South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Property Taxes

1st Amendment Property Taxes SF City Council

The City of Sioux Falls Finance Director is a real FIREBALL

l3wis 0Comments

After the Finance Director, Shawn ‘Fireball’ Pritchett put on his best performance to date to the city council Tuesday night supporting a property tax increase, some councilors were not buying it.

Why?

Well, because it’s strange that Fireball budgeted in the tax increase for 2026 before the council even approved it. I have no doubt the city council will pass this, either with 5-6 votes or a 4/4 tie with the mayor approving it. But what if the council votes this tax increase down? Then what? Well, the finance director would have to adjust the budget.

It is the council’s job to control the budget, and by charter they really are the ones supposed to be compiling it. So how does Fireball get away with budgeting for an assumed tax increase BEFORE the council approves that increase? Cart before horse. Reminds me of the Riverline promotion without a revenue source to pay for it. I guess I would have found the revenue first before pushing this forward. I would vote against this increase so Fireball has to do his job and actually put a budget together that focuses on fiscal restraint and not ‘assumed’ increases. I can’t believe we have 10 more months of this crap.

CITY NEEDS TO LIVESTREAM ALL PUBLIC MEETINGS ON YOUTUBE

The city’s agenda page is STILL broken after almost 16 years, just last night while watching the planning meeting it was screwing up. I sent this email to the entire city council, we will see what they do. I have been requesting this for several years with NO results;

Hello,

Trust me, with conversations with councilors current and past, I get your frustration with the video system on the city website, it started failing as Munson was leaving office and has never really been fixed since, and it appears it is getting worse. Several meetings over the past month have had video glitches. There is something you can do for a temporary/permanent fix. I would suggest keeping the current system so people can follow along the agenda, but for those who are only listening or watching the meetings they can also stream in YouTube. The benefit of the stream is it is FREE, in fact if you would put ALL of our public meetings on YouTube you would probably generate ad revenue from it. Also, almost every single local government in South Dakota uses YT to stream meetings, including the 2 local commissions and school board. The benefit is you can rewind the meeting at any time if you missed a speaker and the meeting is available for review IMMEDIATELY after the meeting ends. This is way past due. Now, I would assume that since the media department reports to the Mayor it is in his wheelhouse to get this fixed, but council meetings are under your review. My suggestion would be to pass an ordinance that requires the media department to live stream ALL public meetings. I would also give them 60 days to implement the YT stream in case they have to upgrade equipment or do some training (I learned how to make a YT video in 20 minutes). I also stress this needs to be in CHARTER, no handshake deals that get forgotten about in the next administration, I would even go a step farther and see if a council staffer can manage this and not even involve the media department.

As I said, way past due, and you can force the hand of the administration to comply by passing an ordinance. See, government can be easy sometimes, it only took 16 years.

Scott

1st Amendment Property Taxes SF City Council Sioux Falls Taxes

Will the Sioux Falls City Council raise property taxes today?

l3wis 5Comments

(Item #53 – 1st Reading)

The city council is set to increase property taxes tonight by 2.9% which is allowable by state law, but look how the city is ‘twisting’ this ‘option’;

This ordinance shows the 2026 budget for the Governmental (tax supported) Funds for calendar year of 2026, and the required revenues and sources to support the expenses.

In other words they created the 2026 budget assuming the city council will pass the property tax increase. So what if they don’t? That means the finance department would have to adjust the budget, which is what GOOD GOVERNMENTS do. The city council doesn’t have to pass this tonight and have NO requirements by city or state law to pass a property tax increase. ZILCH. Not to mention with the way the economy is going right now it would be one of the WORST times to increase property taxes.

How the city council votes on this will show the true colors of the individual councilors. While 99% of the community is hollering to lower our property taxes it will be interesting to see which councilors are ignorant enough to support this increase. I have no doubt it will pass, it always does with usually 2 dissenters but I have a feeling the vote is going to go a little different this time, but if 4/4 occurs Mayor Lame Poop will break the tie to increase taxes. He has never cared about the little man and he ain’t going to start now. I hope it goes to a tie vote so he owns this tax increase.

I will also be curious to see if these folks who show up to every county commission meeting to bitch about property taxes will come to the council meeting for a good reaming. This is 1st reading, so I don’t expect to many comments, but hopefully at least 5 councilors will look in the mirror before entering the dais and shoot this down tonight so it never makes a 2nd reading.

