Imagine that, they posted this story and video a day after it aired. Usually the ‘Inside’ programs don’t post for about a week. They are really laying it on thick. I also thought it was ironic that they did not have opponents on the program. Go figure. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t good journalism require both sides of the story? Why does the media continue to let the Events Center TF say whatever they want to? The plan was flawed on several levels; funding, tenants, economic impact, recession, etc.

UPDATE: Greg Jamison, the voice of reason?

According to the city council informational meeting and city councilor Bob Litz and task force member, the task force is going to start meeting again. The Gargoyle Leader did a fairly good story about the meeting, but I encourage everyone to listen. I was surprised by Greg Jamison’s 180 on the issue, and it seems maybe some councilors are starting to come around, finally.

Councilor Greg Jamison encouraged the task force to retool and keep fighting.

“We’ve got way too much momentum moving on this project to let it fail and just let it die out,” he said.

Actually, if you listen to what Greggo says from the beginning is what is surprising. He pretty much tells the task force that let’s find another way to fund this and get it done. I agree. We shouldn’t throw 2 years of meetings and hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees in the toilet because De Knudson and King Dave didn’t get their way.

There is going to have to be philanthropic funding, but the city would “have to have our house in order,” Councilor Bob Litz said.

I disagree partially with Bob on this. I have often said that the funding source should be secured with voters first then a plan is laid out. When you are out looking for a new car what do you think about first? How are you going to pay for it and what is your budget, why should the city do things differently then people do personally? Get a tenant, get a public funding source and get a private funding source, then start talking about the fun stuff. I have a friend who has lived in Lincoln, NE as long as I have lived in Sioux Falls, and he said they are going through the same process now, and it is just as messy.

And of course, an informational meeting couldn’t be complete without the babblings of Quen Be De Knudson;

Knudson said that statements that other options weren’t looked at is “really hogwash.”

“That’s rather insulting for those people who have spent two years of their time only going to meetings, after meetings, after meetings on an events center,” she said.

Well, De, start washing the hogs. According to Cheryl Rath, “very little time” was spent on exploring other funding options. And unlike yourself, De, Cheryl attending almost every single meeting and took extensive notes. Did you do that De? You are not fooling anyone, this was the funding source that was pursued because some people in SF leadership want that 3rd penny, not just for the EC but for future projects. You know damn well there is other ways to pay for this facility, but they don’t include getting a PERMANENT 3rd penny. Rounds said it himself, the 3rd penny would never go away once the EC is built, the city will just find other things to spend it on.

On an unrelated note, I was approached by someone I know last night that asked if I would sign Bill Peterson’s petition for mayor. I said NO. But not because it was Bill Peterson. I will sign any candidate’s petition if that candidate asks me to sign it. It seems a lot of mayoral candidates and council candidates are having other people do their dirty work for them. Which I find odd on many levels. Asking someone to sign your petition is not any different then campaigning. It gives you the opportunity to sell yourself to a petition signer. Candidates who don’t ‘Have the time’ to talk to the public with something as simple as asking them to sign a petition, obviously don’t have the time for citizens if they take that office. Mayoral candidates are required to have 200 valid signatures and district candidates are required to have 50 signatures. I know for a fact that Staggers and Stehly both turned in their petitions this week already (they have until the end of the month) and most of those signatures they got themselves. In fact Theresa told me she got 280 herself but is wanting to get at least 500 by the end of the month. Dedication and hardwork is what I want in a candidate not someone who is afraid to get their hands dirty talking to the lowly voters.

I heard yesterday that the Events Center task force is meeting again. Stormland TV News is going to do a story about it tonight. I guess they are worried that Pat Costello might not get elected mayor (well, he is not, but I do give him 4th place). Let me put it to you simply; nobody gives a f’ck about a new events center. People want to drive on roads without dodging potholes, they want a job that pays a fair wage and they want to be happy, that’s it. I see the Gargoyle Leader printed a correction today in their dead tree version, 70% are against bonding a new Events Center. In other words, if you want it, pool your money and build it yourself because taxpayers are sick of paying for this shit.

