That Sioux Falls paper unfairly brands Rick Knobe’s really good letter about ballot measures resulting from Legislative inaction with a photo of our Congressional delegation standing around chatting. I understand that South Dakotans hearing the word “inaction” may automatically think of three of the biggest elected do-nothings in the history of our state, Mike Rounds, John Thune, and Kristi Noem. But to illustrate an opinion piece on ballot measures resulting from legislative inaction, editors would do better to choose a photo of the relevant culprits, distracting and thumb-twiddling state legislators like Isaac Latterell, Arch Beal, and Kyle Schoenfish who don’t get the people’s business done in Pierre.
The misaligned photo critique doesn’t stop Knobe from making his point, that the Legislature is working harder to defend its exaggerated prerogative than to do the people’s business:
Some in legislature resented the fact that voters had 10 ballot issues to consider in the 2016 election. Several bills were introduced to control or stifle citizens’ voices. In fact, they even went so far as to create a task force to consider ways to reduce the public’s right to initiate and refer issues. They fail to recognize that their inaction on important issues facing our state caused many of those issues to end up on the ballot….
We don’t have a problem with initiative and referendum in South Dakota, we have a problem with enmeshed politicians who are unwilling to take on the tough issues, and who then get upset when the people do it for them [Rick Knobe, letter to the editor, that Sioux Falls paper, 2017.07.07].
Thune, Rounds, and Noem are related to this problem. When South Dakota Republicans can coast to Congress without demonstrating any desire to get things done for the people, Republicans in the Legislature start thinking they are entitled to the same cushy treatment. Disrupting their one-party complacency by replacing Princess Noem with a Democrat who listens to the people may inspire some of our arrogant, insular legislators to respect the rights and desires of us voters.
Rick Knobe is 100 percent correct!
Some blogs are also culpable as they quietly watch the SOS jump through hoops to finally keep an IM off the Ballot.
J’accuse
Really, Barry? I’m far more an ally of direct democracy than any other online media in this state. Je refuse.
Rick is right. What a worthless trio we have representing South Dakota in D.C.
You would think that a political party like the Republicans, who often claim to champion states’ rights, would embrace the idea of direct democracy and its possible instruments as a furtherance of their belief in local control and decentralization; but apparently this is not the case, when their own political power base is challenged, however. Whether it be initiatives and referendums, or the state’s relationship with the tribes in South Dakota, Republicans in this state have shown that their claimed support for the concept of liberty, local control, and individualism are merely the slogans of a established political clique that is really nothing more than wolves in sheep’s clothing…
~Al Novstrup tried to float a bill to raise taxes for nursing homes when he knew 100% that his Republican colleagues would reject it. That’s called “poser” legislation designed to show Cory’s district that he cares and is engaged. Very phony!
~What have SoDak Republicans in Pierre built in the last 40 years? Repealing initiatives voted in by the people isn’t building things. Obstructing new ideas isn’t building things. Saying you’re promoting “small government” isn’t building things. Asking a Republican to write legislation is like asking a plumber to roof your chicken coop. Very incapable!
~Everything is South Dakota that’s built to last came from Washington.
I hope Mr Knobe will add his voice to the legislature’s on-going process which focuses directly on this matter. Constructive engagement might make the Interim Study of Initiative and Referendum truly a Task Force and not a Task Farce.
I have said it before here and will say it again, until the voters in this state are willing to slap them around at the ballot box, nothing will change.
Mr. Novstrup, the elder, is a true American patriot and should be placed in charge of betting all these measures initiated once he decides to retire from the legislatures.
Even though Knobe’s letter lists specific recent matters in South Dakota, it echos over 100 years of history that I’ve read about the efforts in many states to enact initiative and referendum amendments. Every 15-20 years, in my experience, the Legislature has a major hissy fit, and tries to neuter the people’s ability to initiate and refer laws. It generally comes in cycles that correlate to how corrupt things get in Pierre. More corruption leads to more initiatives leads to more attempts to limit initiatives. You can always count on the powerful lobbying interests, who have legislative leadership wound around their little finger, to lead the charge.
South Dakota was the first state to enact the initiative and referendum by constitutional amendment. Because it is the first, it seems to benefit from being uncomplicated with detail. Basically, the Legislature was directed to fill in the blanks to make it work. That is fine, when you have a Legislature that is not corrupt, or not a one-party orgy. They will pass laws that enable the people to use the initiative and referendum with little bureaucratic red tape. When the political balance in the Legislature was more even in the mid-1980s to middle 1990s, the Legislature actually passed laws that made it easier to initiate or refer laws.
Reasonable laws governing ballot measures started changing in the 2000s with a one-party/lobbyist lock on the Legislature. Uber-bureaucratization of the process was successfully lobbied over a decade as a means to push deadlines farther and farther back and make it harder and more costly for grassroots citizens to use the process. Today you have to have a full fledged political apparatus built to before you ever start a petition drive. Essentially, lobbyists and political leaders have tried to kill ballot measures by grassroots citizens by making it possible only for highly organized and politically sophisticated groups, Ie., the same folks who have the Legislature wrapped around their little finger.
Don Pay’s comment is, as is usually the case, right on the money. The Legislature’s enthusiasm to curtail the people’s right to direct democracy is, to use Donald Trump’s favorite word, “sad.” However, according to a PPP poll done in late April, the Legislature’s zeal seems to have cost them substantial support in the state, as its favorable rating had slid to an anemic 28%, while its unfavorable rating had soared to 53%. I’ve been involved in SD politics over a 40 year period, seen numerous polls of the Legislature’s popularity over that same time frame, and never, ever, seen its ratings underwater, let alone 25% underwater! There’s a wave building folks, and how far it will reach is anyone’s guess, but it’s coming.
Hear, hear Drey.
I thought we had a wave building last year, but nothing discernible happened with candidates. Tim makes a fair point: if Mickelson, Novstrup, Bolin, and other anti-democracy legislators don’t get smacked at the ballot box, the GOP Legislature’s assault on I&R will not stop.