Sioux Falls

Mayor TenHaken will be playing ‘Chicken Little’ today at a presser

I heard that TenHaken is having a presser this morning (even though I can’t find any media alerts on FB or on the City’s website). I know, shocker, with all the openness and transparency with this admin . . . never mind.

He is going to discuss the city ‘losing’ $26 million in revenue over the next decade due to property tax cuts. Him and his lapdog finance director have been pushing this BS narrative for a week.

First the obvious, you are not ‘losing’ revenue that was never owed to you. The tax formula changed. So that means you change your budget forecast modeling after the new tax code and budget accordingly (in other words make cuts to capital programs).

Secondly, there will be NO cuts to regular programming (Fire, police, public works, etc.) that’s a false flag they are promoting. Who will take the hit? Mostly capital programs. In other words we may miss out on some park expansion and rec trail expansion, but these cuts wouldn’t affect regular services and they know it.

Thirdly, it is incredibly disheartening to see a lame duck promote higher taxes instead of cuts.

Lastly, I have maintained in my 18 years of blogging that TAXES are for essential services and not play things and entertainment venues. We have over extended ourselves on play palaces.

My first suggestion would be to cut MOST capital programs that are NOT essential the next 5 years. You would be SHOCKED at the tax savings, I would suggest it would be a heckuva a lot more then $2.6 million a year.

Also, I find this resistance to tax cuts insulting. As constituents we have had to cut back on stuff since Covid, and the Trump economy is making it worse, as I predict a full on recession by the end of the year.

I’m sorry, but when I am struggling to maintain my household expenses, I could give two-sh!ts about a new parking lot at a tennis court.

Is the current Sioux Falls City Council competent?

First, I want to say that are at least 1 or 2 councilors that do the work, but that faction changes on a daily basis and is getting smaller. Don’t get me wrong, I think peeps on the City Council are nice, and respectable business peeps in town, but they have no clue how to do policy or actually put in the time. I have blogged about city politics for over 20 years, and I have never seen a more LAZY, IGNORANT, INCOMPETENT and frankly MISINFORMED council. If it is Black they vote White, if it is White, they vote Black, they almost resist so they don’t make a bad decision. So, I get it, you think this is my opinion, not at all backed up with data;

We got an ‘F’ in workforce. I was actually surprised it wasn’t lower. Let’s face it, the rich do very well in Sux, because they are taking from the rest of us, this is enabled by a council (who have two members that never received one f’ing vote!) And maybe that is why they suck, they didn’t have to face an opponent? They didn’t do anything wrong, they signed up to run, and had no challengers, but they also have had no constituent choose them, so they tend to mend their own fence.

I guess, as I look at the policy body for the city (council) you have a lot of power to improve this, but you are not doing it, you sit on your hands, and to be honest with you, you look like a bunch of dolts when you discuss policy because everyone knows you don’t do a f’ing thing. AND, BTW, this isn’t me talking, constituents who follow this are scared, pissed and mortified by the city leadership. Tons of rich folks are mad to because they got screwed on deals. I’m sorry, but when you have a local governing body that rolls over like a dead dog every Tuesday, yah gotta question their motives.

THE CHARTER IS CLEAR! YOU ARE THE POLICY BODY, THE MAYOR IS THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER. YOU TELL HIM WHAT TO DO, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. SUCKERS! SUCKERS! SUCKERS!

I think 100% of the council knows we have issues, so what are they going to do about it? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Erickson to run for mayor

Well, it hasn’t been a secret that Christine Erickson is running for mayor. She confirmed the news with me over a month ago but was working out logistics before announcing. We actually had a long and productive conversation. I pretty much told her it was ‘hers to lose’ unless some dark horse business person announces. I also asked her feelings about working with council and she pretty much said she will stay out of their way unless they ask for assistance from the mayor’s office. Now, granted, all mayoral candidates say that, and never deliver, because the power goes straight to their heads and it irks them that 8 part-time councilors are telling them how to run a city. They are not, they are proposing a framework you should follow. I think Christine will be more sympathetic because of her legislative and council experience. But, she knows all the tricks on how to hide things from council. I’m not sure who else will announce. Beck and Huether still seem to be hold outs, at this point, and many others have said they will likely NOT run. Former DTSF director, Joe Batcheller will also likely announce soon.

