The state can’t afford to help with a new events center, they have Canadian oil companies to help first.

Of course the AL cannot resist to spread a little beautiful sunshine before telling us to go vote;

The plan calls for a $115 million center to be built adjacent to the Convention Center. It would seat 12,000 people, and no new or raised taxes would be used to pay for it.

Until the next council and mayor take over, there is nothing stopping them from raising taxes. There is also no mention of the current council shifting enterprise funds out of the 2nd penny to make infrastructure upgrades be rate supported only (why do you think water rates have gone up almost 200%?). Or that the facility will cost almost $200 million when it is all said and done.

More than 1,500 jobs would be created, and 85 percent of local contractors would be used for the project.

A commenter on the AL site had this to say about that half-truth;

According to both the Mayor’s EC update to the Council (see siouxfalls.org September 12th Informational meeting) and the EC public presentation that they gave at the public libraries this week:

1,100 jobs are TEMPORARY construction jobs
184 jobs are PERMANENT jobs (their comment: these will be mostly in the hospitality industry)

This is a total of 1,284 jobs, of which 1,100 are TEMPORARY (an important omission of the facts, esp. when job creation is such an important and timely topic).

AND, I think that this is a good example of why the pros and cons of this project need to continue to be discussed!

(This is a sentence taken directly from this editorial: “It’s time to stop arguing about the pros and cons of an events center and put your ballot where your mouth is.”

And I’m still wondering whose butt they pulled this factoid from;

The estimated economic benefit is $36 million a year.

I have mentioned to councilor Jamison in the past that having Pat Costello sitting on the Governor’s staff as the main dude when it comes to economic development that you would think we would get something from the state? Anything would help. This commenter says it best;

Lastly, the big talking points about why we should build this thing is tax revenue from visitors. Well, doesn’t the state get 2/3rds of all sales taxes collected in this state? I realize they are broke thanks to a decade of mismanagement, but the state stands to gain quite nicely from a new facility, yet they are unwilling to provide ANY type of support, either monetarily or via fiscal policy.

Well they are not broke. They have almost a $800 million sitting in an investment fund, untouched. They also have all kinds of money to throw at foreign oil companies for tax breaks. Yeah, you would think the state would give something? Right?

8 Thoughts on “Argue Endorser; We’ve talked about the EC long enough – just go vote (yes, please)

  1. Poly43 on October 1, 2011 at 7:49 am said:

    And I’m still wondering whose butt they pulled this factoid from;

    The estimated economic benefit is $36 million a year.

    You and me both. Very misleading. First off, I want to know the current economic impact of the arena/convention center site. Then I want to know the difference between that and the pie in the sky numbers for a new one.

    Then I’d like these numbers to reflect the fact that my dollars spent at an “Event” should have ZERO economic impact. Whether I spend $4000 a year in Sioux Falls at “Events”, or movies, or eating out, or drinking out, makes no difference. It’s all part of the dollar amount per year I am willing to spend on entertainment. When I go see Faith Hill at an event, my favorite waitress at Falls Landing aint gonna see me nearly as often that month. The same can be said for the other 241,000 metro residents of this city who will be 90% of “Event” goers.

    So…36 MILLION? LMFAO. Aint no way. That would mean about 4,000 I-Wegians coming in a week for an “Event” and each dropping a couple of C-notes . Pie in the sky and aint gonna happen.

  2. Poly43 on October 1, 2011 at 8:28 am said:

    Talking about private money for an EC in your interview. Scary stuff.

    Are you kidding me. I, I think that is one of the things we’ve done very very poor in our town. We’re we’re so nice, you know, uh, e-e-even when we put names on things we don’t charge enough. We, we need to, we, we need to treat this more like a business. I, I, I believe we do need to treat even government like a business.
    ~Mayor Mike

    You mean a business like First Premier Bank Card? The one YOU, Mike, were marketing director for? The one you pushed on the poor, the old, and too young to read paragragh 97 of your legal mumble jumble? The one that worked like this.

    Credit limit $250
    Program Fee -$95
    Account Setup Fee -$29
    Participation Fee -$6 per month
    Annual Fee -$48 per year

    Total Usable Credit? $72, before first purchase is made.

    Is that how you wanna run an EC Mike? IF this is passed, it will be the death rattle for small time sports in this city. They are already dying a slow death. Parking rates are built into the price of a sporting ticket. Mike will use his First Premier business acumen and run our sports teams outta town with higher ticket prices than Joe SixPack will be willing to pay. And the ball will keep rolling down the hill til increased property taxes will be needed to keep this thing afloat.

  3. I thought Cooper said a while back that the current Arena & CC provide us with $19 million in Economic Impact currently.

    Again, my problem with the Arena site is there’s simply no room for any substantial new development without several million $$ in improvements that no private developer will foot the bill for.

    Ramp? Tunnel under Russell? Skywalk? Buy & tear down old and/or underutilized buildings or houses? Re-design & reconfigure roads & sewers? Any or all of these things will come up down the road, well after the vote = next Council will have to raise more $$ to cover them.

  4. Pathloss on October 1, 2011 at 1:03 pm said:

    “Build it and we will move” to suburb cities where taxes are low but we can still come to town and watch monster trucks at the new EC.

  5. Sy – when are you and your cohorts going to start the ‘NO on EC’ press conferences?

    Remember, you need to have a press conference to announce the press conference of the press conference that you are going to have.

  6. Poly43 on October 2, 2011 at 7:26 am said:

    …my problem with the Arena site is there’s simply no room for any substantial new development without several million $$ in improvements that no private developer will foot the bill for.
    ~Sy

    This thing is going to be piece-mealed to us one project at a time. Lincoln started off with a 16,500 seat EC that cost $181 million. Other upgrades needed for the project nearly doubled the cost. We here in SF will need most of those same upgrades.

  7. L3wis, Build it Downtown is a non-profit, not a campaign committee.

    So as an organization it can’t advocate for the project either way.

  8. But as individuals you can say whatever you want? Right?

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