No Town Hall Weasels
l3wis My cartoonist friend, Jackie Dusseau Beilke, created these in AI and has posted them on several different social media sites. Let’s just say, Dusty ain’t happy.
Dusty Johnson
Is anyone in leadership going to address the housing crisis in Sioux Falls?
The other day I heard Dusty Johnson talking about this issue, so I decided to email him the other day with my ideas;
Dusty,
I heard you talking the other day about the struggles with affordable housing in South Dakota.
We are in a crisis mode in Sioux Falls. I’m afraid the combination of developer and contractor handouts to build has caused this situation, plenty of businesses coming, not enough people to work those jobs. I’m afraid Amazon will have to build an RV Park/Campground to house the workers, because there will be no other place for them to live.
While we can’t go back in time, this all happened because we used taxpayer resources to incentivize the developers and contractors instead of the workers and housing buyers. We can do differently moving forward though. We need to end the welfare to big out of state businesses who pay below living wage salaries and start using Federal, State, County, and City programs to fix up our core neighborhoods where the affordable housing exists if the buyers are incentivized. We can do this through low interest or no interest loans, property tax rebates, fixing up infrastructure, etc. I call it starting from the bottom up. It also would prop up local contractors and businesses to fix up these homes. It also helps fight crime and neglect and it would be great for transferring slumlord neglected rental housing to first time homebuyers to fix up.
Trickle down has never worked, in fact it is proof that it has created this crisis. Instead we need to prop up residents to create more density in Sioux Falls and clean up these neighborhoods.
I know you are a Republican and may this agree with some of my suggestions, but the opposite just hasn’t worked, and never will. I told the planning commission and city council all these TIFS, tax rebates and breaks to big business and developers is just like pouring gasoline on a fire. We don’t have the workers, and even if they move here, we don’t have the housing. If we don’t do things completely opposite of what we have been doing, in five to ten years Sioux Falls is going to be a crime ridden dump.
Thanks for listening.
Scott L. Ehrisman
I figured since no one at city hall or in the state legislature is doing much about it except suggesting prisoners in Springfield work harder at building Governor houses, I would suggest to Dusty what is really going on here, is that we are failing, miserably, because of the bullcrap theory that if we give the rich developers and contractors at the top, somehow magically it would trickle down to us and solve our affordable housing issues. We also have to find a way to control rents in Sioux Falls and stop realtors from falsely inflating home prices in Sioux Falls. The value of my home changed very little over 17 years, usually 0-2% each year and then within two years it jumped up over 25%. Give me a break.
Is Rep Johnson abusing his franking privileges?
I would say he is. I received the card below today, and it clearly states on the front part that he ‘franked’ the card (we paid for the postage). He has that right as a representative of congress to give constituents important public information, and on the front he does that with how to get a vaccine (even though, unless you have been living in a cave in the Badlands over the past year, it’s pretty easy to figure out how to get a vaccine in South Dakota. Plus I am just imagining old ladies trying to scratch off the q-code to see if they won a vaccination shot or dinner with Duster).
The back side of the card is where I have my concerns in which it turns very political attacking the POTUS. While I certainly have my issues with Biden and some of the things he is doing, especially with the outrageous stimulus package, I don’t use tax dollars to send out postcards about it.
I’m not sure about all the rules surrounding ‘franking’ but just because 50% of this card followed the rules doesn’t mean the other 50% can break those rules, which I call the Janklow rule; as long as you do good things with your left hand, it’s okay to do crappy things with your right. Duster, don’t be a Bill.
Sorry, Duster, you can only get the sh!t so shiny when you polish a turd and this postcard was a real dull turd.
Dusty Johnson ONLY dignitary to wear mask at Rushmore event
All I can say is ‘BRAVO’ to Dusty to have the courage to wear a mask and not be worried about being shamed. Of course he was in the back row and not sitting with Rounds and Thune on the president’s stage. I guess Rounds was wearing a mask to but took it off before the Great Pumpkin showed up.
A lot of people took notice also that the governor must have been hitting the weights, the tanning booth and popping the water pills in preparation for the big night. It’s funny how she had time to get her appearance perfect but couldn’t memorize a couple of minute speech. Oh, that’s right, it’s only about appearance with these folks, substance is for another day.