Guest Column: Amendment K is a wise investment in South Dakota By Rep. Chris Kassin (R-17) and Rep. Erik Muckey (D-15)

Amendment K is a wise investment in South Dakota
By Rep. Chris Kassin (R-17) and Rep. Erik Muckey (D-15)

As state representatives, we’ve worked together for the past two years on the Joint Committee on Appropriations. As you might suspect, we don’t agree on everything, but we do seek out common ground whenever we can.

This election season, that common ground is Amendment K. We’re asking you to vote yes on this important amendment to our state’s constitution.

Amendment K takes the funds or assets the state holds for people who’ve lost track of them, known as unclaimed property, and places those claims in a constitutional trust fund. That trust fund lets the state spend only what that fund earns, and the principal stays where it is, available to pay every claim.
Rarely do you find unanimous agreement in the Legislature and with the Governor. This is one of those instances where bipartisanship came together around the common good and finding a real, responsible way to steward the trust of South Dakotans.

Why is Amendment K important?

There may be money in the State Treasurer’s office with your name on it, whether an old bank account from a job you left, or an insurance payout a relative never mentioned. South Dakota took in a record $357 million of unclaimed property in fiscal year 2025, and another $242 million by the time we met in Pierre this session.

When an account or property goes dormant at the bank, a bank whose charter is in South Dakota transfers the responsibility of uniting unclaimed property with its owner to the State Treasurer’s office. The State notes the claim and the value at the time of its abandonment and owes that amount to the owner forever. The claim never grows. Whatever it was worth that day is what we owe, whenever somebody comes for it.

While a good chunk of this unclaimed property belongs to South Dakotans, most of it comes from somewhere else. Banks chartered here hold accounts for people across the country and the world, and when those go unclaimed, South Dakota inherits the job of holding it and finding the owner. We’re carrying more than $1.2 billion in those promises.

For years the state spent a good share of it, and that was a mistake. Collections spiked after the pandemic, and the more that came in, the easier it was to treat as revenue. About $60 million a year shows up in the general fund and gets spent like any other money, and what comes in the door to the state is significantly higher. There was no plan to stop this until recently.

A group of us came together across party lines in the 2025 Legislative Session to end that practice, resulting in Senate Bill 155. Rep. Kassin prime sponsored it in the House, and Rep. Muckey co-sponsored it. Senator Taffy Howard served as the other prime sponsor, and several others in both chambers signed on as co-sponsors. After significant discussion and negotiation between legislators on both sides of the aisle and the executive branch, the Legislature unanimously supported Senate Bill 155 and the Governor signed it. The law weans the budget off using unclaimed property in steps, dropping the general fund’s share from about $61.4 million this year to $25 million by 2035, so nothing gets yanked out from under K-12 education, Medicaid or the state workforce.

Amendment K is the last step, and it’s the one we can’t take as legislators. Without a constitutional amendment, the Legislature cannot direct the South Dakota Investment Council to manage this money as a real trust. Right now, the account holding it earns very little. Because property claims never grow, whatever the money earns while it waits is money the state can use without shorting anyone and meet our obligations to education, Medicaid, and state workforce.

Amendment K would then require three-fourths of both chambers, or 53 of 70 representatives and 27 of 35 senators, in order to take anything from the principal for a purpose other than paying claims.
The Senate voted 35 to 0 to send Amendment K to the ballot. The House voted 69 to 0. The State Treasurer wrote the argument for Amendment K in the ballot pamphlet, and nobody wrote one against it.

The work in Pierre is done to properly manage a liability on our state’s balance sheet. Amendment K will ensure that every valid unclaimed property can be honored and turn a billion-dollar liability into an asset that works for South Dakotans.

All that’s left is your vote. Please vote yes on Amendment K.

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Chris Kassin represents District 17, lives in Vermillion, and served as the House Prime Sponsor on Senate Bill 155 (2025) that established new unclaimed property financial management practices. Erik Muckey represents District 15, lives in Sioux Falls, and co-sponsored Senate Bill 155. Both serve on the Joint Committee on Appropriations, which writes the state budget.