Entries Tagged 'Developers' ↓

That is the best description I can give to the lastest from Sioux Falls city hall. I helped break this story, I first pressured Stormland TV news to do a story about it and they did their usual 5 minutes of digging. I want to applaud Ellis for taking a few months on this story to get it right;

Almost a year into the deal, developers had paid $301,000 in fees through November, or only 5 percent of what officials estimated they would pay into the arterial streets program this year. Through November, taxpayers had contributed $2.5 million to the program.

Oh, but it gets better;

What happened? Bad timing played a part. On Sept. 15, 2008, the same day the council voted on the tax and fee increases, Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, sending the nation’s financial system barreling off a cliff. Banks clamped down on lending, and development screeched to a halt.

Ironically, Lehman’s bankruptcy was brought up the night of the vote by a citizen, but apparently the 4 councilors and mayor that voted for the tax increase were too busy watching TV to listen (councilor Quen Be De Knudson, who consistently brags about how hard she works was busted watching the Olympics during public testimony).

“The developers,” City Finance Director Eugene Rowenhorst said, “are not doing that much nowadays.”

Thanks for the observation, short-timer.

But officials say there are other reasons for the big drop-off in development fees. Builders rushed to get land platted or replatted ahead of Jan. 1, 2009, when the new fees kicked in.

Imagine that, they promoted the new plan, then gamed the system. Maybe I should have bought all of my groceries for 2009 on December 31, 2008. Golly, I feel really stupid now.

But behind the scenes, some builders were upset with the city. Sioux Falls, they argued, was not moving fast enough to upgrade roads and utilities in areas primed for development. The lack of basic infrastructure was slowing growth.

Then pony up. If the city isn’t building a new road to your new development, build it yourself, or STFU. It’s not the ‘City’s money’ that builds new roads, it’s ‘My money’ that builds new roads.

Throughout much of 2007 and part of 2008, a group of developers met regularly with city officials to hash out a plan that would allow the city to spend more money on arterial roads and basic infrastructure.

This is news to me, but no surprise. As usual, joe-six-pack doesn’t have a say in the matter.

The first attempt at raising the sales tax failed in May 2008 on a 5-3 vote. Undeterred, city officials brought the package back a few months later. This time the council split 4-4, allowing Munson to cast the deciding vote.

Munson just couldn’t let it die, he just had to have that extra .08%. I betcha he lost sleep over the fact that he wasn’t charging the citizens of this city the maximum amount he could.

Munson said he would do it again. The tax increase and platting fees are in place and will begin generating more revenue when the economy picks up.

“You make decisions with the best information you have,” he said. “You don’t look at that vote of raising the second penny as immediate. It really was presented as a long-term solution.”

Where’s my f’ing shovel? The information you had was this; Major financial institutions were failing, development was down, the economy was down. This had nothing to do with roads, this had to do with your GREED!

Scott Ehrisman, a Sioux Falls resident who opposed the tax increase, said he’s not surprised the deal hasn’t worked as advertised. The city put up a Web site promoting the idea that taxpayers and developers would work together to pay for growth. Ehrisman calls that a ruse by city officials who wanted to raise taxes to their maximum.

Ehrisman notes that the city tried to raise the same tax in 2005 to pay for a recreation center, but the voters said no. This time, the voters didn’t have a say.

“I don’t believe the tax increase had anything to do with arterial roads,” he said. “They were planning on building those arterial roads with or without that tax increase.”

Ehrisman said the .08 percent increase should be rescinded until the development community has recovered enough to begin paying what the city promised it would pay.

“Developers have a choice,” he said. “They don’t have to build. They don’t have to pay the fees. But we have to pay the taxes.”

I also told Ellis that I believe someone ‘lied’ along the way. Don’t know who, but this was a freaking boondoggle from the beginning.

“I believe eventually we’ll get back to those historical growth rates that we had estimated to make this 60-40 split work,” Munson said.

Yeah, Dave, and Vernon Brown will be mayor, and the Unicorn Rainbow park will be built, the calendar will turn back to 1955 and monkeys will fly out of my ass. Do you really think people believe your bullshit? I know you are a self processed tea-toddler but I’m starting to wonder.

Long term, when the industry recovers, the split between taxpayers and developers will even out, predicts Chuck Point, a vice president with Ronning Cos.

“The market goes up and down,” he said. “The estimates of what the city might pay and what the developers might pay were just that – estimates. They were brought forth by the city, not the developers.”

Yeah, Chuck, because everything the developers have presented so far has been rock solid . . . . and BTW, if these were just ‘estimates’ can I tell a store clerk the next time I buy something, “I know I owe you an extra 8 cents, but I don’t have it, so let’s consider this close enough, because, yah know, this tax increase was just based on ‘estimates’.”

