South Dakota Community Action—an impending ballot question committee based in Sioux Falls, not to be confused with our four regional Community Action agencies that support Head Start, food pantries, 60’s Plus Dining, and other social services—appears to have submitted five initiated measures to the Legislative Research Council in May. My favorite of the five offers us the chance to vote to expand Medicaid in 2020:
Section 1: That Chapter 28-6 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read:
The income standard the Department of Social Services may impose on a person for eligibility for the medical assistance program established and operated pursuant to § 28-6-1 and in accordance with Title XIX of the federal Social Security Act, as amended to January 14, 2004, is one hundred thirty-eight percent of the federal poverty level established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010), as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-152, 124 Stat. 1029 [South Dakota Community Action, draft initiative for Medicaid expansion, as posted by Secretary of State’s Office, 2019.06.03].
LRC makes a few minor edits and add a provision capping eligibility at age 65 so as not to overlap with Medicare, but the gist is that SDCA and its leaders Paul Thronson and Nick Zachariasen want South Dakotans to vote on a real pro-life issue.
Expand Medicaid, save the lives of moms and babies, and enjoy economic stimulus that pays for itself, or let people go without health care just to satisfy a silly urge to give Barack Obama the finger—yes, let’s fight that out at the ballot box!
Of course, to have that fight, SDCA will need to hustle. With the LRC review completed June 3, SDCA needs to submit a final initiative draft to the Attorney General’s office for title and explanation. The AG gets 60 days to produce a measly 200-word explanation, and even if AG Jason Ravnsborg weren’t already unacceptably biased against the Affordable Care Act and should be disqualified from writing any explanation required by law to be “objective”, he’d probably still need the full 60 days to string together that many words in a “clear” and “simple” statement. Thus, the earliest SDCA will be able to put this petition on the streets is August 2. That’s in time for most of the big fairs, but three months is still tight for a ballot question petition drive.
I think its a great idea, but how long will it take for noem and the republican legislature to gut it into oblivion.
Where can I sign the petition? I live in Pierre.
Hang in there, Charlene! This Medicaid expansion petition won’t be able to hit the streets until August 2 at the absolute earliest.
It worked for Idaho. Their lege refused to expand Medicaid so citizens put it on the ballot and won big. Then their lege tried to pass a bill nullifying that but the citizens fought back sooooooo hard they frightened the gov into vetoing it.
Citizens in SD can take their government back too, but they must be willing to stop blindly voting R, stop being patsies.
Many Republican governors have come around to embracing Medicaid expansion. Even the current VP, Mike Pence, expanded Medicaid when he was governor of Indiana. I always loved then Gov Christie’s statement when making the decision to expand Medicaid in New Jersey, “we can’t afford not to”.
Our check-a-box, trap and spend, governor is pretty craven. If she thought that she would be hurt politically by poor people, nursing home folks, etc —- she would have expanded Medicaid on her first day in office. Not expanding Medicaid helps her politically. Such a disgrace. And NOT ‘pro-life’.
If you want a true definition of “nasty”, look no further than Kristi Noem.
#VNOE
Thank you for your mention, Cory!
As far as Nick and I being the leaders, we did prepare the measures and submit them to the LRC but we’re the legal team; honestly, Nick is primarily a one-man legal team and I’m more of a paralegal. South Dakota Community Action (https://www.sdcommunityaction.org/) as an organization is managed day to day by its contributors, most of who have full time jobs and families at home. Nonetheless, we have what we think is a doable plan.
Whitney Raver (team@sdcommunityaction.org) from Custer is the owner/manager of a digital marketing company and her main goal— besides being our Communications person— is to find and help manage 25,000+ registered voters who want to sign our measures.
Medicaid Expansion is certainly important, but the contributors and supporters of SDCA have more initiatives going through the LRC right now. What we need everyone to do right away is take our survey and tell us which measures they might be interested in signing as well as what additional types of support they would consider. That can be done here: https://bit.ly/2R0GsLZ.
Finally, if anyone can pitch in either help spreading the word or money to ramp up operations, we need both of those things so please contact us. We’d really appreciate it!
Donate here: https://www.sdcommunityaction.org/donate.html
Thank you for the mention Cory!
As far as Nick and I being the leaders, we did prepare the measures and submit them to the LRC but we’re the legal team; honestly, Nick is primarily a one-man legal team and I’m more of a paralegal.
South Dakota Community Action as an organization is managed day to day by its contributors, most of who have full time jobs and families at home. Nonetheless, we have what we think is a doable plan. Whitney Raver from Custer is the owner/manager of a digital marketing company and her main goal— besides being our Communications person— is to find 25,000+ registered voters who want to sign our measures.
Medicaid Expansion is certainly important, but the contributors and supporters of SDCA have more initiatives going through the LRC right now. What we need supporters to do is take our survey and tell us which measures they might be interested in signing as well as what additional types of support they would consider.
Link to Communities First Survey: https://bit.ly/2R0GsLZ
Finally, if anyone can pitch in either help spreading the word or money to ramp up operations, we need both of those things so please contact us. We’d really appreciate it!
Link to Donation Page: https://www.sdcommunityaction.org/donate.html
So long as the legislature is free to tinker with – or out-right nullify voter initiated measures – they really don’t have much hope – or weight.
The fact the no SD voter group has the instincts to change that power relationship – gives me little hope for the state. Please – someone – have the common sense to fooling around with “good ideas” that have weak footing in the face of the Legislature and put forward a simple 15-20 word constitutional amendment that takes the legislature out of the equation @ initiated measures.