November 2017

Elections Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Kiley staunch supporter of government secrecy

l3wis November 8, 2017 6Comments

SE District Councilor Kiley has announced today he is running for a 2nd term.

That’s too bad.

At this point he has no challengers though there have been a couple of people who have seemed interested.

Kiley will try to paint a rosy picture of his first 4 years which couldn’t be further from the truth;

During his first term, Kiley, 64, fought to maintain free and reduced pool passes for Sioux Falls most needy, reformed door-to-door sales regulations in the name of consumer protection and voted against raising paratransit fares on multiple occasions.

And that is about as good as it gets for Rick. He has fought hard to protect secretive government in Sioux Falls and has backed the mayor almost 99.9% of the time when it comes to his agenda, including an unneeded administration building & change in council elections requiring a majority.

Kiley has also done very little in being an advocate for citizens and often defends city directors over citizens. He also helped lead the charge to concoct bogus ethics charges against Stehly basically throwing one of his peers under the bus under false pretenses under the direction of one of theÂ most unqualifiedÂ city attorneys we have ever had.

Kiley is bad news, especially if we get a mayor truly committed to open and transparent government, he will find himself in a very lonely place over the next 4 years.

Hopefully we can find a good challenger and someone who can paint a real picture of Kiley’s true anti-citizen government views.

Christine Erickson SF City Council Sioux Falls TIFs

Chamber to host a TIF informational

l3wis November 8, 2017 2Comments

I find the statement ‘TIF itself can be rather complex and confusing’ a little comical. TIFs are not complicated. They are basically a property tax rebate to private development. Funny how I could explain that in one sentence. Where it gets confusing and frustrating is when they hand this rebate to extremely successful and wealthy free enterprise private developers for property that isn’t blighted OR above and beyond what that blight is costing them to develop. It is also a little ironic that TIF recipients are often big campaign donors to the elected officials who authorize the TIFs. It’s a blatant conflict of interest, corruption and corporate welfare. It’s time we end TIFs. They don’t benefit the common citizen in any way. A better program would be more low interest or no interest community development loans to landlords who want to provide working class affordable housing. Read all about it;

Dear Community Leader,

You are invited to join Lt. Gov. Matt Michels and other state and local leaders in learning more about an economic development tool called Tax Increment Financing (TIF). TIF is a development incentive primarily used locally to redevelop blighted areas and grow the local economy. TIF is a useful economic development tool intended to attract private investment and new businesses, which in turn means more jobs, more customers, and a growing tax base. When used correctly, the benefit to our community seems to be straightforwardâ€”however, TIF itself can be rather complex and confusing.

With that in mind, we would like to take the opportunity to invite you to an informational â€œTIF Forumâ€. During this event, you will hear from:

*Â Â Lieutenant Governor, Matt Michels
*Â Â Secretary of the Department of Revenue, Andy Gerlach
*Â Â Department of Revenue’s Director of Property Special Taxes, Mike Houdyshell
*Â Â City Council Vice Chair, Christine Erickson.
This is an opportunity to simply learn more about TIF, how it works, and ask any questions you might have. We hope you will consider attending this event.

Tax Increment Financing Forum
Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce- Betty J. Ordal Room
Monday, Nov. 13, 2017
3:00-5:00 p.m.

We kindly ask you to RSVP by responding to this email no later than Monday, Nov. 13th at noon. With limited seating available in the Chamber’s conference room, this event will be restricted to the first 45 people to RSVP.

Thank you,

Teresa Schreier
Public Affairs and Communications Assistant
Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce
200 N. Phillips Ave., Suite 200
PO Box 1425 | Sioux Falls, SD 57101-1425
P 605.373.2050 | F 605.336.6499

Downtown Sioux Falls Railroads

The Railroad Relocation project does little to relieve downtown rail traffic

l3wis November 8, 2017 10Comments

While there was probably a lot of fanfare and celebrating giving millions of Federal tax dollars to Warren Buffet today at a press conference (and probably millions more in city tax dollars), the project doesn’t do much in stopping or slowing train traffic downtown. Besides tearing out the old railyard, two train tracks in the same area will remain.

I have also noticed that trafficÂ has increased over Cliff Avenue downtown near Avera hospital. Over the past month I have had to wait for trains to cross during the noon hour twice and once at 5 PM on a Friday Afternoon.

The original idea of the RR relocation project when it was cooked up by former mayor Munson and Tim Johnson was to limit or rid Downtown Sioux Falls of rail traffic and little to do with development.

While the current administration may call the project a huge ‘WIN’ for Sioux Falls, I think by not moving rail traffic from downtown was a huge ‘FAIL’ and an enormous waste of Federal tax dollars. When they talk about ‘Pork’ in DC, these are the kind of projects they are talking about.

Bob Litz County Commission Minnehaha County

Minnehaha County has better credit rating than the City of Sioux Falls

l3wis November 8, 2017 3Comments

So I get a call from a county official yesterday, and they say something like,

“Did you hear? The county has a better credit rating than the city. But you might not have heard because we didn’t hold a press conference.”

Bob Litz actually made the brief announcement at the county commission meeting on Tuesday. I even said to the official that I didn’t even get a press release from the county on it. The good rating will SAVE taxpayers money on interest with the bond sale for the new jail.

SF City Council Sioux Falls