I have to chuckle at the mayoral candidates, they all seem to think they are more qualified fiscal conservatives then Staggers, and they sure like to talk about it. The fact is that Staggers is the only one with a voting record of trying to stop wasteful spending, in the state legislature and city council. You can’t just be a Johnny come lately when it comes to calling yourself a ‘fiscal conservative.’ We know Vernon and Pat have a record of NOT being fiscally responsible. Mike of course doesn’t have a political record, but he does have a business record in the Credit Card industry, and his former boss, T. Denny Sanford didn’t become a billionaire by giving his customers a fair shake. So keep it up guys, you are fooling no one.

Soooooo, did Mike come up with this idea all on his lonesome?

At a press conference this morning, Huether said he supports building a new events center seating 10,000 but that it can be done for $75 million to $100 million. The mayor’s events center task force has come forth with a proposal for a new facility that could hold as many as 15,000, expanded convention center and new hotel that could cost as much as $200 million, if a plan to relocate Howard Wood Field is included.

The 10,000 seat facility is what MPLS consulting group CSL proposed in a EC task force meeting. I think the words they used was ’sweet spot’. At another TF meeting I was sitting next to Mike and told him that is what CSL recommended. Later in the meeting Mike asked me where the money would come from to build a new HW? I chuckled and said, “You and me.” Don’t get me wrong, I agree 100% with Mike on this, I just wanted you to know it is not an original idea, it has been floated for a long time, and the TF chose to ignore it. I also got the feeling from Mike during last week’s Mayoral Forum he isn’t on board with the funding source, he has also hinted that to me in person, because of the impact the retail tax will have on working poor. I just wish he would publicly come out and say it. So far the only candidate to publicly denounce the funding source is Staggers. I have a feeling Mike will be following suit shortly.

The KELO story is even better. It seems Peterson, Brown and Costello are have a hissy-fit over another mayoral candidate having a different (the right) idea;

“All of the candidates now, we could all play this game, we could all come out and say well, I’ll build one for, get into a bidding war and say I’ll build one for $50-million dollars, or I’ll build one for $25-million, but that doesn’t serve the citizens well,’ said Bill Peterson.

“We have to find a way to pay for it first, and then we can have the discussions about how big it should be, what the cost should be,” said Vernon Brown.

Candidate Pat Costello is a member of the events center task force. He says Huether’s pared-down version will short-change the city.

“It’s not going to have a $52-million dollar impact to our community. Could it work? Yeah. It worked 50-years ago, it’s called the arena,” said Costello.

Doesn’t matter if Mike has the right idea or not. The funding source will never pass 1) The Legislature, and 2) it won’t pass the voters.

You will see Shemp (Mike) setting himself apart from the other three stooges (Costello, Peterson, Brown) over the next couple of months. I still think it will be a battle royal between Huether and Staggers in the runoff.

This Kranz article proves it;

Most often, Staggers is getting favorable responses from those who are concerned about spending issues. But when you add other factors such as which candidates are the best known or considered to know the issues well, then the race becomes much more even.

Yet, Kranz didn’t print any of those comments? Did he? Yah wanna know why? Because they are rare. The Gargoyle has it in for Kermit, and they just can’t bring it to themselves to say something positive about him without knocking him down in the next sentence. Talk about fair and balanced reporting.

I attended this press conference yesterday, and Kermit touched on many points, including reigning in the ‘needs and wants’ of government, de-regulation for remodeling projects, taxes, and 2nd penny spending;

Sioux Falls City Councilor Kermit Staggers vowed that he would not raise property taxes in 2011 if he’s elected mayor next spring.

Councilor Dr. Kermit Staggers will make his bid for mayor of Sioux Falls official tomorrow. He will be holding a press conference;

CARNEGIE HALL • 10 AM • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1

This toon was in response to John Daiker’s editorial toon in yesterday’s Gargoyle Leader.

Sioux Falls City Councilor, Kermit Staggers responds to Councilor Costello’s attacks and gives him some advice;

Now is the time for Pat Costello to break out of the Sioux Falls City Council’s “artificial world” and to see what the rest of the world is like. He should start by going door to door in the neighborhoods and get in touch with the people who are suffering during this economic recession.

