Changes the Legislature made this year to the initiative process created one more difference in how the Secretary of State dealt with the initiatives launched this spring and the latest initiative approved for petitioning yesterday.
When Dakotans for Health started petition drives for two initiated amendments to protect initiatives from Legislative interference, Secretary of State Monae Johnson approved those petitions for circulation on March 27. However, she did not produce her single-subject certifications for those measures until June 2…
…and I didn’t see either of those certifications posted to the ballot question website until yesterday.
2025 Senate Bill 92, enacted July 1, required the Secretary to issue her single-subject decision on initiatives submitted for circulation not later than fifteen days after she received them. On Monday, Secretary Johnson posted her single-subject ruling on the property-tax ban within hours, before the close of business:
Secretary Johnson allowed Dakotans for Health to start collecting signatures on March 27 but left them hanging for over two months wondering if the Secretary would kill their two petition drives and make them restart the process with an unfavorable single-subject assessment. Thanks to the 15-day timeline specified by SB 92 (the only good part of this otherwise rotten bill), the property-tax banners get to launch their petition drive right away with no such doubt hanging over their cheery effort to devastate local government budgets.
Is this single subject rule applied to bills filed by legislators? Who does the certification? I’m sure it isn’t the SOS.
In my time watching legislative bills being written, debated and passed, I recall one time when the single subject rule was actually applied in the Legislature, despite a lot of bills that could have been blocked by the rule.
I really like her signature. That wavy L and J interaction is something to remember.