Blogging on the radio! I’ll be on air this Friday, 4 p.m. Central, on the Don Briscoe Show on Hub City Radio! Don Briscoe has invited me on for a full hour to talk about the Legislative Session.
As of this morning, we’re up to 275 House bills and 189 Senate bills, plus a mess of stinky resolutions proposing constitutional amendments. And legislators have two more days to submit bills. There’s no way Don and I will be able to cover all possibly 500 bills and resolutions in the hopper, so let me know in the comment section which ones you think deserve some special radio attention.
So for the best Legislative radio recap in South Dakota, tune in Friday 4 p.m. Central on AM 930 around Aberdeen or online worldwide!
Senator Novstrup recently sponsored HB1275, which takes the bad idea of percentage-from-counties idea and makes it even worse by requiring certain vote counts per Senate districts. It looks like you would need signatures from 5% of voters in 2/3 of Senate districts. Every signer better know their Senate district or else No signing!
It also requires you to have lived in a Senate district for 90 days before gathering a signature.
Really, these proposals just make it nearly impossible for volunteer/grassroots efforts to place measures on the ballot.
Only applies to ballot measures. Statewide candidates can still tell their circulators to camp out in Rapid and Sioux Falls without a problem!
Senator Bolin usually likes to point out we need these measures because he didn’t see a single circulator in his district for x y or z measure. Don’t worry, Amendment W had a very ambitious volunteer from outside of Spink! All is well on the Union County front.
Cory, please spend some time discussing SB159. This bill is a win whether it passes or not. If it passes then our state tax system becomes a bit less regressive, it gives some badly needed tax relief to SD hardworking families, and is an achievement Dems can run on this fall. If it doesn’t pass then Democrats should force Republicans to defend why they didn’t support it. When the state and local tax burden for 80% of taxpayers is about 8%, and it’s only 2% for the richest 1%, defending their vote is the best evidence of who Republican incumbents really represent. This is a bread and butter issue for Democrats, and for a significant majority of South Dakotans, to win on. The first step is admitting we have a problem. And our tax system is huge problem in SD. I wouldn’t get caught up in discussing solutions, although SB159 is a great start. If Republicans don’t see this as a problem then make them tell the average voter why it’s okay for them to pay 8 cents of every dollar in state & local taxes while millionaires only pay 2 cents. If it’s not okay then why haven’t Republicans done something about it?
Nick—SB 159, targeting any new SCOTUS-approved remote seller sales tax to food tax relief, is a solid idea. I’ll try to mention that in the context of other good tax bills from Dems.
Doug, thanks for tuning me in to HB 1275. You’ll find my full rip on that bill here. That one might be so bad it would be worth referring.
And yes, make sure your W team hammers Union and Lincoln—let’s get Bolin and every opponent if I&R out!
Ugh! Sorry, Nick! I got to some smaller tax bills, but I didn’t get SB 159/food tax issues in. Radio moves fast!
Doug, I didn’t hit 1275 specifically—as I practiced comments beforehand, it struck me that we face difficulty in explaining what’s really wrong with items like HB 1275 since they are so election-nerdy. You and I read them and immediately grasp the danger because we know the petition process inside and out. The regular radio listeners hears us delve into those details and falls asleep or turns to Today’s Sunny Hits. In the limited time of most interviews, we need to just lump all the bills together and say, “The Republicans are taking away your right to vote” or “weakening initiative and referendum to weaken your voice” or something like that. I think that tack worked on the radio yesterday: I said the bills in general make it harder to circulate and sign petitions and get measures on the ballot, and Don Briscoe said, “Gee, it sounds to me like they’re trying to take away our rights.” “Exactly,” I said.