1st Amendment Mayor TenHaken Property Taxes Sioux Falls South Dakotans State Funding State Legislature Taxes

Sales taxes are regressive, and any effort to raise them will be met with massive opposition

l3wis 2Comments

I see Jodi is now becoming the Mayor’s cheerleader in trying to raise our sales taxes;

At the same time, before offering any incentive like that, we need to consider raising sales tax across the board if we’re going to continue to emphasize reducing property tax.

In the city of Sioux Falls alone, one penny of sales tax can generate almost $100 million each year. An option to capture that revenue, while at the same time pairing a sales tax holiday to provide relief during the year, seems worth exploring.

Our average of 6.11 percent, coming in at No. 36, is quite low, especially when you consider there’s no personal or corporate income tax to help fund government services.

She thinly veiled her support for a sales tax increase with a story about sales tax holidays. How about we put South Dakotans on a permanent sales tax holiday and implement an income tax. I did the math, and if you set it with certain income levels, 60% or more of South Dakotans wouldn’t pay a penny in income taxes. I have argued if we implemented a income tax on households and private business who make over $100K a year (with exemptions for children) and increased the assessments on commercial and ag properties for property taxes, we would have oodles of money for programs while eliminating the sales tax almost entirely. I would keep sales taxes on luxury items and items over a certain dollar value. Sales taxes on anything we need like medical, energy, food, clothing, etc., would be eliminated. Making poor people pay more in taxes so property owners can get a tax cut makes no sense and is defeating the purpose. I support a property tax cut, but other changes have to be implemented for it to work, and we don’t need to increase taxes on things we need, the government needs to budget differently and we need to go after the tax dollars where they are; RICH PEOPLE. But since they control this town and legislature it will never happen.

1st Amendment Mayor TenHaken Property Taxes Sioux Falls South Dakotans State Funding State Legislature Taxes

Did I just wake up from a 15 Year Coma?

l3wis 4Comments

Several years ago when Huether was running for Mayor I said something similar to this;

‘This is the problem when you have marketing people running city government’

I didn’t say that exactly, it was something like, “We don’t need salesman running our city.” Same premise. The initial quote comes recently from a SF legislator referring to our leadership in our fine city, specifically the mayor’s office. I have railed about this for 15 years, questioning why we need salesmen running our city. I guess some other ‘leaders’ in Sioux Falls are finally waking from their 15 year coma and realizing shucksters and carnival barkers have been running our city, and it is time for a change. Hopefully we will get a mayor this next time around who wants to actually GIVE BACK to the community instead always trying to sell us something we don’t want or need . . . and that is quite a list.

Mr. Kirby even weighs in on the topic;

I sometimes wonder if the Chamber of Commerce and development foundation focus a bit too much on growth and not enough on life quality and the right sort of growth.

I have been saying that for 20 years. Growth for Growth sakes will eventually bite you in the butt when the money tap runs out for the Developer Welfare Queens. That tap will run dry by the end of the year and won’t get shut back on for several more years. Maybe it is time city government focus on fixing up the current infrastructure instead of building canals on Veterans Parkway.

1st Amendment Downtown Sioux Falls Property Taxes Sioux Falls State Legislature Taxes

The Problem with Erik Muckey

l3wis 5Comments

Representative Muckey has been blabbing anywhere he can about how he voted against the property tax cut, then in the next breath complains about TANF cuts. There would be less people on TANF if their property taxes weren’t so high.

I don’t care if you are Indy, Repug or a Demorat, you NEVER vote against a tax cut. NEVER! Political suicide. Was this property tax perfect or even fair? No. But it was a starting point for more adjustments, like fixing our assessor system.

We know why he voted against a property tax cut; Teacher pay. The tired old argument Dems haul out when they are running for office. Do you know who cares about teacher pay? Teachers, and a couple of Dems in the legislature. That’s it.

I have made the same argument to legislators over and over again, which usually falls on deaf ears; Teacher pay in SD is reflective of other professional salaries in the private sector, for example, nursing. South Dakota is almost dead last for nursing pay. There are many other professional fields that are below the national average in South Dakota. I’ve said the best way to raise wages for teachers is to raise wages for professionals in the private sector. When they make more, they buy bigger houses, and pay more in property taxes which raises teacher pay. This isn’t rocket science folks. A good start would be presenting legislation that eliminates all of our right to work state laws.

I’m not sure who is Erik’s audience on this one? Kadyn? But you never vote against a tax cut. NEVER! And you especially don’t brag about it after the fact. Have you written your political obituary yet?

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