Libertyland TIF gets Slaughtered

It is no surprise to me this failed, I predicted a 70/30 split;

RAPID CITY, SD — Results have been finalized by Rapid City Officials, who have declared the citizens of Rapid City have voted against the establishment of the “Destination” TIF District, with a final tally of:

All 25 precincts in:

Yes 3,415 (30%)

No 7,965 (70%)

22.32% Turn Out (11,380 out of 50,995 Voters in Rapid City)

Absentee results

Yes 961

No 2,479

It surprised me there was so many absentee, seems a lot of snowbirds voted 🙂 which is ironic considering some of the people behind the petition drive are against mail in voting.

The success of this vote doesn’t surprise me, I think if citizens have an opportunity to vote on ‘economic development’ TIFs they will vote them down, they just don’t have any payback to the average Joe and actually cost us in higher property taxes and retail taxes. Notice our legislature keeps trying to shift tax burdens onto the consumer, it is regressive and idiotic and for every penny paid in retail taxes one penny gets taken out of the local economy. Horrible way to fund government.

So with the petition drive going on with the Data Center, it may be time to keep those clipboards warm for another one.

Yesterday at one of the City Council meetings there was a gentle mention that this development was coming back. If you read what I posted, you will notice that the TIF for this development was ONLY approved by the Planning Commission and that was in July of 2024. The project got stalled so the city council NEVER approved a TIF or final development plan, that means if they are resurrecting this project it will have to go thru the same process as it did 2 years ago. They will have to present a new development plan and TIF proposal. If the TIF proceeds are for any NON infrastructure upgrades we could challenge the TIF with another petition drive and I think we should. Citizens really should be deciding on their own property tax increases and not letting a vote by a meaningless board decide. So I hope the new development doesn’t include a TIF, but if it does, I smell a petition drive.

Oh, and the developer is from out-of-state, so we would essentially being subsidizing an out-of-state developer welfare queen. We can’t even launder money locally anymore 🙁