South Dakota Tax Revenues for Grants Referendum, Referred Law 14 (2012)

Tax Revenues for Grants Referendum
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Type:	Veto referendum
Referred by:	Citizens
Topic:	Taxes
Status:	On the ballot

The South Dakota Tax Revenues for Grants Veto Referendum will appear on the November 6, 2012 ballot in the state of South Dakota as a veto referendum. The measure would repeal a law that would dedicate part of tax revenues for grants to some business projects in the state.

Specifically, if the law is not repealed, starting on January 1, 2013, a 22 percent portion of contractor-excise tax revenues would allocated to a "large project fund". The state Board of Economic Development would then decide which specific projects would be qualified to receive grants from that large fund. Reports say that the law requires the projects to be at least $5 million in size. The formal title of the bill is House Bill 1230.

The petition drive to send the measure to a statewide vote was spearheaded by South Dakota Democratic Party chairman Ben Nesselhuf.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in South Dakota

At least 15,855 valid signatures of South Dakota registered voters needed to be collected in order for the measure to be on the ballot.

According to state law, 5 percent of the signatures on the petitions should be verified, which equals to approximately 1,150, depending on the total of signatures submitted. On June 27, 2011, supporters of the referendum turned in about 23,000 signatures to the South Dakota Secretary of State's office.

Signature verifiction

On July 18, 2011, the North Dakota Secretary of State claimed that enough signatures were gathered, stating: “Petition circulators submitted approximately 22,883 signatures to refer the measure to a vote. According to state law and administrative rule, we drew a random sample of 1,145 signature lines to check for validation, which comprised the required audit of 5 percent of the signatures." However, the measure was not yet been officially certified for the ballot as of July 19, 2011. The measure has since been officially sent to the ballot.

See also

By Al Ortiz Ballot measure writer

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• 2012 ballot measures
• South Dakota 2012 ballot measures

Additional reading

• Bloomberg,"Most Referendums Since 1998 Give U.S. Voters a Chance to Reject State Laws," August 25, 2011