Or serve them hamburgers with all the fixin’s.

Kermit was on KCPO’s political comedy show ‘The Facts’ today (10:30 AM & 10:30 PM) talking about his resume. I assume it is because he will be announcing his mayoral race soon. If you are curious about Kermit’s resume as a community and state leader, I encourage you to watch the rerun tonight, it is very informative.

I can’t believe Kermit was able to be this concise in so few words. Read it twice and make yourself a drink first (From the Argus Leader);

Business activity in Sioux Falls is down, the office building occupancy rate is at a record low, city sales tax revenue is down, unemployment is up, and more people out of necessity are visiting the Banquet and Food Pantry to obtain free food. In the midst of this economic downturn and suffering, city government probably will spend a record-breaking amount of money this year, and next year’s spending on the city’s operations budget will be 4 percent higher than this year.

Sioux Falls 2009 budget is a little over a half-billion

While Sioux Falls has a reputation for being a caring, compassionate community in which neighbors help each other during difficult times, unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the actions of city government.

Yes, it is a caring community. But something I learned a long time ago, two things have factored into this giving 1) Giving money instead of time 2) A tax write-off

During this time of economic recession, city government has placed additional financial burdens on citizens by increasing the sales tax, the property tax, water fees, sewer fees, platting fees, food inspection fees, signage fees, in addition to placing special tax assessments on numerous properties. Common sense dictates that when people are suffering from layoffs, firings and reduced wages, taxes and fees should not be raised but instead reduced or at least remain the same.

In turn, it forces retailers to raise their prices to keep up, which results in higher prices of goods, and higher retail taxes.

As a bare minimum the city should not raise property taxes next year. An Aug. 4 Argus Leader editorial agreed: “The 2010 budget offers a unique chance to hold the line on property tax increases.” Ignoring economic sense and the advice of the Argus Leader, two amendments to prohibit a city property tax increase were not even debated or voted on by the Sioux Falls City Council.

Which was very disappointing. Councilor Costello ‘pretends’ to be concerned about rising taxes and the recession, but when he has an opportunity to stop the silly increase, he is silent. Big surprise. Not.

On the other hand, time was devoted to debating the merits of spending $1,720,100 of taxpayer money on a new golf clubhouse and pond rehabilitation project at Prairie Green Golf Course. An amendment to delete the clubhouse project was overwhelmingly defeated by a vote of 7-1.

I agree with Kermit this is a silly expenditure for a city during a recession, but, the golf courses do make money for the city. But the way they spend those profits are flawed. The golf course should be able to have an endowment to build clubhouses without coming to the city.

Many people wonder why the City Council appears more concerned about spending for a golf clubhouse that would benefit the few, but it rejects any attempt to stop a property tax increase that would benefit most of the city’s population, including homeowners, business owners and renters (who pay the property tax in their rent). Simply, the answer is that the City Council is living in its own artificial world that consists of council members, the mayor, department heads and those individuals who have frequent contact with the city such as developers.

This one sentence alone explains our city government in a nutshell. I am not saying this because I know Kermit. I am saying this because I have seen, and still see the different levels of economic status in our community. A majority of our residents are lower middle-class or below. That’s the facts Jack. When the Gargoyle Leader cheerleads for more minorities and women on the council, they are missing the point, they need more working class, they are the ones not being represented, no matter what color or gender they are. They also need to give the middle finger to the developers and special interests. Government is set up to protect and serve the GENERAL PUBLIC not the RICH PUBLIC, that’s why we ALL pay taxes.

In this closed world, city officials embrace a progressive viewpoint that supports property tax increases each year and the building of expensive facilities such as the golf clubhouse at Prairie Green in order to enhance the city’s reputation for having quality facilities.

Not sure if Kermit was being sarcastic, but I don’t think blowing my taxes on stuff to benefit the Haves is ‘progressive’, as James Carville would say, it is ‘regressive’.

In the City Council’s artificial world, any references to real people being hurt by property tax increases are simply ignored.