Some developers have tried to avoid the fees by claiming their changes are “minor plats,” which are not subject to the new fees.

“We’re trying to redefine our definition more clearly of what is a minor plat,” Huwe said. “Now, everybody comes in and says, ‘Here’s my minor plat.’ And we say, ‘No, it’s not.’ “

You tell em’ Huwe. “Because, like, we have to start cracking down on you fellas since this story is in the newspaper and all.”

The Gargoyle Leader’s editorial board never ceases to astonish me. Today they wrote an editorial reminding citizens who should set policy in Sioux Falls;

More importantly, though, city leaders – not local developers – need to be driving policy decisions on whether to adjust the hookup fees.

No shit sherlock. This editorial should have been written seven years ago. Citizens elect the council and mayor to vote for their best interests, but it seems this current council and mayor do the bidding of the big developers, time and time again.

Just another boondoggle in the making.

I noticed that Item #25 of the city council meeting was a resolution approving the arterial street development schedule for 2010.

This sign has been sitting along Phillips to the Falls for quite awhile. While advertising property for lease is perfectly legal I question whether these developers and realtors can advertise property THEY DO NOT OWN. I’m sure they worked out some deal with the city (The city owns the property), but I still think it is bologna that they can advertise land THAT WE AS TAXPAYERS OWN. Wanna lease the property? Then buy it already and put it on the taxrolls. It would be like me running a classified in the paper for a car I have for sale, but I don’t own it. Then once I find a buyer, I go buy the car and resell it. Since when are taxpayer’s a bank? It seems in this town that’s how it works.

Wanbli WiWohkpe (James Starkey) has been making a series of videos. This is one of them. James makes and plays his own traditional flutes often out of found objects.

Commentary;

Wanbli WiWohkpe grew up on the streets of Rapid City, an illegal squatter town built in the Sacred Homeland of the Lakota Nation.
Growing up amidst what was commonly called “The Feud”, Wanbli WiWohkpe was caught between two worlds: the wasicu world of academia, where he excelled and blossomed, and the world of the reality around him, where he was looked down upon for who he and his Family were.
Wanbli WiWohkpe saw the utter disrespect afforded the Indigenous Male. He was told constantly in school to eschew his kin, and to grab hold of the American Dream.
Through a series of events, Wanbli WiWohkpe chose instead to follow his older brother, Warren Rich, and the two became very close, almost as if they melded into one person. He learned to be strong, to be swift, and to be loyal.
The Youths ultimately became entangled in the system of incarceration perpetuated by the Invader/Occupier. The Youths grew into Men, and the violence continued and escalated. Knowing something was amiss and unable to articulate what, these Men learned to lash out upon others of their kind. A tragic spiral of lateral violence continued unabated until they were all again incarcerated by the illegal squatter government.
Wanbli WiWohkpe went to prison for 1st Degree Manslaughter in 1986.
In the subsequent years, Wanbli WiWohkpe has seen those closest to him as a Youth perish. Most escaped their oppression via suicide. None lashed out at the Invader/Occupier in the terrible ways other oppressed Nations do. None went amongst the Invader and exploded. None took the Occupier with them to their death.
Instead, being from a beautiful People not familiar with domestication, a People not wishing to inflict damage upon their tormenters; not wishing anything from their tormenters but for the torment to cease, they imploded.
They imploded and they continue to implode. The Invasion/Occupation continues unchecked, and the Lakota Nation, especially the Lakota Male, remains pauperized.
Our Lives were stolen by the Occupier. Every thing the Invader has is stolen.
Every bite of food, every warm bed, every happy home, every scrap of power, every nuance of anything enjoyed by the Invader is taken directly from the Health of the Indigenous. The Invader’s prosperity is taken directly from the Hearth and Home of the Lakota Nation. A Hearth and Home now non-existent as the Lakota People wander their own Homeland as homeless.
As the fortunate give thanks for the blessings of God and their American Dream, the Lakota Nation, the less fortunate, continue to simply exist as pesky and useless vermin in the Occupier’s world.
Through Lakol Wicohan, the Friendly Lifeways of the Lakota Nation, Wanbli WiWohkpe began to see. He began to understand the difference between his Nation and the Occupier. He committed himself to Sundance and Vision Quest, and now after completing 4 years of Sundancing and a 4 day Vision Quest, Wanbli WiWohkpe has made a true Relative with the Siyotanka, the Ancient Lakota Flute.
Wanbli WiWohkpe believes the Siyotanka is part of Lakota Man Power, a component of our Being that has been kept from us. To label the Siyotanka as a “courting flute” and to play it as feebly as “Native American Flute” players do, keeps us emasculated as Indigenous Males.
Look around, most “Native American Flute” makers/players are not Indigenous, and those famed Indigenous flute players often play a non-Indigenously made flute.
The Invader/Occupier is literally chopping off a part of us, emasculating us; thereby rendering us impotent. Wanbli WiWohkpe has learned directly from the Winged and Four Legged just how to play the Siyotanka, how to regain Lakota Masculinity, and how to Heal.
OyateUnderground Productions: World Class Representin’.

