UPDATE: Looks like they only turned in about 5,000 sigs so it looks like the petition drive failed. I truly think if they would have gotten organized a month before the approval they could have had petitions and volunteers ready to start collecting immediately. I am impressed though that a group of unorganized citizens were able to get that many sigs. Keep the petition data, there is a big petition drive coming on the horizon, and you are going to want to be involved.
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They turned in the sigs today, and like I mentioned before they went on the Chaos route. So we have no idea how many valid sigs they have until they are verified by the city clerk. I also suspect the developer will be requesting a copy of the sigs to peruse. I stayed out of this, like I have told peeps, I hate petition drives but thot this one was needed this is why I quietly contacted people before the vote. I also look at this as a learning experience for different advocacy groups in Sioux Falls that worked together, which they did. Folks, it is not left against right, or poor vs. rich this is taking on a tyrannical government. And any government that votes against the interest and well being of it’s citizens is tyrannical. The Data Center rezone was tyrannical.
Just read this comment from King Maker Matt Paulson on Facebook;
Dude, you are on the wrong side of history on this topic. A data center is a single story office building with a bunch of computers in it on racks. You are turning them into a boogeyman for no good reason. Sure, they use a lot of power. That’s why they want to build one next to an Xcel substation with excess power generation capacity and room to expand. Sioux Falls is quickly becoming an anti-business state… If you don’t want anyone from out of state to invest in projects in South Dakota, keep up with B.S. like trying to overturn zoning approvals after they have gone through both planning commission and city council.
The guy who made all of his money from the Rec MJ bizzo in Canada harvesting email addresses is giving us advice on Data Centers. LOL. Hey Matt, we are calling them the Boogeyman because that is what they are. I also like how he justified the approval because two rubber stamp commissions approved this. Hey Paulson, your authoritarian tendencies are showing.
There is a lot of other issues going on behind the scenes that I really don’t want to get into, but don’t be surprised if they have the valid sigs. Next stop, the courtroom. Petition drives are not easy, but you can’t throw in the towel mid match.
Wednesday, January 28 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM The Painted Lady (HQ)
We’re in the home stretch of the Let Sioux Falls Vote petition campaign and need your help with a critical task: validating petition signatures.
What we’re doing: As petition sheets come in, we need volunteers to verify that signatures match voter registration records. You’ll look up voter information on the Secretary of State’s website and confirm addresses and details are accurate. This verification work is essential to ensure our petition has the strongest possible validity rate when we submit to the city.
What you need: Bring your laptop or computer. If you have an extra device you can share, even better. The work is straightforward and we’ll show you exactly what to do.
Why this matters: The city will likely challenge this petition. Every signature we validate correctly strengthens our case and demonstrates that Sioux Falls voters want this on the ballot. We need as many validators as possible to process the incoming sheets efficiently.
Other ways to help: We also need people at the front desk to assist circulators dropping off sheets, notaries for extended coverage, and drive-up team members to help with traffic flow.
Can you give us a few hours tomorrow? This is how we get across the finish line.
Questions? Comment below or stop by.
UPDATE: Love this video of Chris with Jordan. The irony is I disagree with both of them on politics, but they are spot on about the petition drive! Thank YOU! Hey Chris, I need a new bed, can we work something out 🙂
“We’re excited to see people pay attention to what’s happening in Sioux Falls. But I think there was a lot of misinformation there,” said Ryan Spellerberg, a city councilor.
YES! And it all of that misinformation is coming from the city.
Let Sioux Falls Vote will be collecting circulator sheets starting tomorrow with a deadline of Thursday to turn in the petitions. I have no idea how many sigs they have, because they decided to collect signatures in what I call the ‘chaos’ style. Now, this is NOT bad, just chaotic because you are depending on hundreds of volunteers (not paid circulators) to collect the sigs for you and you come in at the end with the booty. If I had to guess, they have the sigs, maybe more, but there is NO way of knowing until Thursday. All that aside, even if they don’t make the mark, this petition drive has united many folks across the political landscape. Dems, Repubs, Indies and all stripes are working together on this. With all the horrible political division going on in this country, it makes me smile that EVERYONE in the community is working on this together, and it is what I envisioned anyway; CITIZENS UNITED AGAINST A CORRUPT CITY GOVERNMENT And even if they get the valid sigs, the city and developer will likely challenge in court; language, active voters, etc. It will be a sh!t show. But let’s pretend for a moment this makes it to the June ballot, the rezone will go down 70/30. And even if the petition drive isn’t successful, it will reveal the true colors of our city government, and that sends the best message.