They really live in another world, and I am not saying that to bring weight to Kermit’s statements. I watch the council meetings religiously, and I am shocked by the ‘Penthouse’ statements made by our councilors, even by the ones who don’t live in the Penthouse, but aspire.

This includes the real-life story of a widow living in Sioux Falls on a fixed income in a modest 1,000-plus square-foot house who worries that she might lose her home because she cannot afford the annual property tax increases. And there is the example of a single Sioux Falls mother working at three jobs to support her children while also trying to stay in their home despite property tax increases.

One story?! Shit, Kermit, I could tell you more then you want to hear.

In sharp contrast to the Sioux Falls City Council is Rapid City’s City Council staying in touch with the public by voting against a property tax increase. Furthermore, the mayor of Rapid City declared in the Sept. 22 Argus Leader: “We understand that times are tough and everyone needs to tighten the purse strings as much as possible, and I think the city government is no exception.”

I remember reading this and going, “Hank, please send that memo to Dave. PLEASE!!!!!!”

Now is the time for my fellow members on the Sioux Falls City Council to break out of their closed, artificial world and finally get in touch with the real people of Sioux Falls. Now is the time for Sioux Falls to follow the example of Rapid City and stop raising property taxes every year.

Kermit, I like you, and that advice is swell, but it will never happen. Maybe we should invite them to Borrowed Bucks to have a drink and discuss, hopefully the cops won’t have to show up to break up the fight, either way, they know the address.

Once again the AL ED Board says too little too late when weighing in on the city budget;

Given that, it’s disappointing that the Sioux Falls City Council has approved a resolution that supports a 2010 general fund budget that’s based on questionable economic expectations.

Well, great-almighty and all-knowing editorial board, this budget has been around for weeks, it would have been nice to say something about it before the council voted on it. Of course, then you couldn’t come back and rip on the councilors for doing nothing, could you? Take for instance this stab at Kermit while seeming to compliment him;

Councilman Kermit Staggers says he’s worried about the message that city officials are sending residents with the budget. Staggers has established an unfortunate record of resisting most progressive ideas, but at least this time he’s right.

What freaking planet have you been living on? If anything, Kermit is one of the most progressive (citizen wise) councilors we have. But not according to the dear old AL who have had a hardon over Kermit for years. According to dictionary.com this is the definition of a progressive;

–adjective

1.	favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, esp. in political matters

In the years I have known Kermit he has advocated change more then any city official. He has been an advocate of more open government, he has asked the city reigns in spending by getting more competitive bids on projects, he has asked the city to responsible for their own property such as trees and sidewalks which would save taxpayers millions, he has asked the city to suspend some construction regulations while older neighborhoods be rebuilt so the projects get done faster and more economically. Kind of sounds like a progressive to me. In the AL’s ED Board eyes a progressive politician is someone who borrows money that has to be paid back with interest to buy monkey crappers and build roads for developers on the edge of Tea, SD. Sorry, spending taxpayer money recklessly to benefit the HAVES and special interests doesn’t make you a progressive, it makes you a big-government greedy Republican.

And Councilman Greg Jamison – saying that city employees should “fix the problem later if it becomes a problem” – definitely did residents no favors by abdicating his responsibility in holding the mayor’s budget accountable ahead of time.

Is Greg Jamison a progressive in your eyes? I could have sworn you have praised Greggo in the past for having ‘progressive’ ideas. Doing nothing but maintaining the status quo doesn’t make you a progressive. Progressives are people who encourage change and moving forward, changes and progress that affect all the citizens of a community. Kermit has done nothing but that.

Grow a f@#$ing brain already!

Gee, Dave, yah think?!

Count on City Councilor Kermit Staggers to be a possible mayoral candidate.

 

The central district representative says he’ll most likely run in the 2010 race.

 

“Over the past several summers I have gone door-to-door talking to people about the city,” Staggers said.

“There is a good chance we will” run for the office, he told me Friday.

 

As for a timetable on a final decision?

“We won’t have to hurry,” Staggers said.

Exactly. You can’t even collect signatures until after January 1, 2010. Settle down Dave.