When Gov. Mike Rounds vowed to find funding - public or private - to support his laptop in schools initiative, it sounded like a good idea.

But when that source turned out to be a state fund that had previously been declared empty, it made more than just the lawmakers - who had rejected Rounds' request for funding during the past legislative session - raise an eyebrow or two.

In January, Department of Education officials told the Joint Appropriations Committee that the Citibank fund held a $1.2 million balance. But all of that balance was obligated to continue the first and second year of the laptop program.

Now, Rounds is saying that the state lately has been using general fund money to pay for the initial obligations, leaving $770,000 to be dedicated to the continuation of the program.

The problem we have with this sudden development is two-fold.

First of all, the whole situation feels a bit too much like a game of three card monte as money is shifted from one shell to another. It isn't that we aren't necessarily supporters of the laptop program, it's just that when the legislature said we were in too tight budget environment to fund the program, we believed them.

And now, suddenly, the money is there.

Just as problematic, however, is the fact that governor is able to use funding for a program when lawmakers rejected funding its continuation. By doing so, Rounds is at best playing the role of mind reader to the intentions of lawmakers when they said they wouldn't fund the program. As he sees it, lawmakers were simply saying that it wasn't that laptops weren't a priority, it was just that there wasn't enough money going around.

At worst, Rounds is flat out defying the Legislature's intentions, which simply put, would be wrong.

When the people who show up to the polls to cast their votes, they aren't simply verifying their belief in an individual candidate. They are also showing their faith in a system.

And in that system, there are checks and balances. It appears that Rounds is dismissing the lawmakers' decision on funding the laptops, which would be altering that system, thus nullifying the will of the voters.

And that's something we could never support.

Regardless, we ask that Rounds better explain the move to not only lawmakers, but to all South Dakotans.