Top lawmakers rebuke food tax repeal sponsor for tying measure to Legislative Research Council

Rick Weiland denies he's suggested state office endorsed ballot question

Republican leaders of the South Dakota Legislature are requesting the sponsor of a measure to remove sales tax on items for human consumption stop asserting the ballot language came at the urging of the Legislative Research Council.

Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck and House Speaker Hugh Bartels wrote in a letter sent Monday to Rick Weiland, a co-founder of Dakotans for Health, that the non-partisan staff of the LRC suggested different language than what is being submitted to voters in the form of Initiated Measure 28. South Dakotans for Health and supporters of IM 28 say the measure would remove the state sales tax on groceries.

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But opponents, including Schoenbeck and Bartels, say the language is far broader than just the removal of sales tax on groceries. And that, they say, is because of its wording.

The LRC, they wrote, suggested that IM 28 be worded, “The retail sale of any food or food ingredient for any purpose is exempt from any tax imposed by law.”

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