State Senate Minority Leader's Comments Highlight Need for Spending Transparency

SIOUX FALLS - Last week, State Senate Democrat Leader Scott Heidepriem was quoted in the Rapid City Journal:  "We don't understand why the growth of state government can't be capped... We want to shift priorities away from the bureaucracy and to education."  Americans for Prosperity (AFP) South Dakota agrees with State Senator Heidepriem that state government priorities should shift away from the bureaucracy and to our state's priorities.

Unfortunately, average citizens are shut out of the current process because they are prohibited from seeing how taxpayer money is spent.  Currently South Dakotans can only see how much money is budgeted to each department, and have no visibility over how taxpayers' dollars are being spent.  For example, requests by other South Dakota pro-taxpayer groups to the South Dakota Board of Regents for line-item budget spending have been denied.

AFP State Director Duane Sand asked, "Why can't taxpayers see how their own tax dollars are being spent?"  Sand continued: "It's a fundamental right of citizens in a democracy to know how their money is being spent.  That is why we are calling on this legislature to have the courage to fix this pressing problem."

South Dakota's largest non-partisan taxpayer advocacy organization, Americans for Prosperity, is calling on the state Legislature to give South Dakotans easy to use access to all line items in the state government budget through a transparent, searchable website.  This information already exists at the Bureau of Finance and Management and should be published so that all citizens are able to access it online.

AFP asks Senator Heidepriem to support legislation that would completely open up government finances, create a more transparent education spending system, and allow the average citizen to better understand what is going on in South Dakota's education and government spending systems.  It is the right of every citizen to have full access to the detailed financial records of the government that represents them. 

Americans live in a democracy in which political power emanates not from the top down, but from the bottom up - from the people. And in order for the people to make informed decisions on how they are governed, they need access to accurate and complete information about where their tax dollars are going. Today, technology allows governments to communicate with the people at a level of detail never before possible, and it is now incumbent upon the South Dakota legislature to make that possibility a reality.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the nation's premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit http://www.americansforprosperity.org/

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