Constitutional Amendment I will add strength to state's motto, 'Under God the People Rule'

By Gordon Garnos

AT ISSUE: Currently, South Dakota's Constitution allows a legislative session to be 35 days long in even-numbered years and 40 days for legislative sessions on odd-numbered years. Constitutional Amendment I would change this to 40-day sessions every year. A "Yes" vote will help make that change and a "No" vote will leave our Constitution as it is.

AS IT IS SAID, "There are two sides to every coin," in the argument of increasing the number of days in South Dakota's legislative sessions, one side of that coin doesn't present a very convincing case.

As was mentioned in last week's column, both proponents and opponents select a spokesman to present their side "of the coin." Writing for the proponents is Bill Peterson, a Republican from Sioux Falls, who is the majority leader in the South Dakota House of Representatives. Presenting the opponents' point of view is state Senator Jerry Apa, a Republican from Lead who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Apa will be term limited at the end of 2008.

Article One of the Constitution establishes a citizen legislature and makes our legislature part-time and limits the terms of legislators, which we will discuss next week when we get to Constitutional Amendment J. The article also allows for the initiative and referendum to South Dakota voters.

THE LEGISLATURE met every other year, that is until 1964. That is when a 30-day session was created just to address that year's budget. According to Senator Apa, "Those sessions have now morphed into two full legislative sessions where more laws are proposed and enacted. This constitutional amendment proposes to increase the session length, an idea the voters have rejected in the past. Constitutional Amendment I is an expansion of government." Opponent Apa then asserted, "I urge you to vote no for the following reasons.

"In the past the Legislature has finished its work and gone home early on a number of occasions; the old days of 'covering the clock' have become rare."

I don't know what Apa is calling "the old days," but in the old days when I covered the Legislature I remember many a session the clock was covered to give legislators a little more time to clean up the legislative calendar.

"Additionally," Apa wrote, "There is cost to the taxpayer for the added five days. Each legislature will draw an additional $550 in per diem, there will be additional travel costs and staff expenses for the extra week will have to be paid. The additional cost will be at least $115,000."

SOUTH DAKOTA'S BUDGET has grown from thousands of dollars, to millions and now to billions of bucks. For example, the state's general budget for this fiscal year is $1.02 billion and adding the feds' "contributions" puts that number at $3.5 billion. And when our legislators are dealing in billions of bucks, that $115,000 looks like pretty small potatoes.

Going back to the state's motto, to protect the people's right to rule, Peterson, the proponent for "I," maintains, "the Legislature must be closely tied to the people. The people expect the Legislature will have the time and expertise to make sound policy for South Dakota and to watch over the actions of the Executive Branch.

"The Legislative Article is nearly unchanged since statehood; however, the world has become more complex, making the creation of sound laws more difficult. In 1972, South Dakota voted to revise and dramatically strengthen the Executive Branch. This made the Executive Branch very powerful in relation to the Legislature because the Governor is full-time and the Legislature is part-time, creating an imbalance between the branches that has grown over the last 35 years," Peterson argued.

We learned a long time ago in Government Class at good ole PHS, the axiom that good government was balanced government. What Peterson wrote about South Dakota's government now being in imbalance is most certainly true.

Therefore, a "Yes" vote for Constitutional Amendment I is most certainly in order....

QUESTION: With all the talk about the cost of bailing out the big financial institutions at the tune of between $500 billion to $700 billion, how many zeros are there in a billion bucks? Scary, isn't it....

Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.