1st Amendment

These things happen when one party controls Pierre

l3wis March 19, 2011 6Comments

Bernie Hunhoff writes a great letter about how GOP lawmakers in Pierre are all about talking about transparency, but when it comes to action, they scurry like freaking rats;

My second concern is that we don’t have enough transparency in government to determine whether any of our existing economic development funds are being spent wisely. I introduced legislation this year to require that the state provide an economic database to report information and results on loans, grants and tax rebates for economic development, but it was opposed by the administration and died on a party-line vote.

Democrats also offered a bill to prevent campaign contributions from companies that receive no-bid contracts from state government. That also was opposed by the administration and killed.

South Dakota has no restrictions on so-called pay-to-play as other states have. You could write campaign checks to South Dakota politicians who ultimately control the purse strings on economic development programs. In fact, this year, a bill was passed over my objections to allow corporations to write checks of up to $10,000 to PACs that can give money to politicians. Surely, there’s no quid pro quo in South Dakota, but we should have laws prohibiting such conduct.

But representative Johnston just tells us to get on the inter-webs and we can download and print out all the info we want;

I am committed to openness and transparency in all aspects of government operations. At the state level, our government has taken many steps to provide online resources for virtually all government records through www.Open.SD.gov. I encourage everyone to visit the site to experience all the information available with the click of a mouse.

Wow! Who knew it was so easy to uncover the state’s secrets? I feel like a total ass that I didn’t know about this website sooner.