Our mayor decided to drop the mic today and deliver his last state of the city. He couldn’t resist to tell us about his NEW BFF, councilor Erickson (Yes, Thank You Christine for paving the way for Diamond Jim as mayor 🙁

There were 40 slides in his manifesto, carefully tearing headlines from America’s top ratings firms that no one has heard of until we made their lists (Full DOC: state-of-city-2017).

Yes, I sat through it, holding back my bile.

What was ironic about the presentation was that Mike was going to fix all the things he essentially broke. And the best part, he needs your help to fix those things.

Let’s start with his obsession with annexation islands;

Unlike the finely trimmed grey beard of Kenny, Mr. Huether created this problem by extending the borders of Sioux Falls so his fine developer friends could get in on all the yummy infrastructure upgrades. You might say MMM is the Andy Gibb of annexation islands.

Oh, but the fun doesn’t stop, he wants to raise fees on all us working stiffs to pay for all the play palaces he built on our credit card.

If you ain’t poor now, you are gonna be.

Speaking of dying poor peeps, we all have to have priorities in this dying economy.

Yeah, after your older brother broke your piggy bank and took all your savings, you just need to buck up!

Which leaves us to what ultimately will happen;

He forgot to mention that a low-wage community doesn’t spend a lot of money.

BOOMTOWN!

And this guy wants to run for higher office?! LMFAO!

10 Thoughts on “State of the City • 2017

  1. We’ve been led by the Pied Piper who is getting ready to exit stage left or is it right?

    One third of the state’s population lives in the Sioux Falls area. The highest paid population lives in the Sioux Falls area. Sioux Falls used to have homegrown business base creating economic activity generating up to seven revenue turns. In other words, one dollar would recirculate seven times before it would leave the community. So $1 could be $7 before it was used up. We may have $150 million in lost economic growth with associated tax revenue to go with.

    What do we do in our BOOMTOWN to generate dollar growth? Nothing, zip, zap, poof and it’s all gone. Where has the money gone? Why is this heading to busted? We have the plans of our Pied Piper mayor to study to help us understand why his empire may be crumbling around us.

    We must not forget a great deal of the growth and loss we are experiencing coincides with this mayor taking office. We have built leisure palaces like the Events Center where every dollar generated NEVER sees the Sioux Falls economy. We built a pleasure palace to take money out of the town where it does nothing for us or will ever come back. We have toys when we should have been tools with the knowledge to use them.

    In the olden days, I studied a group of college courses called economics. Something our econ major mayor must have slept through.

    Sioux Falls used to be held out there as a model for how to build a solid economy. Sioux Falls was a regional center with strong banking to lend money for manufacturing, agriculture and a basic service industry to support the same. Our Pied Piper mayor has built his working career around get rich quick schemes, making short term fast dollars for his former employers. You know them, they are all around us. Each of these employers did not retain him for some reason. What music did they hear? Did they get tired of his tune?

    We will be paying for the schemes for along time. We now need to start find a way to fix the disasters caused by them. Get rich quick schemes are like a 7 year itch, either get in there and fix the cause or divorce the bastard who broke the bank.

    We must learn once again the lesson of the Pied Piper. He worked to lull you to music not your own, seduced you to follow a path not your own, and if you followed the music, it ultimately drives you to exhaustion and a crippled soul (or town).

  2. Fluff McFluffin on March 29, 2017 at 2:46 am said:

    When I moved here from Sioux City in 2003 I was amazed at how well run and maintained this city was. Compared to there the roads were like gliding on pixie dust. The management of things seemed very well done, fiscal responsibility was a high priority. There were some improvement projects that followed, but overall they were small and carefully examined. Now look at the mess this city is in. If there ever has been an example of what a Democrat can do in 8 years, this is it.

  3. The D@ily Spin on March 29, 2017 at 11:58 am said:

    TV news gave little time for the Huether sermon. A track coach dying was more important. There’s no mention of crime and debt burden but he did state how much sales tax revenue has slowed. I’m keeping myself minimal. Probably the only thing that affects me is water and sewer fees. I intentionally buy very little in Sioux Falls. The 6.5% sales tax is why others have resorted to the internet for other than groceries. I try to stop in Brandon or Hartford for gas. It’s cheaper and the tax goes to towns with democracy. Raising transit fares could be a disaster. If fast food employees can’t afford to get to work, there’ll be fewer burger places and less tax from sales.
    What amazes me is how Huether refuses to believe this is a deep hole he’ll be leaving the city with. Yet, he stays cheerful. This is the cheerleader who smiled and did the dance for the high school with the worst season.

