Don't Like the Ballot Measure Voters Approved? Just Ignore It, Some Lawmakers Say.

[brooklynite]

Governing:

State lawmakers have always been skeptical about letting voters decide public policy. Lately, some have been downright hostile.

South Dakota GOP legislators are poised to repeal a ballot measure that passed just this past November. It calls for a range of ethics changes, including public financing of campaigns, limits on campaign donations, the creation of an independent ethics commission and a ban on gifts from lobbyists.

"It's a real stick in the eye of the people of South Dakota," said Liz Kennedy, director of the democracy and government reform program at the liberal Center for American Progress. "It's one thing when it's a policy change like minimum wage, but this is the voters saying 'our government is not working for us right now,' and the government is saying 'we reject the rules that you have imposed on us.'"

Legislators are preparing to kill the law on an "emergency" basis, meaning that voters can't overturn their work through a subsequent referendum.