The South Dakota Senate is passing a bill that adds an additional disclosure requirement for ballot question committees.
Senate Bill 77 requires those committee to disclose funding sources during the year when groups are circulating petitions and gathering signatures.
Democratic State Senator Reynold Nesiba sponsors the bill. He says there’s currently a loop hole in the reporting system.
“Even right now, the Secretary of State is approving measures for the ballot, but we still don’t know who paid for them,” Nesiba says. “It would be really useful to have information about who is paying for a measure before citizens are asked to sign on.”
In the case of this year, current law requires ballot question committees to report its campaign financing by January 26th. Petitions to the Secretary of State were due last November.
Senate Bill 77 now heads to the house.