Give me money. Lots of money.

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While I was in transit around the state last week, the Pennington County Commission snuck a petition filing into the Secretary of State's office. So, what's it about?

Many, many months back, I had been a finalist for a position with State County Commission organization, and it was specifically noted that they were looking at having the state organization bring forth a ballot measure dealing with a tax on alcoholic beverages for additional revenue dedicated to the counties.

So why is it being brought forth as a measure by a single county? In the Rapid City Journal article, County Proposes New Tax on Liquor the commission explained why they couldn't wait for the State Association of County Commissioners:
The commission tried to get an initiated measure on the ballot last year that would have imposed a nickel-per-drink tax, but the effort died in March, primarily because commissioners didn't believe there was enough time to circulate petitions for an early May deadline for the June election.

Since then, the South Dakota Association of County Commissioners has been talking about pursuing a tax on liquor, but the process hasn't been moving quickly enough for Pennington County commissioners, so they decided to go ahead with their own petition drive.

"This board, about six months ago, was ready to go full bore ahead with petitions," Commissioner Ken Davis said.

and.....

If the new law is approved, counties would share revenue based on a formula that factors in population and assessed value. Administrative assistant Ron Buskerud estimated that Pennington County's share could be about $1.2 million per year — 11 percent to 12 percent of the total revenue.

All counties, unless they opt out, would share the revenue from the tax.

Commissioner Mark Kirkeby said there is no provision for keeping funds generated within a particular county within that county.

"Those counties that aren't as successful in the booze business as Pennington County will reap the rewards from our sales," he said. "I'm not entirely uncomfortable with that, but this boils down to, once again, we're going to be providers for other counties."
Isn't that nice of them? Assuming that the Pennington County Commission can enlist various members of the SDACC, and possibly the whole organization itself, they might be able to get the required signatures in time. According to the Secretary of State's Office:

INITIATIVE PETITIONS

16,728 signatures collected within one year following filing of the full text with the Secretary of State (5% of 2002 vote for governor). Signatures must be filed by May 2, 2006.

So, they have a little while to get the signatures. The problem then is getting people to agree to taxing their six pack of beer..

Read the whole initiated measure here. (PDF warning)

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