I also want people to know Sam Scarlata who is organizing the petition drive is also running for At-Large City Council against the incumbent Rich Merkouris. We may not be able to kill the Data Center, but we can kill his council seat! I want Sam to know, there is a grassroots network in this town that will destroy the Matt Paulson money machine, we are going to change city hall in June, and I mean it this time 🙂
Speaking of the Developer Welfare Queens, I was awaiting Jodi’s article defending the grifter class in Sioux Falls with all the Data Center resistance;
Rapid City voters last week made a clear statement about the guardrails they believe should exist around tax increment financing. Without delving too deep, Rapid City also historically has used tax increment financing to fund growth in ways that fundamentally are different from Sioux Falls.
Sioux Falls generally has taken what I would call a conservative approach with structuring TIFs, focusing on some of the most basic qualifying costs allowed under state law: things like site preparation, infrastructure and parking. I can point to numerous downtown redevelopment projects that would not exist at the scale they do or exist at all without this economic development tool. They have done what they were intended to do: driven additional economic activity well beyond the increment in property tax growth they were able to use to support their projects.
This statement is on it’s head. Rapid City has actually used TIFs more, but for smaller infrastructure and housing projects, that is why the Libertyland TIF was so ridiculous to RC voters. Sioux Falls has NOT used them CONSERVATIVELY. Massive tax breaks for parking ramps ($100 MILLION) that mostly residents of the expensive condos use, which drive up our personal property taxes and forces residents across the state to fund our school district with sales tax revenue. In other words when the SF city council gives a TIF (property tax break) the school district has to make up that property tax revenue from state sales tax collection. So when you buy a loaf of bread in Milbank you are funding the tax cut for millionaire condos in Sioux Falls. I know, not fair. At all.
Economic development incentives aren’t giveaways. They’re more like investments.
I would agree 100%. When we use tax dollars to fight a fire, build a road or give us clean drinking water, that is an INVESTMENT, in EVERYONE. When we give that to rich developers that just creates a wealth gap and raises taxes on the rest of us. If anything it is a DI-VESTMENT in our citizens.
Every time I hear a journalist or some other talking head talk about the benefits of TIFs, I ask the same question, ‘What is the benefit to the average tax payer?’ I usually get crickets and the reason there has never been an independent state or city audit of TIFs is because there is NO benefit, and they know it. TIFs are really the emperor with no clothes.
If TIFs really work, why not an audit?
I hope Jodi had a nice dinner from the revenue she made from this article, because you are the only one benefiting from TIFs. Just sayin.’
UPDATE: So the informational went different then I thot, but more of the same BS. Vernon Brown who decided to come out of his coffin, told the public, ‘We get public input every day.’ He was referring to the tired old councilor argument that they have constituent convos at the grocery store. Yeah, and I have a ten inch . . .
It made me laugh, because Vernon was using the 1990’s argument for open government. The only thing that would have made the argument funnier is if he was wearing a Cosby sweater.
They also talked about how citizens would show up to board meetings in a random city hall room and the door was locked. It happened to me recently.
How can you claim you are open government when you have closed door meetings?! And this has been going on for YEARS!!! Why? Because someone stole a coke from the mayor’s frig. NO LIE!!!!
But it got better, the council wants a $150K supplemental appropriation to fund video equipment for off site meetings (in the field). So this is what the media department does when they are asked to do extra duties within their scope of work, they say they need extra equipment and staff hopes it will shut it down. It’s such horsesh!t. To livestream on YouTube is free, and considering the city already has an account, not an issue. Also, I went on Amazon and found this complete package for remote recording and streaming for $28, so the equipment argument is total BS. I think any city employee who doesn’t embrace open government should be fired on the spot, and in doing so I would tell them to their face why.
Yes, that is councilor Spellerberg and his hot wings show
(g) Public input shall be received at each City Council budget hearing and at all informational, committee, task force, joint, and working session meetings that are open to the public. Each meeting agenda shall include an item labeled “Public Input.” Each speaker shall be permitted to speak for up to three (3) minutes. A minimum of fifteen (15) minutes shall be allotted for public input at each meeting. If additional speakers are present and time permits, the public input period may be extended at the discretion of the City Council Chair or the City Council. All provisions of this section shall apply to City Council budget hearings and to all informational, committee, task force, joint, and working session meetings, except to the extent such provisions conflict with this subsection
So in other words, a violation of FREE speech rights. While a body CAN limit the time a speaker has, it really can’t put a time limit on the amount of speakers. If 20 constituents show up to talk about the same agenda item, you have to listen to them and afford them their free speech rights.
Each agenda will include a time for public input at the start of the meeting. Prior to the start of public input, the presiding officer will announce that public input can be provided on any agenda items and any other topics of interest to the person addressing the city agency, authority, board, committee, or commission. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, if public input is permitted on each agenda item, the city agency, authority, board, committee, or commission is not required to receive public input during an initial public input period and may instead receive general public comment at the conclusion of the meeting.
