A question that asks South Dakota voters to increase the threshold for a constitutional amendment to pass is one step away from the ballot.
Senate Joint Resolution One passes through the House State Affairs committee on a party line vote, with democrats opposing the measure.
The ballot question would ask voters whether to raise the bar for changing the state constitution to fifty five percent, plus one.
Republican State Senator Jim Bolin is leading the charge on the ballot question. He says the bill is meant to protect the constitution from out-of-state interest, but are not willing to live under it’s requirements.
"We’ve had a number of these amendments come forward. Some make it. Some don’t,” Bolin says. “But I believe the public, in the conversations I’ve had, I believe the public is going to support this. It increases the hurdle, you might say, to change the constitution. And that’s what I think the public really wants.”
SJR 1 is an idea that came out of the Initiative and Referendum task force that met last summer.
It’s one of ten bills that came out of the task force.
Critics of the idea say increasing the threshold will bring in more out-of-state money, not less.