Hizzoner was on the B-N-B show this morning spreading his own special kind of love. He started telling his victory lap story he has been telling over the past month that he will be on to bigger and better things right after taking a break, because as he put it, his daughter wants him to be ‘fun again’. I don’t even want to know what that all entails but I’m picturing a speedo and a couple of empty Coors Light Silos.
Either way, besides serving up his own special brand of BS this morning, now claiming people hate him, or hate progress, or hate something, not sure where he was going with it since he always prefaces these kind of statements with ‘I better be careful about who I am talking about’. He made another one of his Half-Truth statements;
There is NOW less debt than when I became mayor.
Well folks, that is absolutely true. In fact I think when MMM leaves office there will be around $10 million less debt then when he rolled in in 2010. So you ask, how is this so? First off, the obvious; many of the debts that were incurred during the Hanson and Munson administrations have come to fruition. This has nothing to do with Huether, just the way the repayment was set up. In fact, if we wouldn’t have borrowed ANY money during the Huether administration our debt now would probably be around $100 million instead of 3x that.
So you ask, what about all the debt MMM incurred? That still exists, and will for about 20-30 years.
But this is where Huether gets even more dim on his great debt payoff. Many of the infrastructure debts were re-financed and paid down due to the increase of fees in the enterprise funds, front end property tax assessments, property taxes, building and platting, and the list goes on. In fact the Mayor’s office with the help of the rubberstamp council has increased fees and taxes over 50 times since 2010.
So while the mayor may brag about not increasing the debt on the city over the past 8 years, he has certainly put that burden on property owners in Sioux Falls in higher fees and taxes. Don’t believe me? If you still live in the same home you lived in 2010, pull your property taxes from that year and compare them to 2017. Tell me what you figure out?
It’s too bad wages haven’t increased by that much in 8 years?
He also finally admitted that you essentially can’t get things done in government unless you make the decisions behind closed doors with a minority of support from the council and key business players in town. He said that open meetings and forums with the public just drag out the conversation and nothing gets accomplished. While his statements might piss you off, I was happy to finally hear him say publicly that he never gave a rat’s ass what the public thought.
Full steam ahead.
I hope when the mayor decides to be fun again, it will be on another continent.
Isn’t that what Clinton did?…. He’s a Democrat after all…. 😉
If Jo Jo wins, expect tax and spend out the ying-yang. She’s as liberal as they come.
She has assured people she is a penny pincher and will be a fiscal conservative. I believe her. Besides that, she isn’t going to have much of a choice.
Mike,
What page of the GOP handbook did you pull that comment from?
Has anyone asked Jolene what fiscal conservative takes “her last $300” and uses it to fund a start-up dog poo (I mean, biotech) business? Most people would get a job.
This mayor’s race is maddening!
I listened to this belrage podcast a couple hours ago. I had the exact same reaction as you did to the comment he made about debt per capita. The assessed value on my property has increased right at 50% in 8 years. From 160k to 240k. It took 15 years for my assessment to go from 130k to 160k, or rise by 30k. It took only 8 years to rise 80k. 2k a year from 1995 to 2010. 10k a year from 2010 to 2018.
Good riddance mmm.
Cash on hand may be better but bond debt is ten times it was pre 2010. If the city has cash, why can’t they float more junk bonds. Huether plays Monopoly passing GO with $200 and thinks he can buy a ‘hotel ramp for Park Place’ and a thin strip of ‘BNSF’ with exorbitant toxic cleanup cost. Meanwhile he raises water utilities and ignores ‘Go to Jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.’ Our ‘Community Chest’ card said buy him 6 indoor tennis courts and pay 10 million dollar TIF’s to his insider buddies. It’s time to eliminate the ‘Mayor Piece’ and pick the ‘Race Car’ to get this city on track legally and constitutionally.
I tried to listen but didn’t get very far. Mr. Belfrage you are a Tool.
at least no candidate has told us how “prudent” they are.
Please notice my soliloquy #7. It was good but wouldn’t work for Council Public Comment. Maybe for the new mayor and council when they’ve not gorged themselves on Rolfing Rack of Lamb.