The mayor spent 7 years blowing our money on every play palace he could, straddling us with debt for over 20 years, than today he presents us with the crumbs that are left.
Notice in 2013 we spent $68 million in play palaces, in 2017, $6 million.
He didn’t seem ashamed one bit that he created this BOOMTOWN that lacks affordable housing, decent wages and has a soaring crime and drug problem.
Steve Hildebrand who helped anoint King Huether, and has since turned away from him, was on the Good Ship Lalley Pop show talking about a possible run for Mayor (I think he is blowing smoke) but he didn’t hold any punches against MMM. He said Mike concentrates too much on telling everything that is positive about Sioux Falls and doesn’t concentrate on the real problems facing SF, like poverty. He also ripped MMM a new one about how idiotic building the Administration Building was.
I wonder which developer now is looking for some corporate welfare? Maybe to build 44 condos this time instead of 22? So much for affordable housing;
The briefing will consist of the items on the upcoming July 6 Commission meeting agenda, and then the members will adjourn to discuss a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) District with the staff.
Mike was on the B-N-B show this morning, and he mentioned that some ‘organizations’ have already reached out to him with job offers after he leaves city hall. Let’s all hope those job offers are in other states 🙂
Of course the conversation quickly went to ‘all about Mike’. After he admitted he didn’t care about other people’s grandkids (I’m with you man) they went into the tiresome conversation about what he will do next. Of course, we all know it is narrowed down to the Governor race. He spent very little time saying he hasn’t decided yet into how he would do the job as governor if elected as an indy. It was obvious from his speculation that he thinks South Dakotans would support an Indy for governor. I agree, but in a 3 person race, could he garner enough support to win? You could tell by how excited he got talking about the possible job as governor that he is ‘chomping at the bit’ to run for a statewide race. He said he would love to engage the other 66 counties in the state during a possible race. SO WHY NOT JUST ANNOUNCE ALREADY? I think once he finally does everyone will just give a sigh and say SHOCKER!
He also mentioned that in his presentation that he will give at 4 PM to the council that he cut $40 million from the Capital Program. Like I said earlier this week, doesn’t really matter because the next council and mayor will shred the proposal next year.
I have received a copy of the study, the FULL document is attached below.
Once you start to look at the study, it is obvious the National organization uses a boilerplate for the study, so a lot of the data in the study, or mostly the quotes are from that.
On page 3 they give our local data and economic impact, which is impressive; $105 million dollars.
Than some numbers get a little skewed. For instance on page 4 they say the average household income in SF is $71K, which is much higher than the National average of $23K. I’m wondering if this is the average income of those who were surveyed. Kind of confusing. Page 8 also has this disparity.
This disparity also shows up in ONE night of lodging on page 9. The average was about $10 a night. Not sure how this average comes about, but that seems very low, unless of course a family of five is spending the night in a campground. This gets cleared up on page 10 where the study says only about 17% of attendees spend the night in SF.
On page 11 it shows that a large percentage of residents who attend events are over 55 (56%) and have an income of over $80K a year (52%). Which isn’t such a bad thing because it is evenly spread between people younger than that and of lower incomes. The arts are truly enjoyed by everyone in our community.
The rest of the study explains how they come up with the results.
I think the study is a good start, but I would like to see a community wide study that also includes the Events Center and Convention Center (they are NOT non-profits).
Rumor has it that Sioux Falls city council has been put on notice; contract negotiations between the city and the parking ramp developer (Legacy) is almost complete, and they are going to ask the council to approve that contract this month, but will they?
Only two councilors so far have been vocal about a NO vote, Stehly and Starr. Stehly takes issue with Legacy’s close relationship with Hultgren Construction and the lack of transparency when it comes to investors (rumor is that Legacy doesn’t have any yet) and Starr takes issue with the corporate welfare aspect, handing over $17 million to a private developer who will provide us very little in return.
Really, anyway you look at it, the deal stinks, really bad. Even on a really windy day when JM’s is in full kill, the stink isn’t as bad as this deal. So what baffles me and many others in the community, why would possibly 6 councilors be on board with this? I don’t know. As one city official said to me today, “Where is the outrage from the public?” or more importantly what do we have to do to get the outrage?
This has to be possibly the WORST deal the city has ever cut since they gave $27 million for about $2 million dollars worth of land to the Railroad, and the trains are still running through downtown. A Boondoggle that didn’t solve the original problem, train traffic downtown.
Maybe that is why this deal will probably be struck, because the citizens really don’t care. They proved this with the RR deal, the indoor pool and the administration building (at least the public took a stab at that one).
I’m hoping the other 6 councilors wake up, or at least 4 of them to make the deal veto proof. I’m not holding my breath.
I was looking at a map of Sioux Falls recently at a Districting meeting and I thought, I’m pretty close to living in the very center of Sioux Falls. I’m probably off by a few blocks due to the lopsided nature of the city’s boundaries. I guess when I bought my house 14 years ago I did tell the realtor I wanted to live in Central Sioux Falls. He must have taken me literally.
Paramedics Plus also runs an EMS school in Sioux Falls
I’m not sure what plans the company has, if any. But if they are looking to sell it would have little to do with the recent ‘Phantom’ ambulance fiasco.
As you know, the company as a whole is being investigated in almost every state they are in by the Feds except in South Dakota (so far). It wouldn’t be to far-fetched for them to cut their losses and get out of the Sioux Falls market before that hammer drops, if it ever does.
