PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS (Senate - March 22, 1993)


[Page: S3362]

POM-50. A joint resolution adopted by the legislature of the State of South Dakota relative; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

`Senate Joint Resolution 3

`Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of South Dakota, the House of Representatives concurring therein:

`Whereas, state revenue growth has diminished dramatically, forcing budget reductions and tax increases in order to maintain federal services and programs; and

`Whereas, rising costs and declining fiscal conditions of the states have resulted in financial difficulty for the states in financing federal programs; and

`Whereas, immediate measures must be taken to ensure that the states will be given adequate funding and flexibility to carry out the federal programs that are turned over to them; and

`Whereas, under Article V of the Constitution of the United States, amendments to the federal constitution may be proposed by the Congress whenever two-thirds of both houses deem it necessary or on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states that the Congress shall call a constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing amendments which shall be valid to all intents and purposes when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states;

`Now, Therefore Be It Resolved, by the Senate of the Sixty-eighth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that the Legislature does hereby make application to the Congress of the United States to call a limited constitutional convention pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States for the specific and exclusive purpose of proposing an amendment to the federal constitution prohibiting the federal government from reducing the federally financed proportion of the necessary costs of any existing activity or service required of the states by federal law, or from requiring a new activity or service, or an increase in the level of an activity or service beyond that required of the states by existing federal law, unless the federal government pays for any necessary increased costs;

`Be It Further Resolved, that this application and request be deemed null and void, rescinded, and of no effect in the event that such convention not be limited to such specific and exclusive purpose;

`Be It Further Resolved, that copies of this Joint Resolution be sent by the Secretary of State to each member of the South Dakota Congressional Delegation; and

`Be It Further Resolved, that the Secretary of State is directed to send copies of this Joint Resolution to the presiding officers of both Houses of the Legislature of each of the other states in the Union, the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, and the Secretary of the United States Senate.'

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