  4. Old Slew Foot on March 29, 2017 at 3:40 pm said:

    I live on the big island of unSioux Falls out east. This whole expansion in all directions has been going on long before MMM. But I will say it has kept going at a pace I could not believe having lived out here for over 30 years.

    We receive letters in 2001 about what the Eastside Sanitation System would cost each of us when we were annexed. Back then eveyone would have probably gladly hooked up to city utilities and received city fire and police protection. Not 15 years later after they literally went all around us. I benefit about as much as the people in Brandon and Tea areas from city “services”. I will continue to support our township fire house and call the Sheriff with any issues.

    Just think of the tax base addition for the city in our big island. Lowest priced homes around $250,000, up to around $800,000. Business industry park to tax. Another city planning screw up.

    When you have literally 600 acres surrounded by city, it is not going to be an easy plan to come up with and keep residents happy. Plus the upshoot in taxes and annexation costs for residents, especially our older/retired ones, will be more burdensome than it would have been years ago.

  5. anonymous on March 29, 2017 at 6:49 pm said:

    State of the City

    Several years ago, taxpayers invested 13m to rehab the Downtown Library.

    Today, I stopped by there around 3 pm and I could hardly wade through all the characters hanging out in the area of the parking lot…many of them sitting on the window ledges, near the library sign, and on the benches by the main door.

    I know they have a right to be there, but, quite honestly, I was afraid to get out of my vehicle!

  6. Warren Phear on March 29, 2017 at 6:59 pm said:

    Did Bruce record this? When I go to your link, it tells me what it does every time I go to Sire.

    “The video file for this meeting does not exist for this browser”

    How much does the city pay for Sire? Near as I can tell, it is completely useless.

  7. Just to let all know, I have been involved in a large project not allowing me to attend many of the mayor’s upchuck sessions lately. There are videos ready to render so check back in a few days for more.

    BTW, if anyone wants to help record videos we’ll help you get started. With all the new candidates announcing, L3wis and I can’t be everywhere.

    We’d like to expand to more and different types of events. Thanks for your support Warren. It’s fun to be in a line somewhere and here others talking about your work. The SouthDacola readers and viewers are making a difference in our little town on the edge.

  8. Fellow Citizen on March 30, 2017 at 7:07 am said:

    Scott is so right about the 62 islands. Many have been created by city land grabs with roads, and water, and sewer, and storm drainage, and electrical power, to where? To nowhere. Islands surrounded by the city? What city? Most island residents see empty city lots that have been open to development for decades. Yet, the city has spent $8,840,000.00 to get sewer lines to the ghost annexed island known as Foundation Park. The city will spend an additional $28,890,000.00 in the next couple years to finish the sewer project for foundation park. The city has spent another tens of millions of dollars to get storm drainage, water, and an electrical substation to foundation park? Who is paying for that? The occupants? What occupants? The future occupants? Don’t think so. Infrastructure is a freebie the city will throw in if the companies bring their $13 an hour jobs here.

    Now, because the city has overreached in imperialistic land grabs, the city wants island property owners to fork over between 40k and 100k to install utilities the city is willing to give away to prospective companies who might want to call foundation or any of the other nearly empty development parks home.

    These island dwellers are also being accused of taking advantage of city services. Specifically, what city services? Sewer? Not when you have septic? Electric? Not existing electrical supplied by someone other than the city. Fire protection? Not when handled by the township? Road repair? Not when taken care of by the homeowners associations. Police protection? Sheriffs depart does a great job with tax payer dollars. Same with snow removal from the township. So I ask again. What city services do islanders take advantage of?

  9. Old Slew Foot on March 30, 2017 at 9:23 am said:

    Found this document.

    http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3527132-2040-Comprehensive-Plan.html#document/p17/a345918

    On page 36, it appears the city has given up on developing the island i wrote about above. Split Rock Township.

  10. Teatime on March 30, 2017 at 8:12 pm said:

    Old slew foot: Just curious, why didn’t your “island” go for annexation in 2001 when it was cheaper?

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