Let’s say they do sell, how will that affect ambulance service in Sioux Falls? Will we have to start the contract process over before the buyer can just move in?
Like I said, I have no idea if they are looking to sell, but something to ponder if it does happen.
Turbak says there are two main reasons the sales tax collections are down: First, because of continued growth of online sales where the City can’t collect sales taxes and because farmer spending is down.
While I agree they are TWO factors, I truly believe the number one factor is just spending in general, people have cut back. You also have to take into account that much of the city population growth last year occurred in woman’s wombs – we had a lot of new borns. They don’t work and they don’t spend money and more then likely, they are born to lower income families who get food on assistance and don’t pay for it. We can blame farmers and online sales all we want, but we also have to look at reality. If farmers are not spending money, maybe the rest of us are not either.
The next mayor is going to have to be very stingy, not only because of Mayor Play Palaces bonding spree which ties us to millions in mortgage and maintenance costs each year but because the revenue stream is low.
There are QUICK policy changes the next mayor can implement in the first 90 days;
• Cut most of the mid-managers. We pay most of the directors and sub-directors 6-figures a year, there is no reason they need managers below them doing their jobs for $70-80K a year. I would probably cut them from most of the departments saving the city millions in our 1st penny for operations.
• Focus the 2nd penny on infrastructure (mostly roads) and parks land maintenance and cut any unneeded programs for at least two-years.
• As for our enterprise funds, which support sewer and water, any new corporations coming into Sioux Falls should help share at least 50% of the cost of infrastructure costs and upgrades.
Like I said, the next mayor, whether they are socially liberal or conservative will have no choice but to be a fiscal conservative when it comes to city finances. We have to fix the last mayor racking up the parents credit card.
Renting the park does carry a fee, but it’s not particularly large. The tournament is charged a fee of $45 per field for the duration of a soccer tournament. There are 21 fields in Yankton Trail.
So the total rental fee is $945. The organizers also helped purchased the new soccer goals and with other park improvements, Juhnke said.
The vendors have to pay for permits, too.
The fees are marginal compared to the return in sales tax revenue and exposure the tournament brings in through thousands of visitors, Juhnke said.
Organizers expect the tournament to bring $17 million into the city.
I would agree, the $17 million dollar impact definately offsets whatever support the city provides. But in all fairness, do you think $945 even comes close to the cost to maintain and water these fields for a week? Not only that, but the overtime paid out to the SFPD and the traffic engineers to help control traffic. If I had to guess, I bet the city pays out between $20-40,000 extra to help with the tournament, then ironically lets the tournament organizers keep the parking fees. I can also bet their are some organizers that are making thousands of dollars from their efforts. It’s kind of hypocritical when you consider the mayor not wanting to give handouts to special interest groups, but I guess soccer (councilor Rex Rolfing) and tennis (Mayor Huether) are OK. No conflicts here, move along, nothing to see. Now lets worry about Stehly’s nine inch grass.
The AL did story today about using mediation between neighbors instead of a system of anonymously turning in neighbors for the purpose of being vindictive;
City council members Michelle Erpenbach and Theresa Stehly both see potential in mediation, a process that supplements or sidesteps the courts with negotiation through a third party.
“It takes some of the pressure off of the people that are involved and it creates the opportunities to find out ‘what’s really going on here,’” said Erpenbach. “You can’t force people to be good neighbors, but hopefully we can walk down a path where we can learn to live with each other”
In Dayton, Ohio, there’s a mediation center inside city hall. Larger cities use housing court – which Erpenbach calls “glorified mediation” – as a less adversarial forum to sort disputes between landlords and tenants and deal with code violations.
Stehly thinks a more personal approach could stave off more serious issues in some cases.
“Sometimes when people get boxed in, they’re pigeonholed with their backs against the wall it doesn’t help,” said Stehly, herself a target of overgrown lawn ticketing. Judges in some states won’t set a court date without an attempt at mediation through a third party.
First off, I am a little shocked Theresa and Michelle are in agreement on something (bravo). But they both make a good point. Put our efforts in trying to get along instead of trying to tear each other down.
The property across the street from Rick Larsen’s western Sioux Falls home was well kept for most of the 35 years he’s lived there.
But since the city bought the property in 2015, weeds and grass have grown unkempt around the former greenhouse at Madison Street and Harlem Avenue.
The lot has prompted calls to City Hall from neighbors wondering why it’s not being mowed and better maintained.
“Eight inches means eight inches,” Larsen said, referring to the grass length limit spelled out in city ordinance. “The city seems to be the worst slum lord of them all.”
They are a ‘Lord’ alright. Surprised the city didn’t come back and say they don’t have to mow their weeds because they are an ‘Act of God’.
Juveniles are getting into fights and causing disturbances during Thursday night concert events in Rapid City. We take a look at what police are asking parents.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.- Sioux Falls Fire Rescue was called to 525 North Fairfax Ave. at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night for reports of a fire. A passerby reported seeing smoke coming from the residence and called 911. First arriving fire crews confirmed there was smoke coming from a window and that all residents were out […]
Scoreboard Tuesday, June 27th American Association Fargo-Moorhead 4, Canaries 3 American League Boston 9, Twins 2 Legion Baseball Yankton 8, SF West 2 SF East 5, Harrisburg 2
This June 7, 2017 photo shows part of Hopkinsville, Ky. This town is considered the epicenter of the first total solar eclipse to sweep across the United States in 99 years on Aug. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Alex Sanz)
