Gun group cites use of tax dollars to lobby for gun control
SIOUX FALLS -- The ballot campaign committee supporting a yes vote on a proposed ban on the use of tax dollars for lobbying or political campaigns Friday welcomed the endorsement of the South Dakota Gun Owners Association, a 3,500-member statewide gun rights organization.
South Dakota Gun Owners communications director Zach Lautenschlager said in a statement Friday: “We're urging our members and all South Dakotans to vote yes on Measure 10 to stop politicians from funneling our tax dollars to anti-Second Amendment lobbyists in Washington. The fact that multiple tax-funded national anti-gun rights lobbies are working to defeat Measure 10 is a red flag that should get the attention of all gun owners.”
Tonchi Weaver, Rapid City, a member of the National Rifle Association and a board member of South Dakotans for Open and Clean Government, the Yes on 10 ballot committee, agreed with the state gun owners group that "using tax dollars to lobby for gun control or any other issue is wrong."
"We appreciate the support of South Dakota gun owners, who obviously haven't missed the fact that major Washington, D.C. lobbying groups that support federal gun control -- the National Education Association, National League of Cities, and National Association of Counties -- are collaborating to try to defeat Measure 10," Weaver said. "The worst thing is, all of those gun control lobbies are either directly funded or subsidized by our local tax dollars, used by local elected officials to either directly fund them or to collect their dues. Voting yes on 10 will stop the use of our tax dollars for lobbying on any issue."
Weaver is featured in a sixty-second radio ad airing statewide on the issue, in which she states:
"I'm tired of their lies about Measure 10, and I'm tired of politicians spending my tax dollars for lobbying and political campaigns. As an NRA member, I resent every county in South Dakota sending our tax dollars to Washington to lobby Congress for federal gun control. City officials too. They also used our tax dollars to lobby for more government power to condemn our homes and businesses -- even our churches -- to make way for commercial developments that'll pay more tax dollars. And since 2004, city and county officials' lobbying groups have spent our tax dollars on ballot campaigns for higher sales taxes, higher phone taxes, and higher alcohol taxes. Now they're spending our tax dollars on their Big Lie campaign against Measure 10. Because they want to keep spending our tax dollars for lobbying and political campaigns. Help stop tax dollars for lobbying and campaigns. Please vote yes on Measure 10."
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Statement by South Dakota
Gun Owners Association
News release: October 31, 2008
Contact: Zach Lautenschlager, Communications Director
comdir@sdgo.org 605-221-5766
SOUTH DAKOTA GUN OWNERS ENDORSES INITIATED MEASURE 10
Tax dollars should not be used to lobby against the Second Amendment, group says.
RAPID CITY, S.D. -- South Dakota Gun Owners endorsed Initiated Measure 10 on Friday, stating that tax dollars should not be used to lobby against the Second Amendment.
Initiated Measure 10 is a statewide ballot proposal to prohibit elected officials from using tax dollars for lobbying or political campaigns. The official ballot description of Measure 10 authored by the Secretary of State reads as follows: “An initiative to prohibit tax revenues from being used for lobbying or campaigning, to prohibit governmental bodies from lobbying, to prohibit government contractors from making campaign contributions, to prohibit government contracts when the contractor employs a legislator or legislative staff member, and to require contracts with government contractors to be published.”
Zach Lautenschlager, Communications Director of the 3,500-member statewide South Dakota Gun Owners group, said its members resent city and county officials' use of tax dollars to fund organizations that push Congress for more restrictive federal gun laws.
Lautenschlager said the group was also alarmed last week to learn that officials of the National Education Association (NEA) have contributed $1.1 million to the campaign against Initiated Measure 10.
“NEA officials have a long history of aggressive opposition to Second Amendment freedoms,” Lautenschlager said.
“We're urging our members and all South Dakotans to vote yes on Measure 10 to stop politicians from funneling our tax dollars to anti-Second Amendment lobbyists in Washington,” Lautenschlager said. “The fact that multiple tax-funded national anti-gun rights lobbies are working to defeat Measure 10 is a red flag that should get the attention of all gun owners.”
