Quote:
Originally Posted by movingrightalong2020
So early this morning I stumbled across US News & World Report's "Best States" rankings released recently, so I thought I'd take a peek and see how SD stacked up  Things seemed to look pretty good, but one thing that concerned me is that the state gets #47 for "State Integrity." I'm guessing that this has to do with the whole Proposition 22 thing maybe?
I was just curious if you all had thoughts about all of that, and what it all even means? I've poked around a bit but don't really fully understand it. From what I've gleaned, it seems to have been like a transparency/accountability law that was approved by the voters, and then overturned by the legislature. But then other people are saying that it was just propaganda driven from people out of Massachusetts? So I'm not really sure what to think.
The reason I'm being curious about it is that since we're living in Illinois with its stellar political record (if you like corruption anyhow,) I want to understand the political condition of the state before moving. There are a lot of things that I want to bring with me, but corrupt politicians sure isn't one of them 
(Please know that I'm definitely not talking down SD...I'm really excited about the idea of moving there...But I also want to do my homework and understand this.) |
I'll answer your question with a response I made on the Iowa thread to a similar question.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
atler8 
Jmgg
This is unrelated to the topic at hand but you are South Dakotan who inputs here so I'll ask you about a current issue up in your state.
I checked and the South Dakota forum does not have an active thread going about your legislature & how it is in process to repeal a 2016 voter-approved ethics law.
Is that geting coverage up there & is there a sense of outrage among South Dakotans?
We saw the GOP do something else like this right out of the gate after the November elections when their membership in Congress voted to gut ethics law on a national basis.
The blow-back was fierce and they had to backtrack. So, citizen input & energy can be effective at getting results.
I don't care if this would be done by Democrats or Republicans. If it were occurring in my state, I'd be having a fit!
Maybe it's time for a new thread on your forum?
I'll answer this on this forum since you asked. The intricacies of this Initiated Measure #22 I can't recite off the top of my head, but a part of it was ethics reform.
We've had some problems over the last few years with some government programs such as EB-5, the Gear Up program, and the enormous mess at a place called Mid Central Cooperative where the director quite frankly stole hundreds of thousands of tax dollars (with help from some other people with government connections) then ended up committing suicide (which is the official story) after killing his entire family.
Frankly, all of these programs should have been closely scrutinized by someone in our state government, but no one did and massive abuse followed.
The above is why Initiated Measure 22 was created and voted on and ended up passing with 52% of the vote. The part that the people liked about it was that it created a non-partisan ethics committee as well as having a clause where state legislators could not accept gifts from anyone. The problem is there was some other things in it that our states attorney has stated are not constitutional. Our governor and our legislators are in the process of completely scrapping the whole thing, even though the people voted for it.
I'm a conservative and did not vote for it because it had other things attached to it that at the time I thought ruined it PLUS it was heavily advertised and financed by outside interests mostly from the east coast. I am all for the ethics committee and close monitoring of anything that can be construed as a gift to possibly entice future favors. (An example being some husband getting paid ridiculous un-heard of sums of money for 45 minute speeches by foreign governments while the government employee wife holds one of the most powerful positions in the country) .
I am, however like you stated, upset that our state leaders aren't fine tuning out the parts that may be unconstitutional and keeping the meat and potatoes of it. After all, the people of South Dakota voted for it. What gives our state leaders the right to totally ignore something that was passed by the people.
Our state motto is "Under God, the People Rule". Well apparently that must not be the case.