*I assisted Erickson in the past on FREE youth public transit initiative and school start date initiative.

UPDATE II: Sioux Falls continues their ‘White Trash 4th’ festivities

UPDATE II: So a friend who used to live in Sioux Falls and still has businesses here sent me a suggestion after reading this post, he now lives in a suburb of Casper, WY;

Hey saw your article. They do something like that with the fireworks here in Glenrock, WY. It’s a $10 minimum donation to the fire department per car and they have two baseball fields where you wait in line and have like 6 stations each where you can shoot your fireworks and all the fire trucks are there. It’s a great event!

UPDATE: From cynicism comes relief. I am reminded, quite often (daily) that my cynicism is a problem, to which I reply, ‘If we lived in a perfect world, I wouldn’t be a cynic.’ So after posting this I have had tons of people reach out privately to me, at first I thot to scold me about not being woke about trashy people, but in fact, quite the opposite. People agree, pick up your trash, they also agree, even poor kids should be able to have fun. The solution? The city should designate a fireworks area for people who don’t have the property (or the legal right) to do it in the city limits. So you have a designated area. There have been tons of suggestions, but I suggested Sanford Sports Complex, because the parking lots and football fields would be well suited in case a fire broke out. You could also get a non-profit involved to raise money by having food trucks at the event, selling sparklers and snaps, etc. and putting out a message about their charity. They could also hand out garbage bags to event goers and afterwards volunteer to clean up. It could be a great community event and everyone would feel included instead doing the duck and run under the Burnside Bridge. Thank You! I love it when my cynicism leads to solutions, but doesn’t it always 🙂 Now if we can just get the knuckleheads at city hall to see the vision . . . nevermind, already feeding the leading mayoral candidate my ideas, because this one is out to lunch.

It doesn’t fail, every year after the 4th I am dodging empty fireworks containers on the bike trail, it has been this way since I can remember. The irony is the penalty for shooting off fireworks is less then littering, oh, and you are doing it all on taxpayer owned property. Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. They do it in the same spot every year (right off of Burnside). Not one cop has driven by and witnessed this in 30 years? It’s one thing to use public land to shoot off fireworks illegally, but did you ever think about bringing a garbage bag and cleaning it up? Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. This part bothers me the most. I’m okay with some trailer trash kids blowing things up once in awhile, but for Godsakes, why aren’t the parents making them clean this up? Because you know they are present, probably their idea. Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. So next year, I want an undercover officer stationed under the Burnside bridge on the bike trail, and start handing out those tickets, mostly for littering. I know it would require an officer to leave their vehicle, and that can be a struggle, but just pretend you are getting a FREE 64 oz Fountain Mt. Dew at the C-Store (probably pissed they don’t have a drive thru.)

Did the City of Sioux Falls finance director tell a little white lie about airport bonding?

Well, he didn’t technically lie about the matter at hand, but yah gotta scratch your head a bit. Last week while the city council was approving bonding for the airport, Shawn Pritchett, the City of Sioux Falls Finance Director was asked a simple question. For reference, the Airport Authority is an appointed board and NOT elected, so they cannot approve bonds, they must have the next governing body approve the bonds, which is the city council. The bonds, with interest, will be paid in full by the airport authority thru parking and other revenues, the taxpayers are NOT on the hook for the $30 million in bonds, unless you park at the airport 🙂 So what was the question? I think Councilor Lucy Bayse asked the question, “So by approving these bonds, are citizens on the hook for the bonds or have any other financial obligation?” I’m paraphrasing, but it was pretty basic and to the point. Shawn replies, “NO.” Then goes into a detailed explanation as to why, as I explained above. So was he lying? Not at all, in fact, I see it identical to how he sees it. But, being the finance director you have to know what is coming down the pipeline? Right? Especially in a week!? So while we have NO financial obligation to the bond last week, this week, they decided to give the airport a $5 million dollar ‘LOAN’. (Item #33) Yeah, it has to be paid back, blah, blah, blah, but didn’t you just tell us last week that we had NO FINANCIAL OBLIGATION to this project (not just the bonds) then you roll out a loan? So which is it Shawn? Oh, and don’t think I don’t support the loan, I actually told a councilor that instead of the dumb bond and loan, the city should have bonded this project (50%) instead of those stupid rec centers. Expanding our airport will have more economic impact on us then a floating turd pond.