lincoln County, S.D. Board of Commissioners for 28 years. A former teacher, school counselor and community college president, he was active in local economic development efforts and philanthropy and will retire at the end of the year. Gov. Larry Rhoden (R) appointed Schmidt to the South Dakota Board of Economic Development in 2025. He served on NACo’s Board of Directors and as chair of the Rural Action Caucus.

How has Lincoln County changed over your tenure?

When I started, our population was around 8,800. Now we’re at 78,000 and should hit 100,000 before too long. We used to be very rural, and now we’re essentially a bedroom community for Sioux Falls, and it’s not done yet. The community growth is such that what were once separate, distinct towns of 500 or 1,000 people, it’s getting to the point where it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

A $54.4 million interstate interchange project is going to be a total game changer, because it opens the county to the west, and the cities out there are going to experience a tremendous amount of commercial and residential growth from that. 

The harder problem with growth is that you have a lot of people who don’t want to admit that you’re a growing county, so you get a backlash. They’re anti pipeline, anti-wind farms, anti-solar farms. They’re just opposed, because they see a life-changing kind of a thing approaching. 

What insights have you gained from connecting with leaders of other growing counties through NACo?

When you talk to counties from other states that are on the periphery of a major city, they talk not just about the infrastructure challenges but also personnel, the fact that you need more people working for the county. 

When I started with Lincoln Ccounty, we had a sheriff and a deputy and we have almost 30 deputies [now]. We never had labor unions and now we have two, possibly three, so there are a lot of issues related to growth beyond just the physical aspect. 

Working with commissioners from larger counties really contrasts how our county government is still very part time. You put in full-time work, but it’s a part-time role. You end up shouldering a lot of responsibilities and paying for many things yourself if you want to get things done. But at the same time, those larger counties have a lot more roles and responsibilities. 

What challenges have you seen your state’s counties face in recent years?

South Dakota counties are going to face something related to migration within the state, because you’re seeing people from the center of the state move out to either end, to Sioux Falls or Rapid City. That’s going to leave the middle of the state more or less drained of its population. 

All the little towns that are out there struggle just to survive, and counties do too, and I think in the near future, some of our smaller counties are going to have to merge some services or combine offices to cut costs. I think they’ll leave their county seats as a voting place or someplace where people can go pay their taxes. And others will try to attract data centers to expand their tax base. We have a hearing coming out on that ourselves, and it looks like it’s going to be a shootout.

Looking at a difficult issue like regulating data centers, are you sorry you’ll be retiring and missing the challenge?

Maybe if I was 40 years younger, I’d be looking forward to a fight like this, but I’m looking forward to perusing other ventures and saving my energy! This is going to be a chance to do some different things with my time. 

How should a new county official coming into office get involved in federal advocacy like you have? 

Lincoln County will pay for commissioners to go to NACo conferences, and I recommend the Annual Conference to see all of what NACo has to offer.