Wanbli WiWohkpe, he emaciapelo

Now that the vote is over.

As the Argus Leader points out, Mr. Lloyd is developing in the area where some new roads will be built, the same guy who contributed to Jamison’s, Litz’s and Brown’s campaigns this year. Even throwing a fundraiser for Brown at his house.

To the north, on Benson Road, the city plans a $2.8 million arterial from Interstate 29 to Career Avenue. Eventually, it will extend west past Marion Road.Craig Lloyd, who has developed office and commercial buildings on the south side of Benson Road, says there are 3,000 to 4,000 people already employed in the area. Another call center is going in next year, and the two-lane road can’t handle the traffic.

He also believes that growth reduces property taxes. Property taxes NEVER go down, they only rise, and continue to rise in Sioux Falls, one more reason why people are buying houses in Tea, Harrisburg and Baltic instead of Sioux Falls.

Developers and members of the city’s building community spent more than a year putting the package together and getting it through the political process. Lloyd, who marshaled about two-dozen supporters for last week’s council meeting, said it would be a mistake to assume that developers and builders supported the increases out of self-interest.

New roads will open more areas to development, Lloyd said. But that growth helps lower the property tax burden for all residents. Without growth, Lloyd said, the burden will increase for residents.

Then he goes on to say how he deserves to be heard. Yet he never approached the podium even once during Monday night’s meeting. But he got former city planner Steve Metli to go up and vouch for him. 

Lloyd said he’s tired of the implication that he and other supporters of the package were up against “the citizens of Sioux Falls.” “Last time I checked, I’m a citizen,” he said. “I pay taxes. I support the community. Am I a second-rate citizen?”

No, you are not – but we are.

According to 2008 campaign financial statements combined of Litz, Jamison, Brown and Anderson the following special interest contribution amounts were made to the four candidates (siouxfalls.org):

Individual  Developer Contributions: $7,500

Housing PAC contributions: $5,750

Realtor PAC contributions: $1,500

Attorney PAC contributions: $400

Telecommunication PAC contributions: $250

Individual contractor/building supplier contributions: $900

Litz got the biggest cut of the money at  $6,100 and Anderson got the least at $500. With Jamison in at 2^nd and Brown in at 3^rd place.

My family and I think this is what our city leaders have in mind in NEEDING to raise the sales tax in Sioux Falls so please vote for the tax raise as we (Uncle Rusty and Grumps don’t agree but will not speak up at city hall because they think the coffee and cookies are poisoned by Vernal Brownie – what a pair of paranoids they are) think these Clayface Jamison (not related to current council member Bob Jamison, Jr. so no ethics whinyness needed here, SodaPopsickle) and Bob Gnats developers need better artery streets on their new development projects to ensure financial gains as the article below states.

More pointless development – YEAH!

Grampa Grumps Gumption used to work at this rural-urban center business (see photo of him outside selling merchandise in a high-spirited manner to city-slickers), and it is still “booming” thanks to the steady sales tax that the city of Sioux Falls has collected from loyal citizens for thousands of years to help beautiful Sioux Falls rural-urban centers prosper like this one. Most of my family are looking forward to living in and shopping at the new visionary Jamison & Gnats rural-urban center, and we owe it to them by paying higher taxes for their projects/profits because our council members represent us and vote for what’s best for us. THAT is why we sleep well for most of the night…

Sincerely,

EggBert Tib. Fr. Ich. Go.

I ASKED FOR AN OPINION! I DID NOT FILE A COMPLAINT.

“It’s a little disheartening. I ran for public office to try and help Sioux Falls and move Sioux Falls forward and do a good thing and this kind of shines a dim light on the work we’re up to.  And it’s a little set back, it’s a little annoying when you see the headlines that are out there because a lot of people don’t read past the headlines but I’m not shakened by this. I’m still confident I’m doing the right thing and that Sioux Falls has a great group of people on the city council and the future is very bright.” – Jamison

It seems some councilors think they are guilty of something, not the case at all, I wanted a clear opinion – that’s it. If Greg wants to blame someone blame himself. I gave him and Bob an opportunity to resolve this internally, instead they pleaded to the media they weren’t guilty of anything.

I did not go to the proceedings today, because I stated my case clearly on the opinion form. This is about the law, and defining it, plain and simple.

Call me crazy, but I expect integrity out of our elected officials. That’s it. I don’t want to have cookies with you, I don’t want to hang out with you, I just want you to do the right thing.