I have often used the analogy, if something is needed, it will pay for itself. If an Events Center or even a indoor pool is needed, it will pay for itself. How do private entertainment facilities and private fitness centers with pools make it in Sioux Falls? Why is it that when the city builds one of these facilities it loses money hand over fist?

I can’t wait until April 13th.

While our city ‘Leaders’ and supposed ‘Progressives‘ talk about increasing regressive taxes in Sioux Falls to build a $169 million dollar playground, WORKING people can’t even afford to feed their families;

South Dakota’s working poor slipping into food insecurity is a phenomenon emergency food agency heads already have recognized.

“We are seeing more people coming in where one or both parents have a job,” says Tamera Jerke-Liesinger, executive director of The Banquet. The Banquet fed notably more people in 2009 than previously.

The Feeding America report suggests 36 percent of households requiring emergency food aid have at least one employed adult. But 74 percent of those families have incomes below the federal poverty level. About one-third of those families reported having to choose between buying food or paying for utilities or housing, and 25 percent had to choose between buying food or medicine or food or transportation.

“Until the early 1980s, food stamps provided most of people’s food needs. But during the 1980s, so much of that public safety net kind of unraveled,” says Hugh Grogan, Minnehaha County human services director.

“It used to be there was almost no way you would not qualify for food stamps if you were poor,” Grogan says. “Now there are lots of ways.”

Also, food stamps don’t go as far as they used to, according to Davidson. “With bigger families, food stamps just aren’t enough,” she says.

Gassen said the numbers in the Feeding America report on the working poor “told a unique story about South Dakota. People are reaching out for hope. They’re not doing nothing, trying to get free food.”

I started thinking about this the other day. Like I mentioned previously, taking $50 million out of the economy by giving it to the city in the form of new taxes actually takes money away from local businesses, which is very BAD for the economy. The irony of all this is that the Events Center Task Force has said that the EC would have a $52 million dollar impact on the city each year. So if you subtract those numbers, it seems building the EC would have only a $2 million dollar impact each year. Whoo-Hoo! What are we waiting for, we are losing money!!!!!! Let’s get it built!

I don’t agree with Rounds 99.9% of the time, but he is right about this;

“I personally think that an events center in Sioux Falls would be a very positive move. The problem is, the bill in its existing form would have allowed the municipalities to have literally an open access to the next penny of sales tax. I disagree with the way the bill was written. We think there’s a better way to do it. It’s going to be challenging to write it correctly.”

Why? Sioux Falls already has 2 pennies to play with, and if they can find money for monkey crappers and subsidizing the feds for our levees that we don’t need, they can find money for an Events Center.

“Pretty soon it would have been buried, and people would have wondered where that one penny was going because it would have been buried in one project after another across the state,” he said.

Exactly, as I have said all along, a Sunset provision is laughable, at best. But what I find even more laughable is that these supposed ‘Leaders’ running for mayor have not offered other options or ideas in the hopper;

“I don’t see any way, with the existing revenue streams that we have today, that we can fund this in another manner,” he (Costello) said.

Councilor Vernon Brown said the city doesn’t have the revenue to pay off bonds for the entire project without crippling basic infrastructure, . . .

Costello appears to be closed minded about any other funding sources. Nice knowing yah. And Brown says we can’t take out bonds. Gee Vernon, I wonder why? Because we have borrowed money for projects that we don’t need and now the city can’t borrow anymore for major projects. And guess who voted for all this spending? YOU! You both look like complete morons that are talking out of both sides of your mouths. Your arrogant confidence in this flawed funding source will hand you both your crippling defeats in the mayoral race.

Fortunately Huethers and Staggers have open minds;

Mike Huether wants to focus on replacing the Arena, which he said can be done without a sales tax. He’d do it with user fees, naming rights, some borrowing and an increased bed, board and beverage tax. ”That’s how other cities do it, and we can do the same,” he said.

Councilor Kermit Staggers, who voted against the plan, said the task force took an easy out in recommending a sales tax. Instead, he suggested pursuing user fees, naming rights and private investment and stashing some money away before borrowing what else is needed. He also wants to reduce the size of the events center proposal.

I can’t wait to inaugurate one of these guys!

