In case you hadn’t received one, the Amendment C team is busy postcarding South Dakota with information on the upcoming June Ballot Measure to protect the state from initiated measures that will raise our taxes considerably:
10 thoughts on “Amendment C Taxpayer Protection Amendment Campaign postcards hitting mailboxes”
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One more way to remove the will of the people.
A tragedy in waiting.
Our republican legislature can’t stand democracy. The idea that the majority should determine policy is anathema to them. The truly believe only the elite s should determine what’s best.
Pure minority rule. Unamerican.
Oh John, it is AMERICAN to avoid as much “tax’ as possible.
Don’t let the liberals tax and spend your hard earned money! Yes on C!
What liberals?
With so much being said about Amendment C and the reason why we have chosen to place it on the South Dakota June Primary Public Election – I wanted to provide my thoughts, opinions, and assessment of the amendment itself, let alone the exact wording within the body of text.
The founding principle of drafting such an amendment, which by the way, would revise the South Dakota Constitution, by adding a 16th Section to Article 11 Revenue and Finance – is grounded in your “sovereign right’ to be free from a tyrannical governmental process, by enforcing upon the government, rules as to restrict the power of taxation as it relates to your right to life, liberty, property, pursuit to happiness.
In fact, the S.D Constitution Article 6, Section 1 says it best:
Inherent rights – All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring and protecting property and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
In fact, that first Bill of Right adopted by the “people” of South Dakota, is well grounded in American philosophy, as it was a central cornerstone in the Declaration of Independence written more than two-hundred years ago as the American Colonies began the quest to fight the British for the independent right to self govern themselves free and clear from some foreign governmental power.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government….laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. – Declaration of Independence
One of the big key principles by the Americans was to hold the ruling class accountable, and to avoid allowing such a ruling class to impose taxes beyond the ‘consent of the governed’.
How do we define the terminology – “The Consent of the Governed”:
In political philosophy, the phrase consent of the governed refers to the idea that a government’s legitimacy and moral right to use state power is justified and lawful only when consented to by the people or society over which that political power is exercised. This theory of consent is historically contrasted to the divine right of kings and had often been invoked against the legitimacy of colonialism. Article 21 of the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government”.
What this means is that the “Sovereign” has the right to impose rules, laws, and codes on himself, and prior to 1776, that sovereign was the King of England. That all changed when the Americans became their own free country of ‘freemen’ – for the first time, the people as a whole became the sovereign, and by that, “We The People of South Dakota” meaning the greater majority of citizens making up the State, shall agree by consent to be governed in such manner, that we allow the government to govern all matters of public interest – Public Buildings, Lands, Things, Properties.
We do not necessarily rule by the majority of voters, no. But as we head to the polls to cast a ballot on what laws to adopt, whom to elect to represent us in our districts, we vote to provide a public opinion of what the majority of the people may, or may not want, while at the same time, the very people have the right to provide a second opinion by virtue referring by petition a second vote, or petitioning the courts to request a second opinion on whether or not the law is constitutional or not as it relates to our state constitution.
The goal should be to make it as difficult as can be, on the total nature of adopting new taxes, or to raise current tax and fees, meaning, if the people so choose to create public policy that will directly affect our right to life, liberty, property, pursuit to happiness, then we shall want a rule put in place that makes it very difficult to impose such tax or tax increase to be put into place.
Back to the Declaration of Independence for a second – remember, we adopted a founding principle that the citizen shall have the “natural right” to come and go freely, to barter and trade his labor in order to create for himself – an income in order to purchase property, to conduct his life providing food, clothing, and all the things that come with surviving on this earth. Nature’s law allow you do do all those things, so long as they do not restrict another persons right to do the same, so long as you do not rob, rape, or murder. The three crimes that go against nature itself.
Natural law is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the enacted laws of a state or society). According to natural law theory, all people have inherent rights, conferred not by act of legislation but by “God, nature, or reason.” Natural law theory can also refer to “theories of ethics, theories of politics, theories of civil law, and theories of religious morality.
When placed in this perspective, natural law takes full precedence as it relates to statutory law, which is rules placed on government in order to restrict it to such responsibilities of managing the public buildings, things, lands, properties, and services adopted by the people, in order to manage those public things. We agree to adopt public taxes in order to manage that public cause, while we adopt ‘common law codes’ in order to regulate our natural rights, protecting you from another, in order to safeguard those natural rights to life, liberty, property, pursuit to happiness.
Now, what why do I feel Amendment C needs to be adopted by the people, cause if we truly want to safeguard our natural right to all those rights given to you by your creator, we then should imply a super majority vote on the voters, to whom are then asked to adopt such legislation which will increase our public spending by more than $10,000,000 a year during the first five years after the measure is adopted.
