South DaCola – Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

1st Amendment Elections Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council TIFs

Data Center Petitions Due

l3wis January 26, 2026 1Comments

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.’

1st Amendment Sioux Falls Uncategorized

Accept the Invitation

l3wis January 24, 2026 4Comments

Yesterday I heard another disheartening story about someone running for local office and turning down a FREE opportunity to promote thyself and their campaign.

I get guff from my Lib friends that I listen to too much right wing radio/podcasts. I enjoy them because their ridiculous claims make me laugh my ass off. But sometimes I learn something new, like how these knuckle draggers think.

I recently suggested this book to someone running for a seat in the upcoming city election. You have to sometimes walk over a line and look at the person on the opposite side of your thinking. You may learn something about yourself while educating those around you about who you are.

The city election is non-partisan. Let’s work to keep it that way. There are no left/right, rich/poor ideas, there is just common sense.

So if someone asks you to be a guest to talk about your campaign, don’t check their party registration, check their values, and check yours. Silence speaks volumes, remember that.

‘I don’t know if the city is corrupt, they don’t tell us anything.’

And that is the crux of our problems, not party affiliation.

1st Amendment Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council

Transparency Changes with the Sioux Falls City Council

l3wis January 23, 2026 3Comments

At the informational next Tuesday the council will be discussing;

City Committee and Boards Update by Councilors Miranda Basye and Rich Merkouris

Of course there are NO links to the agenda item, so we have no clue what this is about before the meeting (I’ve told the council for years when the informational meeting posts on Friday all attached documents for agenda items should be there, it’s a good transparency thing. The docs usually don’t post until an hour before the meeting or right when the meeting starts).

I’m assuming they are going to announce that ALL public meetings will be posted to the main agenda page, which I notice they have been doing now for about 2 weeks. This is just another thing I told them about a few years ago that they dragged their feet on. The council shouldn’t even be involved with this, this is something staff should have been doing for years, AND, it is how it used to be, but after the city spent a million dollars transforming the city website into a maze of information that all changed. So if this is what this meeting is about, good for you, but it’s way past due. Like I said, Transparency 101.

While I should be happy the council is finally doing something, I am uncomfortable with the 3 (hopefully 4) outgoing councilors making policy decisions on transparency and open government without a new set of eyes weighing in. I think this would be a great initiative for the next mayor and council to work on together. This is just a last ditch attempt as they are walking out the door to make it look like they did something the last 4 years. Too little, too late. It’s like open government in Sioux Falls is an afterthought to them and it shows.

I have tons of open government ideas, but they are going to have to wait until July, because I don’t have much confidence in our current ‘shadow’ council who are doing this to get brownie points. Why is everyone in government these days act like 3rd Graders? Because they are.

1st Amendment Minnehaha County SFPD Sioux Falls

A name is important, especially in an Emergency

l3wis January 23, 2026 1Comments

Yesterday we all got the same Amber Alert; 10 yr/old Native American Male, Joel Takenalive.

At first I didn’t think anything of it, until several news orgs were reporting what the Amber Alert actually said, which was incorrect;

I could only find two news organizations, who probably realized that his name was spelled incorrectly in the Amber Alert, spell his name correctly; Joel Tanken Alive, you know, because he is a Native American. I wonder if Joel would have been found sooner (thank God he is safe!) if they would have spelled his name correct in the Amber Alert? And how long did it take the other news orgs to realize the spelling error?

When I hear all this talk about law enforcement cooperation, I tell people they have to be transparent with us and we will work with them. The Devil is in the Details.

1st Amendment racism

Jim Crow in Turner County

l3wis January 22, 2026 5Comments

Since Sally started running for his second term I noticed that outward racism and racist remarks seem to be more out in the open, then I started to see it seep into the dialogue of National politicos, then podcasts and now even in small government policy.

Pretty crazy you would do this to discourage (the only candidate running) from running, who happens to be black and has oodles of law enforcement experience (not sure what his record is? Maybe that will come out in the campaign?) And heck, the current pay isn’t even that great! Then to cut it by $30K a year! Wow. Were you wearing hoods when you voted on this? ‘Pretty obvious to me they tryin’ to run em outta town, yah see.’

Ironically, he would probably be the best damn Sheriff the county has ever had. He has tons of experience and is in his prime, who wouldn’t want that? Maybe this is why he doesn’t have challengers? Did you ever think of that?

It reminds me of the black mayor of Mitchell, SD. He was one of the most popular mayor’s they ever had. I think he did a brief national TV interview talking about it, and he said something clever about how he doesn’t feel black, he just feels South Dakotan (I think he was born and raised in Mitchell).

Don’t let your hate blind you Turner County Commissioners.

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