Another Events Center Task Force member, hard at work

This is where the task force really screwed up big time. They just automatically assumed that they could shove their plan down taxpayer’s throats, well thank gawd at least 10 legislators in Pierre had the common sense to tell them NO!

Mayor Dave Munson said he has no backup plan.

“There really isn’t,” he said on the way back to Sioux Falls after testifying for the bill. “There’s no way I could see how you could do the project (without a sales tax).”

BULLSHIT! You could easily do what they do in other communities. Pay for at least 30% through private donations, bond the rest out and pay for it through a BB & B tax. Will it take longer to pay off? Sure, but you keep popping off that this is a facility that will be used for 50 years, so who cares if it takes 50 years to pay for. Do people take out 4 year mortgages on their homes or 30 year mortgages?

I think this is the part of the EC Task Force and some of our city government people (mainly Munson, Brown and Costello) that really chaps my hide. Zero leadership. Any big plan, especially you have spent 16 months and hundreds of thousands of dollars on, should have a plan ‘B’ in place just in case the original idea fails. REAL LEADERS UNDERSTAND THIS. REAL PROGRESSIVES ARE ALWAYS LOOKING AROUND THE NEXT CORNER and REAL FORWARD THINKERS ANTICIPATE SNAGS AND COMPENSATE FOR THEM. None of this was done, and as I predicted at the Council meeting when they approved this failed plan, “You’ll be right back at the beginning because you keep chasing your tails with flawed plans.” Guess what, this ‘HOT HEAD’ was right, again and you were wrong AGAIN! But what do I know, I’m just a blogger.

…you must be blind, deaf, and incomprehensibly stupid. Time to find a new source of rainbows and unicorn farts.

The bill that would have allowed cities to raise a third penny sales tax for special projects was shot, hanged, poisoned, racked, gassed, lethally injected, drawn, quartered, and waterboarded by the House Local Government Committee.

While most of the arguments against the bill came from people saying they didn’t want to tax the poor to pay for something they’ll never use (a good argument), the main problem I have with funding a new EC with a sales tax is that it’s a crappy way to fund an entertainment building. Tax Bed, Board, and Booze instead. This will still give us enough revenue to build an EC without putting an undue burdon on people buying groceries or yet another set of clothing for a daughter who grows faster than our national debt.

The most unfortunate (and telling) part of the linked article is the paragraph quoting Jane Page of the State Department of Revenue.  She’d like to keep the option open for the state to raise sales taxes in the future without having to pile on top of increased local taxes.  I wonder how many legislators “can’t wait” to raise the sales tax to build all kinds of wonderful stuff.

Now that the city has to go back to the drawing board to come up with a workable idea, maybe they’ll be a little more open-minded about better locations and funding sources. If not, we’ll still be talking about building a new EC 20 years from now.

Advocates, We learned something since yesterday, namely that HB1198 (to allow more sales tax for new city projects) comes up on Thursday. So contacts are needed to the committee members who will vote on Thursday. Urge them to oppose this bill.

The news of the hearing comes from the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, a big supporter of HB1198. They want 1% more sales tax for an event center. (Other cities might want to raise sales tax for their new projects.) They put out legi contact info (copied below) to their members.

Please urge Rep’s to OPPOSE HB1198, because it would be problematic for the cost of living to go up, which would happen if cities raise sales tax. I personally think it would be morally wrong to charge the poor and middle class for large portions of the cost of a place of entertainment.

HB1198 says the tax hike would be temporary. But it does not prevent a city from thinking of one project after another.
It requires a local vote for the project and accompanying tax hike. But we know low- and middle-income people would not be able to mount the kind of advertising campaign that project enthusiasts could. And low-and middle-income people have a harder time getting information except from advertising and getting to the polls.
It says cities could have a refund program, if they choose. We know about refund programs! No matter how generous and simple, refund programs miss people, often lots of them. If the idea is that basic necessities should not be taxed, then let’s not tax them in the first place.
Cities do not often admit it, but there are other ways to raise funds. In the case of the event center, the city could be asking for a higher allowable bed-board-booze tax (BBB). If not such a hurry to pay off the building (3-4 years), they could build an event center mostly with 2% more on BBB, supplemented with some private fundraising (donations, naming rights, ticket fees, luxury suite fees, etc).

