From my local newspaper, Dave Bordewyk from the South Dakota Newspaper Association has a powerful piece on why people need to vote against Amendment W:
I have lobbied on behalf of SDNA at the state Capitol since 1996 and I can honestly say I am not aware of nor have I ever witnessed any lobbying corruption or shenanigans of the kind that Amendment W says it will “fix.”
Two years ago, the Legislature enacted several campaign finance and lobbying measures. If those laws need to be strengthened, I fully support a debate to consider it. But Amendment W is not the way to go about it.
It’s not so much the lobbying provisions in Amendment W that concern me, but rather it’s the fourth branch of government it creates. The “State Government Accountability Board” proposed in Amendment W would be a significant expansion of state government and, worse yet, an unchecked expansion.
More importantly, this new government entity – touted to be a watchdog for ethics and transparency in government – does not subject itself to any real standard of openness and transparency. To the contrary, this new government entity appears to have authority to create its own rules for openness – or none at all.
And on November 6, vote NO an Amendment W.
Good to see…NO on W
This new Amendment gives out of state entities the power to overrule our current state constitution ~ it’s scary and NOT good for our state. When liberals from California have donated $100k towards ads pushing for it, it gives me reason to be concerned. Vote NO on W!
AND, when their 8 pages of new language supercedes every other item in the SD constitution, it gives way too much power to a select few.