Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Secretary of State Certifies 6^th Ballot Measure

Pierre, SD – Today, Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced that an initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution establishing Nonpartisan Elections was validated and certified to be on the November 2016 general election ballot as a ballot measure the citizens will vote on. The sponsor turned in 44,095 signatures to the Secretary of state’s office. A Constitutional Amendment requires 27,741 signatures from South Dakota registered voters. Once the signatures were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office, a 5% random sampling was conducted. It was determined that 67.8% or 29,924 of 44,095 signatures were in good standing. This will be Constitutional Amendment V.

This is the sixth initiated measure to be approved by Secretary of State. A total of 8 measures were submitted for review. This office will continue the signature validation process of the remaining 2 measures in the order they were submitted to the Secretary of State. A total of 275,000 signatures were submitted among all petitions.

Those looking to challenge the Secretary of State’s certification of a ballot measure have 30 days from the date they are certified, which would be February 8, 2016.

Challenges to all statewide initiatives and referendums must be brought within 30 days after the petition has been validated and filed by the Secretary of State (SDCL 12-1-13)

I kind of like this. It’s good.

In case it disappeared below the horizon before you noticed, here’s one last chance to vote on our completely unscientific SDWC Reader sales tax poll. I’ll report on the results shortly:

Today in a press release, the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT organization, sent out a preview of what it is predicting in state and local legislative battles in the year ahead, noting that the anticipate bills contrary to their agenda will be considered in at least 27 states.

In 2016, HRC expects more than two dozen state legislatures to consider anti-equality measures. These include legislatures in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The full report can be read at www.hrc.org/2016legislature.

(From a press 1/8/16 press release)

According to the report, the group expects two major areas of legislative measures for South Dakota:

In South Dakota, the group is likely focusing on legislation such as HB 1008, which makes certain school bathrooms and locker rooms gender specific based on biology.

However, no measure has been pre-filed as of yet for 2016 allowing for the ability to refuse service because of religious objections, as championed as a result of lawsuits against bakers, photographers, etc, for declining to provide services for same sex marriages.

During previous sessions, measures underlining our ability to reject business on a religious basis had been introduced and failed. However, they failed before the US Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states this past June.   Which takes lawsuits from those objections from the arena of speculative possibility into potential reality in South Dakota.

State Attorney General Marty Jackley has been up front in saying “Under the law, constitutional rights are required to coexist.”  The question is what form that coexistence is going to take in South Dakota as a result of this upcoming legislative session.

With federal law changing to allow states more flexibility, the State Board of Education has announced that it will be re-reviewing common core educational standards, and whether to keep them. (Now maybe we will finally be able to help our kids with math once again):

The South Dakota Board of Education plans to re-evaluate the controversial math and reading curriculum this summer following a massive federal overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law.

and…

The Every Student Succeeds Act was signed by President Barack Obama in December, but it won’t hit classrooms until the 2017-18 school year. South Dakota education officials will start the revision process this summer for the Common Core.

The state reviews curriculum standards on a seven-year cycle. Reading standards were due for review this summer, but math standards weren’t scheduled for review until the summer of 2017. State education board members agreed unanimously to speed up the process, moving up the timeline for math.

“We’re basically going to review the Common Core and review that process this summer,” Schopp said.

Read the entire story here.

How many proposed laws do we think will come about as a result of this legislation?

From the Argus Leader:

Steele, a Republican Representative for District 12 from 2007 to 2014, Thursday night became the first person to announce ambitions for the Southwest District Council seat being vacated by the term-limited Greg Jamison.

“I have gained understanding of the workings of government on the state, county and city levels and believe these past experiences have prepared me for the City Council position,” Steele said in a news release.

and…

A retired tele-communications worker, Steele served as the chairman of the South Dakota House of Representatives Retirement Laws Committee.

Read the entire story here.

From Missouri comes a story that seems to be burning up my facebook feed.

Apparently, a legislator in the “Show Me” state wants to be shown even more. One has introduced a bill to require sex between a Legislator and a lobbyist to be disclosed on lobbyist reporting forms as “a gift.”

A Missouri bill proposed this week would require lobbyists to report sexual relationships they have with lawmakers or their staff, a change the sponsor says would promote transparency.

The bill by Rep. Bart Korman, a High Hill Republican, would define those sexual relations as “gifts,” which now include presents to lawmakers from lobbyists and must be regularly reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission.

and….

Korman’s measure would exclude sexual relationships between lobbyists and their spouses who are lawmakers or staff. Relationships that begin before an individual becomes a lobbyist or serves as a lawmaker or staff member also would be exempt.

The bill says reports on sexual relationships wouldn’t need a “dollar valuation,” which is required for other “gifts” to lawmakers.

Read it all here.

Really?  I suppose whether it should be considered a gift probably depends on the legislator…..

Happy birthday to my friend and colleague @SenJohnThune!

— Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) January 7, 2016

You can also wish him Happy Birthday here.

Apparently, it’s good to be on the County Commission.

Across the state, County Commissioners were meeting this week and voting pay raises for themselves as part of the new year. Minnehaha County did it. a few other counties did it. And in Pennington County, when there was a package set up to be in line with county employee pay raises, one commissioner decided that she was going to go a little beyond that, as reported in the Rapid City Journal:

In a telephone interview, Petersen said he was unaware he voted for the $250-a-month raise. He said he thought he was backing a $50-a-month raise to $1,300, which was already budgeted for 2016.

“I must not have heard it correctly when the motion was made,” Petersen said. He added that if he knew he was voting for the $3,000 annual raise, he would have insisted on more discussion on the matter.

A source in the Pennington County Auditor’s office confirmed that the motion was for the larger raise.

According to the meeting agenda packet, commissioners were given two options: Vote for the $1,300 per month salary already budgeted for 2016; or vote for “any other amount the Board deems appropriate.”

Hadcock made the motion for the $1,500-a-month pay.

Read that here.

Having previously spent years on the Rapid City Council, I suspect County Commissioner Hadcock knew exactly what she was doing when she made the motion. And instead of the merely ministerial action of approving the $1300 a month salary, she “boosted” it to $1500, giving all Pennington County Commissioners a 20% pay raise.

While it might work for commissioners in the short run, as they certainly haven’t voted to repeal it, I suspect that it may come to bite them in the tail in the long run.

As I’d mentioned yesterday, State Representative Dan Kaiser has set up camp in Sioux Falls while his son is receiving treatment for leukemia.

One of his relatives has apparently set up a Go Fund me Page to help the Kaiser family with the expenses they’re going to incur as they receive treatment three hours away from home:

My name is Sarah and I am raising money for my totally awesome nephew Jaxon Kaiser and his parents Dan and Laura Kaiser.

Unfortunatley 2016 has started out to be the worst year for them, Jaxon was diagnosed with a type of Childhood leukemia, he is a sweet, fun loving kid who truely cares about everyone he has ever met. He is in for a rough battle but we know he can beat the crap out of cancer. I am trying to raise money for his medical bills and also for his parents to be able to take time off of work to stay with him for his treatments.  The closest medical center for children is over 3 hours away from their home, which is where they will be spending a fair amount of time in the months to come.

Dan Kaiser is an Iraq  war veteran, and a police officer, as well as a state representative. Laura Kaiser is a former state agent and currently self employed as a priviate investigator.

They are loving parents who would do anything for their childern.

We would be so grateful for any amount you can share with them,  as we want to allow them to spend this time with their beloved son and not have to worry about paying bills, or covering what insurance does not.

Thank you in advance.
love and prayers welcome

You can donate by going to https://www.gofundme.com/n8hu7bu4.