Here is nifty Legi Contact info (from the Sioux Falls Chamber):
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
On Thursday, Feb. 11, the House Local Government Committee will take up the Local Option Sales and Use Tax increase - HB 1198. Here is your chance to be part of the process. We have included a list of those who are on the committee. It is usually most effective to contact your local representative or senator; however, if you personally know others on the committee your contact to them can be very powerful.

Here is a listing of all those who are on this particular committee (just click on their names to send them an email):
Mark Kirkeby (Chair, represents Pennington County)
Val Rausch (Vice Chair, represents Brookings, Deuel, Grant and Moody counties)

**Sioux Falls area legislators**:
•  Jim Bolin lives in Canton and represents Lincoln and Union counties. His phone number is 987-2630.
•  Blake Curd lives in Sioux Falls and represents Lincoln and Minnehaha counties. His phone number is 321-0121 while in Pierre and 339-8918 in Sioux Falls.
•  Dan Lederman lives in Dakota Dunes and represents Lincoln and Union counties. His phone number is 712-251-1992.
•  Darrell Solberg lives in Sioux Falls and represents Lincoln and Minnehaha counties. His phone number is 361-2475.
•  Martha Vanderlinde lives in Sioux Falls and represents Minnehaha County. Her phone number is 201-7427.

Other legislators on the committee include (we’ve linked their names to their email addresses):
•  Justin Cronin lives in Gettysburg and represents seven area counties.
•  Dennis Feickert represents Brown and McPherson counties
•  Justin Frerichs represents Day, Marshall and Roberts counties
•  Betty Olson represents Butte, Corson, Harding, Meade and Perkins counties
•  Fred Romkema represents Lawrence County
•  Tim Rounds represents Hughes, Stanley and Sully counties

As president of the SD Municipal league Vernon is promoting the silly 1 cent sales tax increase city option. He had this to say about it on his website;

South Dakota Municipal League will be asking lawmakers for a major philosophical shift: a temporary sales tax option for special projects. The League’s success in unlocking the state’s financial handcuffs on cities will largely come from the effectiveness of your community’s story. In this case, the smaller the town, the bigger the impact will be, especially when it comes to necessary infrastructure. Here are a few things to consider as you develop your local story:

Handcuffs? Besides last year, the city of SF has enjoyed RECORD sales tax revenue. With that much money coming in you would think we would be driving on streets of gold. It is estimated that in just 7 years the city has spent over $100 million on ‘quality of life’ projects. Or as I like to call them ‘wants’. If city leaders would have been a little wiser over those 7 years we could have put millions in the bank to pay for things like an events center, but instead the city engaged in reckless spending, and now they want to continue their spend fest by increasing taxes. I have often commented that people are not against an Events Center, they just want the city to spend within their means and show some fiscal restraint, especially with a project of this magnitude. I hope the 1 cent sales tax increase has a fast death in Pierre.

Councilor Staggers says the solution to building a new events center is simple, don’t do it by increasing taxes;

No increase in the city sales tax. Most City Council members want to raise the sales tax in Sioux Falls to 7% for an events center. This tax increase would take an additional $50 million out of the pockets of citizens and give it to the city government to spend. The citizens would have less money to spend at a time when economists are calling for consumers to spend more money in order to get the economy out of recession. Furthermore, since the sales tax is a very regressive tax, any increase in the sales tax would further impoverish the poor and low income families in the midst of a recession.

No increases in taxes and no annual operating subsidy for a new events center.Common sense and fairness dictate that a new events center should be paid for by those people who use it. Likewise, if you do not use the facility, you should not pay for it. A new events center should only be supported if there are no increases in taxes and no annual operating subsidy.

He also comments on what our current taxes should be paying for;

Increase spending on city streets and highways. The city is playing catch up in its street maintenance program. The city’s promise of the 1980s that the second penny sales tax would be used for streets must be reaffirmed and honored. This means more of the second penny sales tax must be spent on streets and highways.

I will be one of the guests today talking about the Event Center. My segment will be at 4:30 PM. Call in and give me Hell.

You can listen live here.