Some provisions in a ballot initiative aimed at stopping tax dollars from being used by lobbyists have local officials concerned about access to state legislators.
Initiated measure 10, which will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot, bans the use of tax dollars for lobbying or campaigning.
It also outlaws the awarding of government contracts to those employing legislators and requires all government contracts to be published.
Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth brought up the lobbying issue during general discussion at the Southeast District meeting of the South Dakota Association of County Commissioners in Menno on June 25.
The lobbying group’s Southeast District includes eight counties and meets quarterly.
Barth said the measure would stop the association from asking legislators to fund local projects such as road construction or mosquito control.
The Attorney General’s explanation of the measure says it would “prohibit state and local governments, their officers, employees, independent contractors, consultants and candidates, from using government revenues or resources for campaigning or lobbying.”
“What it does is prevent county commissioners from communicating with each other and from communicating with the legislature,” Barth said. “It prevents school boards from doing the same thing.”
Barth said the proposal’s strict wording would stop superintendents like Dean Jones in Tea or Jim Holbeck in Harrisburg from speaking with legislators.
In the past, the superintendents have argued that the state’s per-student funding should be based on the current school year’s enrollment.
Funding is based on enrollment numbers from the previous school year and sometimes leaves the growing Lincoln County districts in a budget bind.
“The whole thrust behind it is to prevent local governments from getting the tax money they need,” Barth said. “That’s just wrong.”
Holbeck also said he understands the bill’s language to be far too strict.
“From everything we’ve heard from our legal advisors, it would not only stop Jim Holbeck from lobbying – it would stop (secretary of state) Chris Nelson from advising legislators,” Holbeck said.
Those concerns are unwarranted, supporters say.
South Dakotans for Open and Clean Government sponsored the act and collected 26,536 signatures to put it on the ballot. Dena Espenscheid, a spokesperson for the group, said school board members, county commissioners and superintendents would be able to speak directly with legislators.
Section three of the measure allows communications among and between members of legislative bodies and public officials in accordance with their “constitutional duties.”
That exemption deals directly with school board members, county commissioners or superintendents, she said.
“That’s who should be lobbying,” Espenscheid said. “What we don’t want is for them to hire private lobbyists to represent them.”
Groups like the commissioner’s association, which Minnehaha County paid $18,300 in 2008 for representation in Pierre, and the South Dakota Education Association, which collects pre-tax dues from teachers, would not be allowed to lobby.
Espenscheid pointed to the commission association’s support of the failed attempt to put an alcohol tax on the ballot as an example of activities the measure would stop.
Not all commissioners in South Dakota supported the proposed dime-a-drink tax, she said, but the association lobbied for the change regardless.
“The associations take a generalized position and go to the state and lobby,” she said.
Under the law, she said, lobbyists would need to raise money for such efforts without the help of state or local tax dollars.
That would include paid organizing time spent by school employees.
Espenscheid said as long as lobbying groups raise their funds through private communications, the group takes no position on their activities.
“This is just meant to make sure tax dollars aren’t spent for lobbying,” she said.
Holbeck said he doesn’t agree with the measure, in any case.
He said there are too many bills on the docket each session to keep up with, and he relies on associations to keep him informed.
“It is their job to track the bills that would affect Harrisburg,” he said.
While Holbeck said such groups might sometimes work on issues that don’t affect Harrisburg, their advocacy frees up time for him to deal with issues at home.
“Even though they don’t always represent what I think, I want them there to represent us so I don’t have to go out there every time something comes up,” he said.
Ken McFarland, the administrative assistant for Minnehaha County, said the measure’s exemptions might not be enough to allow superintendents or commissioners to argue their positions.
“I think there is a legitimate concern that that could actually happen,” McFarland said.