February 2010

The biggest flaw with the Events Center Task Force recommendation? No Plan ‘B’

Another Events Center Task Force member, hard at work

This is where the task force really screwed up big time. They just automatically assumed that they could shove their plan down taxpayer’s throats, well thank gawd at least 10 legislators in Pierre had the common sense to tell them NO!

Mayor Dave Munson said he has no backup plan.

“There really isn’t,” he said on the way back to Sioux Falls after testifying for the bill. “There’s no way I could see how you could do the project (without a sales tax).”

BULLSHIT! You could easily do what they do in other communities. Pay for at least 30% through private donations, bond the rest out and pay for it through a BB & B tax. Will it take longer to pay off? Sure, but you keep popping off that this is a facility that will be used for 50 years, so who cares if it takes 50 years to pay for. Do people take out 4 year mortgages on their homes or 30 year mortgages?

I think this is the part of the EC Task Force and some of our city government people (mainly Munson, Brown and Costello) that really chaps my hide. Zero leadership. Any big plan, especially you have spent 16 months and hundreds of thousands of dollars on, should have a plan ‘B’ in place just in case the original idea fails. REAL LEADERS UNDERSTAND THIS. REAL PROGRESSIVES ARE ALWAYS LOOKING AROUND THE NEXT CORNER and REAL FORWARD THINKERS ANTICIPATE SNAGS AND COMPENSATE FOR THEM. None of this was done, and as I predicted at the Council meeting when they approved this failed plan, “You’ll be right back at the beginning because you keep chasing your tails with flawed plans.” Guess what, this ‘HOT HEAD’ was right, again and you were wrong AGAIN! But what do I know, I’m just a blogger.

South DaCola music club w/ The Bottlerockets

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXpqTuJOnTw&feature=related[/youtube]

Hos and I spent a many fun nights at the Pomp Room watching these guys. Gawd I miss the days when great bands visited our city on a regular basis.

Here is a great cover of one my favorite Bottlerockets songs, we’ve all been there;

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3H-1YQxiXU&feature=related[/youtube]

If you didn’t see this coming…

…you must be blind, deaf, and incomprehensibly stupid. Time to find a new source of rainbows and unicorn farts.

The bill that would have allowed cities to raise a third penny sales tax for special projects was shot, hanged, poisoned, racked, gassed, lethally injected, drawn, quartered, and waterboarded by the House Local Government Committee.

While most of the arguments against the bill came from people saying they didn’t want to tax the poor to pay for something they’ll never use (a good argument), the main problem I have with funding a new EC with a sales tax is that it’s a crappy way to fund an entertainment building. Tax Bed, Board, and Booze instead. This will still give us enough revenue to build an EC without putting an undue burdon on people buying groceries or yet another set of clothing for a daughter who grows faster than our national debt.

The most unfortunate (and telling) part of the linked article is the paragraph quoting Jane Page of the State Department of Revenue.  She’d like to keep the option open for the state to raise sales taxes in the future without having to pile on top of increased local taxes.  I wonder how many legislators “can’t wait” to raise the sales tax to build all kinds of wonderful stuff.

Now that the city has to go back to the drawing board to come up with a workable idea, maybe they’ll be a little more open-minded about better locations and funding sources. If not, we’ll still be talking about building a new EC 20 years from now.

Olbermann…Love him or hate him.

Seems to me Olbermann is hated by the right. The guy ran this story Monday night. You’ll have to wait til towards the end to catch his take on the Indians Affair comment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#35304569

Then he followed up on Tuesday night with this.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#35321529

And again on Wednesday night with this.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#35339539

Keith, by these airings, raised a lot of money for a worthy cause. Maybe I missed it cause I don’t get the daily Argus print edition anymore, but did they even cover ANY part of this? And Princess Steph, or Thune, or Johnson? Where were they on this story? That’s right. Bringin home the bacon in the form of 2 million dollars to study the effects of the pine beetle in the Blackhills.

AWOL…again? Or maybe not. If they have been “involved”, it certainly was,or is, low profile.

Thanks Keith Olbermann.

This isn’t the first time Todd Epp has taken a swipe at the First Amendment

Back in 2001 Todd was willing to defend the Brookings Arts Council as a board member of the SD Arts Council. Joy Crane ultimately got Todd to resign on the board because of the extreme conflict of interest that would have existed defending the BAC against someone he is supposed to be representing, a member of the Arts Council, Crane herself. That, and his blatant disregard for the First Amendment. Joy won her battle, I guess the BAC got a little nervous when they started getting letters from anti-censorship lawyers in New York and the ACLU.

As we insisted in our letter to Ms. Knutzen (jointly signed by NCAC, David Green of the First Amendment Project and Jennifer Ring of the ACLU of the Dakotas), randomly applying the vague and subjective standard of appropriateness to work that clearly constitutes protected speech raises serious constitutional concerns. The viewpoint expressed in “Chastity Belt” might well be unpopular and potentially controversial for Brookings, SD. But it is precisely to protect speech that is controversial or even offensive that the First Amendment exists. And, as the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed: “If there is a bedrock principle of the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” (Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 414, 1989)