Petitions, Petitions -- Now for Some Initiative and Referendum

Keep your John Hancocks handy: it looks like folks will be knocking on your doors for signatures well after the candidate filing deadline of March 25. I just received a press release from lobbyist extraordinaire Jeremiah M. Murphy announcing the kickoff of a drive to refer SB 174 to a public vote. SB 174 falls in the "South Dakota -- Anything for a Buck" category of our Legislature's work this year, making it easier for railroads to take your land through eminent domain.

I'm pleased to see Sibby and I aren't the only people in this state who think South Dakota has gone too far in putting the interests of wealthy corporations above the property rights of regular citizens. Murphy's group, "Protect Private Property," will be looking for at least 16,776 like-minded South Dakotans to put this issue on the November ballot. Walk along the proposed DM&E rail line that would benefit from SB 174 (and then take a north-south detour along the Keystone pipeline route), I'll bet you'll find a good chunk of that 16,776 pretty quickly.

The press release mentions Paulene Staben of Oral and Karen Cardenas of Brookings as fellow members of "Protect Private Property." Staben is a co-signer of an open letter on "Track the Truth," a website dedicated to documenting DM&E's record of questionable dealings with landowners and over-reliance on government assistance (might they agree that DM&E is another corporate welfare queen?). Cardenas also appears on "Track the Truth" and has served as chairwoman of Committee for a Safer Brookings to challenge DM&E's efforts on our side of the Missouri.

Cardenas also offers the best line of the press release:

We can have economic development and still protect private property rights,” said Karen Cardenas of Brookings, S.D. “There was nothing wrong with the existing law, which provided recourse for landowners who were being treated unfairly by companies looking to take their lands. Existing law provided a balance between the rights of corporations and the rights of landowners. SB 174 tilts the balance of law in favor of corporations and against South Dakota landowners” [from Jeremiah M. Murphy, press release, "Protect Private Property," 2008.03.20].

And now a hat tip to Sibby: As the SB 174 referral gains steam, the South Dakotans for Open and Clean Government are celebrating the filing of their petitions with 26,500 signatures (yes, that's 10K more than needed) for an initiated measure that would, among other things, establish a searchable state checkbook like what HB 1233 intended.

But as Sibby points out, this initiative does much more than give us Google for Government. It seeks to limit lobbying by state officials and the use of public resources to campaign for anything. For more, see PP's discussion from last November and the petition itself.

As I always say, the more the merrier. The more measures we put on the ballot, the more people will be motivated by at least one of them to pay attention this fall and show up at the polls. And even if they show up to say "No!" to everything, it's still worth the effort. Keep those petitions coming!