The Lakota nation might approve of the name change since the word SIOUX means cutthroat in their language, but I‘m not sure if we want to be named after a hospital. As Egg mentions below in the Gargoyle Leader article, Sanford WANTS to give the city some property which leaves me with a lot more questions then answers. Is this gift Sanford’s version of the Trojan Horse?
Questions that need to be answered first are:
– When did the city council approve accepting the donation? Seems the planning was going on long before public announcement.
– Why would Sanford buy $3 million in land only to give it away a year later? Seems suspicious.
– Why give the land to the city since most of what is going to be built Sanford will pay for and operate themselves? Are they trying to skirt property taxes?
– Why does the city need more football fields? Can Jr. Football use school district fields we already own and maintain?
– Can this project just be privately funded by Sanford without the city being responsible for the property? Seems they are using this as a marketing opportunity while taxpayers will have to kick in some and city will lose property tax revenue.
– How did Lloyd get involved with this project? How will he profit from the city coffers once again?
What concerns me the most about spending this money and losing the property tax revenue is that while our retail tax revenue has doubled since 1998 our city debt has grown from $90 million in 2002 to $280 million today. So ask yourself, if our tax revenue has grown that much wouldn’t our debt be shrinking? Considering that only approximately 30,000 people have moved here since 1998? It’s simple math really. We are spending way too much money on WANTS and getting behind on NEEDS. It’s time to dock this drunken sailor’s ship.
The real question is what will this “donation” really cost tax payers. Doesn’t anyone remember the “free” land Max Pasley donated for baseball fields? That free land cost the city $2 million to build a tunnel to gain access to the land. Not to mention the tax shelter it provided to the owner of worthless land in a flood prone location.
I guess I’m not as upset about building the football fields as I am about Sanford’s trojan horse gift. They are using the city to market themselves, plus, if they have all this money, maybe they should stop charging so much for healthcare.