GOVERNOR DAUGAARD; PLEASE VETO SB-157
By Tom Katus*
The BAD BILLBOARD BILL, SB 157 has passed and will go into law. The vote:
42 to 26. It took 10 BILLBOARD
Lobbyists, being paid tens of thousands of dollars by the BIG BILLBOARD
CORPORATIONS to get this vote! We had 0
dollars and the people to represent. You
now know what runs your State Government!
A sad day for the
citizens of South Dakota,
and local control of its municipalities and counties...
--Lisa
Modrick
Scenic
Rapid City Committee, Inc.
SD LEGISLATURE BOUGHT BY SIGN
COMPANIES
--
Sign at Occupy Rapid City
Rally, March 3rd.
The people of Rapid
City and West River are livid about the majority of East River’s Legislators’ arrogance to override a local
initiative, for which scores of us circulated petitions to have a vote on
billboard control. That vote of 6,000 + was more than 2/3rds majority of the
people. I am certain that citizens of
Brookings, Sioux Falls, Aberdeen,
Watertown, Mitchell, and Pierre would feel similarly affronted if an
initiated measure in their city, securing more than 2/3rds of the vote were
overturned by the Legislature.
The undue influence of moneyed
interests in the federal government has lead to widespread cynicism of the
people and a Congressional approval rating of 11%. Now the East River
majority in the SD Legislature is acting equally irresponsibly and thwarting
the will of the people.
We have many divisions in this
State, including age, gender, race and partisanism. However, the greatest division remains the split
between East and West
River. When I served in the Senate and when I ran
for State Treasurer, my major theme was to work hard to overcome these East/West
Divisions and bring ALL South Dakotans together.
Last month, I lead a delegation
of Legislative Fellows selected from throughout the US
by our State Department to visit Nepal. We spent a week meeting with
political leaders and non governmental organizations (NGOs) assisting them with
their constitutional review. Nepal
is transitioning from an authoritarian centralized government to a federal
democratic system. I was asked to address their National Lawyers Association,
on behalf of our group, on the US Constitutional review process culminating at Independence
Hall in Philadelphia
in July, 1789. I stressed that perhaps
the greatest strength of our federal system is extensive LOCAL CONTROL. A fellow delegate who is a Councilman from Concord, New Hampshire
reinforced this view. The Nepalese were
very impressed with LOCAL CONTROL, and are hopeful they can institute it in
their country.
Thus, it is particularly
disheartening to return to SD to find that a majority of our East River Legislators
has overturned the people's will.
Governor Daugaard has made some excellent strides in reaching out to ALL our people. His positive decisions on Valhalla and the Black Hills Playhouse are commendable.
Vetoing this onerous legislation, would certainly reinforce his strength in the
Republican Heartland of West River. While
such a stance may irritate the deep pocket sign companies, it will definitely
make him more popular with 6,000+ Rapid
City voters and the tourism industry. Tourism has much
greater economic impact on the State than three wealthy sign companies and
their 10 paid lobbyists!.
But regardless of the politics of any such
decision, a veto would be the right thing for ALL
the people of South Dakota. I am hopeful that he will once again rise
above politics and do the right thing. I urge Governor Daugaard to veto SB
157. I am confident that we would have
sufficient strength in the SD House of Representatives to sustain his veto.
*********
Tom Katus served as a State
Senator (2007-08), is a member of Scenic Rapid City and Occupy Rapid City.