“It simply is not right for South Dakota politicians to use our tax dollars to directly fund national organizations that lobby Congress for unconstitutional gun control,” Lautenschlager said. “If passed, Measure 10 will finally stop that outrageous injustice and violation of our rights as taxpayers.”
The following information details the flow of city and county tax dollars to anti-Second Amendment lobbyists, and public school and state university officials' use of tax dollars to fund the anti-Second Amendment NEA.
National Association of Counties
Every county in South Dakota is a member of the National Association of Counties (NACo), using county tax dollars to pay its annual membership dues.
NACo's American County Platform and Resolutions 08-09 states that they support “Lock-Up-Your-Safety” laws, which make it a crime to keep a firearm ready for self-defense in a person’s home. They also support the outdated waiting period on purchasing a handgun.
National League of Cities
Hundreds of cities in the state are dues-paying members of the South Dakota Municipal League, using city tax dollars to pay their annual membership dues. The Municipal League is in turn a member of the National League of Cities (NLC), using its tax-funded revenues to pay its annual dues.
The cities of Brookings, Ft. Pierre, Rapid City, and Watertown are also dues-paying members of the NLC, using city residents' tax dollars to pay their annual membership dues.
NLC's Resolution 2008-49 states: “The National League of Cities calls upon the United States Congress and Administration to assist municipalities across the nation in combating crime by taking the following actions: reinstate the ban on semi-automatic…weapon sales to civilians.”
South Dakota Gun Owners joins the National Rifle Association in opposing such a ban on semi-automatic firearms. The NRA has stated: “In America, the burden of proof is not upon those who wish to exercise rights, it is upon those who wish to restrict rights, and there is no evidence that an 'assault weapon' ban reduces crime. An irrational bias against guns, mixed with an assumed sense of intellectual, social or cultural superiority to gun owners, may seem to gun control supporters like sufficient grounds to ban firearms, but such notions are insufficient in a democracy.”
National Education Association
Local school districts in the state, and the University of South Dakota Board of Regents,* use local and state tax dollars to withhold NEA-SDEA union dues from educators' paychecks, then transfer the dues to union officials.
The NEA's Resolution I-31 (2007) states: “The Association further believes that strict prescriptive regulations are necessary for the manufacture, importation, distribution, sale and resale of handguns and ammunition magazines. The possession by the private sector of automatic weapons and military-style semiautomatic assault weapons should be illegal, except for historical and collection purposes, which must be strictly regulated. A mandatory background check and a mandatory waiting period should occur prior to the sale of all firearms.”
The South Dakota Board of Regents administers the following state universities:
The Board of Regents has a collective bargaining contract with the "Council of Higher Education," which according to the U.S. Department of Labor is an affiliate of the National Education Association, covering 1,150 university employees. http://www.dol.gov/esa/olms/regs/compliance/cba/Cbau_sasz.htm
The publication Inside Higher Ed identifies the Council of Higher Education as "the National Education Association union for professors at public colleges in the state." http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/news/2006/02/09/dakota
From page 91 of that contract:
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XXIV. DUES DEDUCTION
24.1 STATEMENT
During the term of this agreement, the Board agrees to deduct COHE membership dues, in an
amount established by COHE and communicated in writing to the Board by an authorized
official of COHE, from the pay of those faculty unit members in the bargaining unit who
individually and voluntarily make such request on the dues deduction authorization form as
depicted in Appendix H of this agreement.
amount established by COHE and communicated in writing to the Board by an authorized
official of COHE, from the pay of those faculty unit members in the bargaining unit who
individually and voluntarily make such request on the dues deduction authorization form as
depicted in Appendix H of this agreement.
...The dues deducted will be remitted by the institution to the local COHE treasurer as soon as
possible, but not later than fifteen (15) working days following the end of each pay period.
Accompanying each remittance will be a list of the faculty unit members from whose salaries
such deductions were made, and the amounts deducted.
possible, but not later than fifteen (15) working days following the end of each pay period.
Accompanying each remittance will be a list of the faculty unit members from whose salaries
such deductions were made, and the amounts deducted.
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