Any initiated constitutional amendment, initiated measure, constitutional amendment proposed and submitted to the people by the Legislature, or measure referred to the people by the Legislature that imposes or increases taxes or fees, and any initiated constitutional amendment, initiated measure, constitutional amendment proposed and submitted to the people by the Legislature, or measure referred to the people by the Legislature that obligates the state to appropriate funds of ten million dollars or more in any of the first five fiscal years after enactment, to be annually adjusted for inflation as determined by the Legislature, shall become part of the Constitution or statute only if approved by three-fifths of the votes cast thereon. – Amendent C
What it really is saying is this – IF, if the people, either by means of their legislature, or by means of a public vote, hereby wish to impose directly on the people appropriations of $10,000,000 million a year, which will affect the first five years of our governmental process of obligating the “State” (or the people) directly to spend a huge sum of money, which effects the taxes and fees as they relate to the spending plan, we wish to impose onto the voters a 60% supermajority vote in order to safeguard, our protected right to life, liberty, property, pursuit to happiness from being forced to pay a tax we wish not to pay.
Truth is, because the vast majority of the citizens of South Dakota have chosen to elect very conservative minded people to their legislature, whom of course must also obtain a 2/3 majority vote in both chambers to adopt spending bills of the same value, there are some people outside the State of South Dakota who wish to place on public ballots, the so called ‘hot topics’ which can easily gain support of a simple majority of voters by means of by-passing the legislative process of adopting new laws, appropriate our public taxes, to adopting new age ideals onto the majority of people, all cause they want to manipulate our process of governing our state.
If, this outside faction of people wish to come into our State to force upon, adopt these expensive programs, measures, or enact new taxes and fees to spend money as they want us to do, then we should by all means have the authority as a free people to impose a rule on them, to obtain a large majority of support to prove to us, that a vast majority have have the opinion that the measure may or may not be good for us. Especially where they fail to gain the support of the very people ‘we’ elect to represent us in our State Capitol.
The City of Sioux Falls has more than enough residents residing in its incorporated territory, that a simple majority of 51% or just 200,000 voters could easily impose such tax increases on the majority of state citizens. We must protect ourselves from such a mob-rule type mentality, if we are to remain a free, independent, and sovereign people, who have the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit to happiness.
The overall ECONOMIC WEALTH OF STATES, shall be free from the Federal Government and any foreign lobby. By enforcing our sovereignty as a free state and people, we should not be forced to pay taxes outside our state, or be forced by outside lobbies to pay higher than expected taxes and fees. Preserving such right, so leads to a sense of strong economic prosperity.
The State of South Dakota is in a great place due to the ability of its own citizens to remain free from a tyrannical form of government, and from those who wish to impose their will on us.
We do not have to, nor are we forced to pay federal taxes outside our state borders. We owe no tax but to our state and local governments who provide to us a combination of state and local roads, public utilities, parks, police, fire, rescue, public education, and other public services. It should be a CHOICE on whether to enter into a contract with the Federal Government, or to act in foreign commerce where we pay federal excise taxes, or to use s federal service paying federal duties, or to transact business with foriegn persons outside our state electing to pay federal imposition fees such as tariffs, transaction fees, patents, business license, permits, federal income tax, etc.
Unless we enter into such an arrangement, we claim our American Citizenship of our State, protecting our sovereign right to be free from the powers of the Federal Government, or any such foreign lobby who wish to impose on us unjust appropriations of public taxes.
Always invest in yourself first, your state second, and your city third. That provides us the extreme economic prosperity to pay for the things we choose to support in South Dakota.
You have the ultimate authority over your life, your liberty, your property, your pursuit to happiness, you must protect that with all your heart, and not allow a small faction of people to come between you and your state, as we go about our daily business of governing our public buildings, places, things, and public services.
Economic wealth is the total value of the resources you have to meet your physical or material needs. Money is the currency of economic wealth. So all of these resources can be interconverted through money. These resources include the value of your assets (home, car, bank accounts, other material possessions, etc.) and income from your job or other sources. If you have borrowed monetary resources (loans) then you have to subtract those. Total net economic wealth is calculated by totaling the value of your resources and subtracting from that the total of your debts.
Ongoing fulfillment of physical necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, health, etc. These physical necessities arise from biological systems within your brain and body that are responsible for the physical well being and survival of the body. These systems make you seek food when you are hungry, water when you are thirsty, shelter when you are cold or hot and so on. When you feel that these necessities are being met to a comfortable level, then the first main purpose of economic wealth is met.
Providing a sense of security and confidence in your future ability to fulfill the physical necessities. This is the main reason for accumulating wealth. The accumulated wealth allows you to have less anxiety and more confidence, and so improves how you live your life.
My overall assessment of Amendment C, is as such, it will help us ensure to all the population of the State, that we the people shall remain every bit, a part of the governing process of managing our State, and by imposing this rule on the governing process of adopting new appropriation bills, we are in fact restricting the ability of all of us from imposing new and increased tax rates on the citizens of this state. I urge you to vote Yes on Amendment C on June 7, 2022 – by doing so, you will have played a huge part in your own economic means of enjoying your right to all the inherent rights you have as a free, independent, person living in the State of South Dakota. The power to tax, shall not be taken lightly, with it comes a grave danger to our freedoms. If you value your liberty, you must vote in favor of Amendment C.
TL, DR
Meth we’re on it.
Tail Wagging the Dog.
Amendment C needs only majority support in a low turnout off-year primary to pass. But it would deny almost sixty percent of the much larger general election participants a say… in future measures.
By turnout comparison… about 75,000 voters in this one June primary could succeed in denying 250,000 a voice going forward.