South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

March 2020

Corona Virus Elections Secretary of State SF City Council Sioux Falls State Legislature

Legislature SHOULD allow communities to decide if they want to have April 14th elections

l3wis 4Comments

The SD State Legislature decided to meet electronically for veto day, which is a good. It is also more proof that the municipal and school board elections across the state should be postponed, or at least give communities the option to decide. That is what Minnehaha County Auditor said during yesterday’s County Commission meeting. Basically if the Legislature makes a decision on the election, they would pass a bill that would allow communities to decide for themselves if they wanted to hold the election on April 14th, which I think is a great idea. There are roughly 70 communities that are planning a April 14th election across the state. Litz basically said in smaller, less populated cities, they would probably be okay with holding an election, but bigger cities like Sioux Falls may have issues with it. Bob also said that he could easily combine the city/school election ballot with a 2-sided primary ballot.

I’m still on the fence about it. I think we need to see where we are at with the Corona Virus in couple of weeks before we decide. We also don’t know what it will be like in June. I think if communities are given the option to decide for themselves, they should do it on April 6th.

Audit Sioux Falls

City of Sioux Falls 2019 COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT

l3wis 2Comments

This financial report was released yesterday after the Audit Committee Meeting yesterday.

2019 CAFR DOCUMENT

Remember, this is just a ‘review’ of our financial statements. This is NOT a forensic or investigative audit. In other words they are not digging around for fraud or blatant waste, they are simply looking to see if the actual accounting the city has done matches the statements. A cakewalk for any outside independent auditor.

I have argued for a long time that the city needs to start from zero with their budgeting at least every 3-5 years. That is NOT what occurs now. City departments basically take the budgets from the year before and tweak them. It’s lazy and and wasteful. I also think an investigative audit needs to be done every 3-5 years to look for fraud but most importantly wasteful spending.

This laziness (and greed) is one of the reasons our taxes and fees continue to grow at an astronomical rate. I think the city should run a tight ship that only spends on essential infrastructure and FREE quality of life (like parks). I also think they need to balance their budget each year. If the budget started from ground zero each year, you would see a lot more savings and fiscal restraint. This of course would require city directors, the mayor, and the city council to work at it, and together. I know, lofty goals 🙂

SF School District Sioux Falls

New Sioux Falls School Super offered $240K + Benefits

l3wis 1Comments

(FF: 57:00) I guess they made this officially public last Thursday. Notice there was ZERO discussion about approving her hire and NO mention of her salary that was buried in the agenda online;

Dr. Jane Stavem, Redmond, Washington, for the position of Superintendent of Schools beginning July 1, 2020, at an annual base salary of $240,000 per year plus a benefit package and a relocation agreement; with the understanding that the relocation agreement will include moving costs and up to ten (10) extra days prior to July 1, 2020 to be mutually agreed upon between Dr. Jane Stavem and the President of the School Board and paid on a per diem basis.

Of course, we will have to take a look at the entire contract that could include a lot of different benefits that could easily tack another $60K onto the package.

Corona Virus Elections Sioux Falls State Legislature

Is postponing the municipal elections part of an evil Democratic Party plot?

l3wis 2Comments

While our Mayor, Health Director and City Attorney continue to tell us they don’t have the legal authority to close businesses (even though it is clearly spelled out in our charter that they can close businesses based on threats to public health) there seems to be another strange conspiracy brewing.

It seems the governor is pointing fingers at the SOS and they both are pointing fingers at the legislature while the legislature is pointing fingers back at them while our city clerk is trying to scrounge up boy scouts to run the polls.

I have argued all along, if we can’t find poll workers to work the April election, we can’t have an election. Who cares about state law?

But there’s a funny rumor being spread around by Republican lawmakers; they fear moving the municipal elections to the June primaries would give advantages to Democrats running for office.

Huh?!

First off, most, if not all municipal elections and school board elections are non-partisan. What Democrats would have an advantage? I also think Biden will already be the nominee before June, so there really wouldn’t be a reason for Dems to show up in June accept for a handful of Democratic primaries. If anything, I think Dems would have a bigger advantage voting in April. But either way, I have heard some pretty goofy things from the majority party in SD, but this one takes the cake.

Do the right thing, postpone the elections until June. You will have a higher voter turnout, save taxpayers money, and most importantly keep people safe while voting. Why does everything have to be political with Republicans in our state? This is about public safety and not politics.

Developers Development Property Taxes Sioux Falls Taxes

How Strong Towns Principles Relate to Sioux Falls — Municipal Ponzi Scheme

l3wis 4Comments

I was sent this article, that I found very interesting relating to the urban sprawl of our city;

Since 2010 the City of Sioux Falls has annexed 3996 acres of land into the city. That is almost 400 acres per year. How much tax revenue did that additional property bring in? How much did it cost to annex those areas? How much will it cost to replace all the associated infrastructure when it needs replacement? The answers to those questions are hard to piece together (maybe a good use of tax dollars would be to hire a company specializing in this kind of data to pull it together for us). In the meantime, we have some anecdotal data to look at.

So Detroit is a cautionary tale for cities caught up in a municipal Ponzi scheme. Here in River City things look pretty good . Sales tax revenue is floating our boat right now. We have money in the budget. Marohn refers to this as the illusion of wealth. It looks like we have money but the residential developments on the edge of town — which don’t generate sales tax directly — are new and don’t require replacement. When that infrastructure requires replacement the property tax revenue collected in those areas probably isn’t going to be enough to pay for it. Other areas of the city that are generating revenue will have to subsidize those areas — until they can’t. It happens slowly then all at once. Welcome to Detroit.

Ironically, several years ago when I got into Strongtowns, one of the main reasons I was drawn to it’s message was what they were saying about Urban Sprawl. It soon will be very expensive to live in Sioux Falls, if we are not already there.

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