As I mentioned on April 3, the Quality of Life bonds are coming down the pipe, sooner then I thought. As I mention in the post, Staggers asked Eugene, while he was doing his constingency plan presentation a few months back, if they were going to hold off on these bonds until the economy got better, At the time Eugene said they would, not so fast;

“It was in the plan for 2009,” Finance Director Eugene Rowenhorst said. “We’re just executing the plan.”

I guess Eugene needs to get himself a tape recorder so he remembers what he says.

Mayor Dave Munson’s administration is moving forward with a plan to borrow $20 million for a new round of quality-of-life projects.

The Sioux Falls City Council learned Monday that the administration will ask for approval of a new bond issue next month. If approved, the bonds could be issued by June.

For argument’s sake let’s pretend these projects are worthwhile and all of the citizens support them. So even if that is the case why would we be borrowing more money during a recession? And why would we be borrowing money for monkey crappers? If these projects are worthwhile, why not just budget for them in 2010 instead of borrowing?

Councilor Pat Costello noted Monday that because of slower growth in sales tax revenues, the city is preparing to postpone several projects totaling $5.3 million. Most are road projects.

“My thoughts are, we’re getting confused on our priorities,” he said.

No shit Sherlock? I have known the council’s priorities have been screwy for a very long time. We are $80 million behind on road maintenance in the city yet we continue to borrow money for monkey crappers and raise taxes to build new roads that are practically bordering Tea, SD.

And while the city’s total authorized debt now exceeds $320 million, a significant amount of that debt is being repaid with user fees from water rates and other utilities, Rowenhorst said, meaning there’s plenty of extra tax revenue in the administration’s view to pay off more bonds.

What a poor use of user fees! We should be charged fairly for the water we use, not overcharged so we can pay back bonds. The city should be balancing the budget every year and we should pay our debt down as quickly as possible. It pisses me off that I have to pay an extra 20-40% in water fees so I can line the pockets of bond investors  that don’t even live in Sioux Falls.

But putting off needed infrastruture upgrades isn’t the only concern about these loans;

But the decision also comes at a time when officials have been nervous about sales tax receipts. In the first three months of this year, revenues are up 1.3 percent over the same period last year. Officials had planned on 6.5 percent growth.

Mark Weber, a local economist who studies state economic data, warned the council Monday that job losses in the Sioux Falls area were mounting. By his count, using state data, the area has lost 5,600 jobs, and virtually every sector is down.

As I said early on, the city’s ‘constingency plan’ was just smoke and mirrors. They have had no intention of following it, which is pretty obvious after this bond proposal was presented. Eugene even tried to downplay the bonds by acting like he forgot to mention them, then pulls them out in the middle of his budget address and tries to move along to other things. Nice try Eugene. Kermit caught it and asked why none of this went through fiscal committee. Of course, the sheep they are, our council defended the proposal, saying they will have time to debate the bonds at the first reading. I have no doubt they will pass. If there is any NO votes they will only come from Costello and Staggers for sure and maybe Beninga.

On a side note, as you read, Mark Weber did his presentation to the council yesterday, he isn’t the world’s best speaker, but his presentation was very poignant, especially the graphs. The late 2008 and 2009 graphs had huge peaks and valleys when it came to job growth, etc. Amazingly, or maybe not, after the presentation, not one single councilor, besides Staggers, had a question, in fact they all just looked as white as ghosts (with rose colored glasses on).

Our city leaders(?) have been living in a freaking dream world, and they need to come out of their deep sleep.

4 Thoughts on “Eugene 'Montgomery Burns' Rowenhorst drops a bomb, then wonders why the council is surprised

  1. Warren Phear on April 28, 2009 at 7:47 am said:

    Thanx for the links l3wis. Interesting stuff. You seem to be well connected with city issues. Yesterday I stumbled across a show on channel 16 called “Inside Town Hall”, something they put out for us to devour every now and then. I’m not a big fan of De Knudson, but I did find this topic rather interesting. Do you know anything about it?

    http://www.siouxfalls.org/CityLink16/Programs/Regular_Programs/inside_town_hall/ith_04_20_2009.aspx

  2. I saw that Warren, I think it is a ‘neat’ idea in concept. But it sounds like a position they would create at an Ad Agency, not at a city. The department heads get paid oodles of money, can’t they figure out how to make their departments ‘sustainable’? Guess not.

    I also see in the want ads that the city is hiring 3 new positions totaling over $117,000 in salaries. At least someone is hiring and paying good wages in this economy – heh.

  3. Warren Phear on April 28, 2009 at 11:16 am said:

    Sustainability Coordinator. Sounds impressive enough. So I found the link at Siouxfalls.org and decided I should watch that video again. Let’s see. Head bean counter at the Household Hazardous Waste Facility and knudsen suck up. Beyond that???? Who knows. Willing to bet she makes more than all her employees combined though.

    Just another position with a fancy title and a six figure salary to go along with it. Will be interesting to see that salary when it’s posted at the end of the year.

  4. I think she should work for a commission on what the city makes from recycling electronics. I thought it was funny during the interview when they emphasized that the electronics drop off was FREE. Well it should be! I’m sure they are making buckets of money from it. Shipping lead computer parts to China so children dismantlers can get Cancer. Nice. As long as we get our Monkey Crappers, Rock and Wood thingies and Junior football fields, who cares!

    It’s the American way!

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