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ments to the constitution that seem like obviously outdated rules? How do we avoid it in future elections? Does it hold our state back?
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• Rapid City Journal. Nov. 16, 2012
• Government websites not user friendly
• If open government was graded on a curve, South Dakota would fail. According to Sunshine Review, a nonprofit group that analyzes state and local governments for their transparency, South Dakota ranks 43rd among the 45 states that it studied.
• For its latest transparency checklist, Sunshine Review looked at government websites and graded them for the content available to the public.
• South Dakota's state website earned a "B-" grade, but most of the websites for the state's largest cities, counties and school districts received "D'' grades or worse.
• "Only two states, Nebraska and West Virginia, achieved a lower transparency rating than South Dakota. The state website as well as many of their city and county websites fall well short of the transparency every taxpayer in South Dakota deserves," said Sunshine Review's President Michael Barnhart.
• Rapid City's website received a "B'' grade, earning good marks for access to budgets; meeting schedules, agendas, minutes and video; contact information for elected officials and administrative heads; information on building permits and zoning; audits; bids; information on property taxes and sales taxes; and lobbying information. The city received bad marks for not posting contracts or providing information on making a public records request.
• Pennington County received a grade of "D-" and was faulted for not archiving budgets and meeting agendas; not providing contact information for elected officials; not posting audits, vendor contracts and lobbying information; and not identifying a public records custodian.
• Rapid City Area Schools also received a "D-" grade and got bad marks for nonworking website links; no archived budgets, audits and contracts; no information on public records requests; no tax information; academic performance not noted; and no information on background checks.
• Despite the state website's passing grade, Sunshine Review noted that it failed to make public information on taxpayer-funded lobbying, budgets and how to request public records.
• In fact, failure to provide information on how to ask for public records is a common problem with state and local government websites in South Dakota. Unfortunately, finding out how to request public records is only half the battle. Too often, government agencies simply refuse to release records that the public has a right to see.

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