# Where I Stand on Government Accountability _Eight years ago a family court case brought my son to Rapid City. I followed him here, and I spent more hours than I can count in rooms where government made enormous decisions about my family._ By Zac Martin. Published 2026-06-13. Canonical URL: https://zac4sd.com/blog/government-accountability Platform pillar: O. Government Structure and Accountability Eight years ago a family court case brought my son to Rapid City. I followed him here, and I spent more hours than I can count in rooms where government made enormous decisions about my family. I learned a lesson in those rooms that I have never been able to unlearn. Government behaves differently when nobody is watching. That is why my signature family court fight includes holding family-court judges accountable. And it is why my platform has a pillar most candidates skip, because there is no ribbon to cut and no check to hand out. Government structure and accountability. The plumbing. The part of the house you never think about until it backs up into your kitchen. Here is where it already touches your kitchen table. When your school district opts out of the property tax limits, that decision lands on your tax bill. So does capital outlay spending. The numbers are technically public, scattered across agendas, minutes, and budget documents. You can find them if you know where to dig and you have a free Saturday. Most working families in downtown and North Rapid do not. I hold a Juris Doctor, and it still takes me real effort. That is not an accident. That is a design flaw, and I intend to fix it. My principle for this whole pillar fits in one sentence. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the cheapest. Transparency does not need a new agency or a bigger budget. It needs teeth. ## What I will fight for Five commitments, in plain words. **Strengthen open-meetings and public-records enforcement.** South Dakota already has transparency laws on the books. A law without enforcement is a suggestion. When a meeting that should be open happens behind closed doors, or a records request gets stonewalled, there have to be real consequences. **Real lobbying disclosure across the legislature and the executive.** If someone is paid to influence the laws you live under, you get to know who paid and for what. Both branches, because plenty of influence gets worked on the executive side too. **Public reporting on school opt-outs and capital outlay.** Plain numbers, put where taxpayers can actually see them. This is not a ban on opt-outs. Local boards answer to local voters. But voters cannot hold anyone accountable for numbers they never see. **Remove the Lt. Governor from presiding over the Senate.** The Lt. Governor is an executive-branch officer. The Senate is the people's chamber, the branch that is supposed to check the governor. The chamber that writes our laws should choose who holds its own gavel. **Reform the initiated-measure process against out-of-state donor capture.** The initiative belongs to South Dakotans. It should not be a test market for whoever writes the biggest check from somewhere else. ## The honest objections These come up at doors all over District 32, and they deserve straight answers, not talking points. ### "We already have these laws." We do. And if every public body followed them, stronger enforcement would cost nothing and change nothing. So ask yourself why the idea gets pushback. Better yet, ask a neighbor who has filed a records request and waited, and waited, whether the law as written is the same as the law as lived. Enforcement is the difference between a right and a brochure. ### "More reporting just means more bureaucracy for schools and small towns." Reporting a decision is the cheap part. The district already voted the opt-out. The capital outlay numbers already sit in the budget. Putting them in front of the public is a printer, not a program. What is expensive is what grows in the dark: rumor, distrust, litigation, and the occasional genuine scandal. Sunlight costs less than any of them. ### "Nobody in District 32 cares who presides over the Senate." Fair. Nobody thinks about the foundation until the house cracks. Separation of powers is the foundation. When the executive branch holds the gavel in the legislature, the branch built to check the governor answers to the governor's office. You may never notice that arrangement on a normal day. You would notice it the day you needed the legislature to stand up to the executive and it did not. I have lived what it feels like when the structure of government fails a family. I am not willing to shrug at it. ### "You just want to make it harder for voters to pass ballot measures." The opposite. The ballot measure is only worth something if it belongs to the people of South Dakota. When out-of-state donors can capture the process, your signature and your vote become props in someone else's campaign. Protecting the initiative from capture is not distrust of voters. It is loyalty to them. ### "Lobbying disclosure will be used to harass ordinary citizens." An ordinary citizen who drives to Pierre on her own dime to testify about her property taxes is not a lobbyist, and nothing I support treats her like one. Disclosure is for paid influence. The citizen speaking for free is exactly who disclosure protects, because she is the one who gets drowned out when paid influence works unseen. ## The ask I am a dad, a businessman, and a community advocate. For two legislative sessions I went to Pierre and fought to pass legislation as a citizen, from the outside. The outside is where you learn how much of that building runs on relationships you cannot see. I want District 32, downtown and North Rapid, to be able to see its own government plainly. That should not be a radical idea. On November 3, 2026, you choose two names for the House from District 32. If you want one of them to belong to someone who thinks you are owed the receipts, read the full platform at **zac4sd.com**. --- Paid for by Zac Martin for South Dakota.