This is also a violation of the 1st Amendment. If public input time is afforded in the meeting, a constituent can talk about anything that occurred in that meeting, even previous agenda items. This is a ridiculous rule they continue to push, but it is unconstitutional and you don’t have to follow it if they threaten you in a meeting. I just simply say, ‘You are violating my 1st Amendment rights.’ and that usually gets them to shut up.
As you can see, they are making all these changes without consulting with the public. I have said the smartest thing they could do was create a committee by resolution to make transparency recommendations to the council after having several public meetings on the topic. When you make supposed ‘civic engagement’ recommendations, you should engage the public.
Speaking of transparency, look at how many FOIA requests the city has rejected. Also, you must make your requests thru the SFPD. This is incorrect, all FOIA requests should be emailed to the mayor, since he is the top city administrator. I also suggest you CC the city attorney and city clerk.
If we want transparency in city government we are going to have to get it done ourselves. Once we get closer to the city election and I have a better understanding of who will serve on the next council, I will be urging them to put together an open government task force compiled of residents, city employees and city councilors and kick this closed government in the fanny once and for all.
I will also urge the next mayor to hire a director level public information officer to manage open government.
Remember when Rec MJ passed and the idiot governor at the time convinced some hillbilly deputies to challenge the law. Probably one of the biggest C— moves of her entire political career, though what she is doing in Minneapolis right now isn’t exactly resume building work. (unless you are trying to get a permanent residence at a Federal Prison).
Either way, all the rural counties were crying because Rapid and Sux floated the victory on that.
Which brings us to city elections, which on paper are non-partisan, but they really are NOT.
Since Munson the run-off election for mayor has always had a blue candidate and and a red candidate with the RED candidate candidate winning ALMOST every time
WINNER – LOSER
Munson vs. Brown
Munson vs. Halverson
Huether vs. Staggers
Huether vs. Jamison
TenHaken vs. Loetscher
TenHaken vs. Islam
Huether was the only candidate to flip the scales, but as you can see the Red Candidate has a better record of winning by 100%.
So it is obvious to me, there are only 4 scenarios in the runoff;
Jamison vs. Smith
Jamison vs. Batcheller
Erickson vs. Smith
Erickson vs. Batcheller
I don’t see a matchup between Jamison and Erickson.
The political landscape these days is in total chaos right now so I could be wrong, but in the past 6 mayoral elections there has always been a left and right candidate because Sux is purple. Honestly, I would rather see a matchup between Erickson and Jamison, but I don’t see that happening. Jamison is pretty moderate and actually gets razzed by his caucus for being purple, Erickson is a moderate, but she tries to wear the MAGA hat sometimes, which is annoying. I just don’t see two moderate Republicans battling it out in the runoff.
And if I was Jamie and Joe, I would be trying to knock the other one out, Jamison and Erickson aren’t your biggest competitors. I think Jamison understands he needs to knock Erickson out in the first round or it is lights out for him.
Like I said, norms could be broken this time around, which I welcome, but I’m pretty sure our next mayor will be Republican, I HOPE Sioux Falls proves me wrong and elects David Z. I think having a Zombie as a mayor would be an improvement, a hundred fold.
RAPID CITY, SD — Results have been finalized by Rapid City Officials, who have declared the citizens of Rapid City have voted against the establishment of the “Destination” TIF District, with a final tally of:
All 25 precincts in:
Yes 3,415 (30%)
No 7,965 (70%)
22.32% Turn Out (11,380 out of 50,995 Voters in Rapid City)
Absentee results
Yes 961
No 2,479
It surprised me there was so many absentee, seems a lot of snowbirds voted 🙂 which is ironic considering some of the people behind the petition drive are against mail in voting.
The success of this vote doesn’t surprise me, I think if citizens have an opportunity to vote on ‘economic development’ TIFs they will vote them down, they just don’t have any payback to the average Joe and actually cost us in higher property taxes and retail taxes. Notice our legislature keeps trying to shift tax burdens onto the consumer, it is regressive and idiotic and for every penny paid in retail taxes one penny gets taken out of the local economy. Horrible way to fund government.
So with the petition drive going on with the Data Center, it may be time to keep those clipboards warm for another one.
Yesterday at one of the City Council meetings there was a gentle mention that this development was coming back. If you read what I posted, you will notice that the TIF for this development was ONLY approved by the Planning Commission and that was in July of 2024. The project got stalled so the city council NEVER approved a TIF or final development plan, that means if they are resurrecting this project it will have to go thru the same process as it did 2 years ago. They will have to present a new development plan and TIF proposal. If the TIF proceeds are for any NON infrastructure upgrades we could challenge the TIF with another petition drive and I think we should. Citizens really should be deciding on their own property tax increases and not letting a vote by a meaningless board decide. So I hope the new development doesn’t include a TIF, but if it does, I smell a petition drive.
Oh, and the developer is from out-of-state, so we would essentially being subsidizing an out-of-state developer welfare queen. We can’t even launder money locally anymore 🙁
l3wis 
