Weiland: Tsitrian’s concerns about IM 28 are false and based on disinformation campaign from its opponents
I must respectfully disagree with John Tsitrian’s latest post on Initiated Measure 28. South Dakotans Against a State Income are running a well-funded disinformation campaign based on fear, not facts, using hypothetical arguments that lack any basis in reality.
For starters, there is no way the Republicans in Pierre are going to become champions and advocates for an income tax. Not going to happen. That’s a fact. Using the threat of an income tax is a fear-based scare tactic.
The official Fiscal Note, prepared by the LRC as required by law, is based on the official petition language of IM28 signed by 25,000 voters. It estimates that if IM28 passes, taxpayers will save $123.9 million, and that only food taxes — not sales taxes on gasoline, toilet paper, services, or tobacco — would be repealed at the state level. Fact. That is how they arrived at the $123.9 million figure.
You can’t “will” changes into the state’s official Fiscal Note. Fact.
The $646 million scare from the State Appropriations Committee last July has zero statutory authority. The LRC was directed to include all “consumables” and then threw in the “kitchen sink” adding in $333 million for “services.”
The opposition has frightened local governments into believing they will lose their ability to tax food at the local level. This is fear, not fact. The Attorney General's required, and official explanation clearly states that IM28, if passed, would repeal only the state’s tax while the rest of the explanation deals in hypotheticals. The LRC's official fiscal note specifies that local governments can continue to collect the tax, and that is what IM28 stipulates.
When IM28 passes, it will become new law and supersede all existing laws. Fact. As a citizen-initiated measure, in this land of direct democracy, when the Legislature fails to act, the people can petition their government, repeal laws they don’t like, pass laws the Legislature won’t, and amend their state Constitution. Those new laws supersede existing laws and go into effect July 1 following the November election. Fact.
As a proponent of IM28, I welcome legislative and judicial review. Since IM28 is an initiated law, the legislature can address any of these unfounded hypothetical concerns if they want to. If IM28 ends up in the courts, as bills passed by the Legislature sometimes do, the courts will look at legislative intent. In this case, the voters are the Legislature, and IM28, as clearly written, will remove the state tax on food, save taxpayers $123.9 million, and allow local governments to continue to collect the tax on food.
We are one of only two states that still collects the full allowable state tax on food — Mississippi being the other. According to Feeding South Dakota, there are 106,000 South Dakotans, one out of six of whom are children, who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Some South Dakota families are spending upwards of 30% of their household income just to put food on the table. For some, IM28 could mean an extra month of groceries.
Finally, there are $1.4 billion in sales and use tax exemptions in the state’s 2025 budget. Anyone who can afford to hire a paid lobbyist to roam the halls of our state Capitol is in a better position to get a tax cut than struggling families who are just trying to make ends meet.
Rick Weiland is the co-founder of Dakotan for Health and the official sponsor of IM28.
photo: public domain image, wikimedia commons
