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afternoon. He said the measure was not about taxes but was an attack on the state's initiative process that lets the majority decide ballot issues.
• "It's against our heritage and who we are in South Dakota," Bolin said.
• A two-thirds vote is already required in the Legislature to pass a new tax or increase the rate of an existing tax, but ballot measures imposing or increasing a tax can be passed with only a simple majority in a statewide vote. The one exception is for bond issues, which require more than 60 percent of voter support because bonds can't be retracted, Bolin said.
• The proposed amendment would require a two-thirds vote on any ballot issue that creates or increases a tax. It also would clarify that if a tax is expiring, a two-thirds vote would be needed to extend it.
• "It'd be real easy to vote for this one because we have to do the same thing," said Rep. Mike Stevens, R-Yankton.
• But Stevens said there's no issue on which residents agree more than their dislike of taxes, and legislators should trust the people and let them vote on the issues.
• "We don't have to have a law to do this," he said.
• Rep. Anne Hajek, R-Sioux Falls, argued that all the bill does is put the issue on the ballot, and it's time to allow the people to decide on what the standard should be.
• But Rep. Susan Wismer, D-Britton, said separating the two issues is not the way democracy should work, and legislators should not force a future electorate to be subject to minority rule.
•

• ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Four federal agencies and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation have come up with a plan for improving the protection of sites held sacred by American Indians and Alaska Natives.
• The plan announced Tuesday stems from a memorandum of understanding signed in December by the council and the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy and Interior. They all agreed to work together over the next five years to protect sacred sites as well as improve access for tribal members to sites that are on federal land.
• Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the new plan will help guide the agencies, which have a responsibility to respect and foster tribal heritage.
• Salazar also says his department plans to put together a report on several listening sessions on sacred sites that were held last year.

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