What do you want to know about your government? A new law that went into effect three weeks ago is aimed at making it easier for South Dakotans to find out where their tax dollars are being spent and what their government officials are doing. But did the new open records law really change anything?

South Dakota lawmakers said they opened the doors of the capitol this year when they passed Senate Bill 147.

"The bill creates a presumption of opennessm which says every record starts life as open and available for inspection and copying and so forth, and then there is a laundry list of records that are to be closed," Republican State Senator Dave Knudson said.

South Dakota is one of the last states in the nation to have a law that says all government records are open unless an exception exempts a piece of information.  Knudson was the prime sponsor of the bill.

"That's what virtually every other state has a similar presumption of openness and I think the new legislation is a real step forward and will open up a lot more information to the public," Knudson said.

But did the law really change anything? KELOLAND News called all 14 state agencies to see if any more information is being given out because of the new law.

Every state agency said nothing more or less has been given out because of the law. The only major request made so far was from the Department of Tourism and State Development for the list of invitees who attended the Governor's Annual Pheasant Hunt, but that request was denied because it's proprietary information.

"There has really been no outpouring of interest on the part of the media or the public since the new law went into effect, just have not noticed it," Governor Mike Rounds' Press Secretary Joe Kafka said.

KELOLAND News has made two formal requests under the new law.

The first request is for the 911 recordings from March 15 when Deputy Chad Mechels was shot and killed by Ethan Johns at a rural Marion farmhouse. The law says records developed during an investigation are not public but it says that exception does not apply to 911 recordings. Despite that exception, the Turner County State's Attorney sent KELOLAND News a letter denying that request.

KELOLAND News also sent a letter to the Department of Labor asking for a list of the 756 workers it placed in jobs this summer because of $3 million in stimulus money the department received. The Department of Labor denied that request as well, saying the list contains private information of the workers.

Even the Governor's office admits nothing has really changed under the new law.

"I'm not aware of anything that would have changed by the law. The same records that were open before are open now. The same records that were closed before really are closed now," Kafka said. 

Knudson says the new law gives state and local officials a more black and white guide as to what is open to the public and what is not.

"I think you are going to see a standardization now under the new law and so particular issues are raised and decided under the procedure established under that law," Knudson said.

Knudson says having a law that requires the government to keep the capitol open is a step in the right direction.

"I don't know if it's surprising that you haven't seen an uptick in particular record requests and you'll see those requests arise as particular issues arise and people say, 'Gee, what does the government know on this issue or what does its records show about that issue?'" Knudson said.

And having access to those records when those issues arise is keeping South Dakota open.

The Governor's office says that 400,000 pages of government information were already open before the law went into effect on the Web site open.sd.gov.