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Sioux Falls

Citizens for Reponsible Sales Tax Sioux Falls

The Retail Tax increase ruse is finally revealed

l3wis 0Comments

salestax

Last year when the Sioux Falls city council voted to raise our retail taxes they said it was for new arterial roads. They argued the extra .08% would raise $5 million for new roads and platting fees paid by developers would pay the other $5 million. A 50/50 partnership, so to speak. In recent months, I assume to downplay our tax petition, the city started to say it was going to be a 40/60 partnership instead, with the developers paying the 60%.

Well the numbers are in, and they ain’t even close to what the city is claiming. Since the tax increase took effect January 1, 2009, the extra .08% in retail taxes has collected about $1 Million dollars. In five months. Obviously it will have to pick up a bit to reach the $4 million dollar goal by the end of the year. But the alarming number is how much the developers have put in the kitty since January 1st. Let’s just say I rewinded the audio three times when finance director Eugene ‘Montgomery Burns’ Rowenhorst mumbled the amount at yesterday’s informational meeting; $8,000 dollars! Nope, you heard right, not $800,000 dollars, $8,000 in five months!  I think the Boy Scouts could raise more than that in just one week selling popcorn.

I said this tax increase was a ruse from the beginning to max out our taxes, it had nothing to do with building those roads. And if the developers are going to chip in 60% to build arterial roads, they better turn it up a notch, because at that rate, they won’t have enough money to build one block let alone several streets.

As usual, Sioux Falls taxpayers will have to pony up 90% of the money for the roads. And as usual, Munson’s administration misled and lied to the public to raise our taxes.

Shameful.

ANOTHER THING THAT WAS BROUGHT UP, in the meeting by Rowenhorst was how much of our Capital Improvement fund goes toward debt service (paying interest and principal on bonds); 22%. Just imagine all the roads we could fix if we weren’t throwing those millions away on interest payments? By rough estimates I’m guessing we pay about $25 million in interest/principal payments a year, just on our CIP projects. Ironically, Eugene bragged that 22% was a good number, he said the city’s credit rating could allow us to be paying 44% out in debt service.

Where do they get these clowns anyway? Oh that’s right Rowenhorst and Munson worked for Citibank, that explains it all.

Capital Improvement Sioux Falls

After squandering tax dollars on his legacy for 7 years, Munson hands off past due infrastructure spending to the next mayor

l3wis 9Comments

Gee, should have saw this coming a mile away from Mr. Predictable, Dave Munson. After throwing money at Phillips to the Falls, Monkey crappers, bunny slopes and consultants for the past seven years, Dave wakes up from his deep sleep and goes, oh, that’s right, we have to spend tax dollars on fixing roads and sewers to;

“It’s something you have to do to make sure you’re repairing and maintaining streets so that they don’t become full of pot holes and chuck holes, and so that people aren’t out there damaging their cars and they are always having to have alignments. We need to be out there taking care of streets and maintaining what we already have,” Sioux Falls Mayor Dave Munson said.

This should be the number one priority expenditure of every mayor, every day of their term, not just in the home stretch. Even Munson admits that’s what he is doing;

“The infrastructure is what keeps us moving forward in the city and we don’t want that to languish behind, and so that we really have to someday play a game of catch up,” Munson said.

Of course we know who the real force is behind the expenditures, special interests;

But its not only the old streets that have to be maintained, 32 million dollars is set aside in the five year plan for expansion of new arterial streets. That expansion includes the Southwest part of town where Sanford plans to build its new research park, and developers plan to build new homes and businesses.

“We all work together but right now our focus is really on public works to make sure that everything is at the stage we want it to be,” Munson said.

You mean work with special interests to make sure they get what they want while the rest of scoop shit from our basements from backed up sewers.

Event Center Sioux Falls

If we build it, they will come (with their Coleman stoves)

l3wis 4Comments

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Sy read the Gargoyle Leader’s sports section on Sunday and sent me this comment about the event Center;

“There is a small but vocal faction that still wants to see an events center built downtown, but their prospects are bleak. In addition to logistical issues – facility space, parking, traffic flow – the downtown concept is seen as a deal-breaker because it’s enormously unpopular among the general public. – Stu Whitney

You know what else is enormously unpopular with the general public, Stu Whiney and his constant stream of negative piss he calls sports journalism.   When has the general public weighed in on the issue of Event Center location?   The size a paid consultant is recommending would easily fit at that Cherapa site and there’s more access points in and out than there would be at the Arena site.   Parking?  Again, we’ve paid people to look at this and they have said there is plenty of existing parking within reasonable walking distance, and that wouldn’t include any more added by replacing the River ramp or what comes in next to the facility itself.   

 

Another enormously unpopular idea is moving Howard Wood field and adding an additional $10 million or so to rebuild it out on basically useless ground tucked in between the Airport and the Benson Road exit.   The School Board wants to spend $5 million to renovate it, so that option was obviously not their first choice.   

 

We could build the 12K seat Events Center downtown for $100 million, match the School Board’s $5 million and upgrade Howard Wood.  Put $15 million apiece into additional parking at or around the downtown site, and into renovating the Convention Center to incorporate the Arena and add sellable floor space.   Total price tag = $135 million which is $15 mil less than the new budget number.    You’d end up with 3 first class facilities, with two sets of naming rights to sell, that would suit the City’s needs for the next 50 years. The projects could be staggered in a way that you are using one while you are constructing the others so you would minimize lost Event revenue.   Plus, this is the only plan that would draw in another 400 or so new hotel rooms which will help solve that problem at the same time. 

 

Again, the best plan is the one that will offer the best payback on the investment.   All the others floating around right now will short change us for a generation. 

 

 

 

Sioux Falls

Why would Sioux Falls promote and host a National tournament if they didn’t have the space

l3wis 21Comments

hotel_furniture_set

Need one of these while visiting Sioux Falls? Good luck.

It’s not like a couple hundred people had to stay out of town during the recent soccer tournament;

Last week’s youth soccer tourney was a gold mine for Sioux Falls, but the city also lost a sizable chunk of business because it ran out of motel rooms.

 

The U.S. Youth Soccer Midwest Regional Championship brought 12,000 players, coaches, parents and out-of-town fans to Yankton Trail Park. Most visitors stayed overnight in Sioux Falls, but about 40 percent – or 4,800 – commuted from as far away as Sioux City, Iowa, for the weeklong tournament.

This will just blow-up in our face. Why would we promote a tournament that we knew had this many people coming if we didn’t have the rooms for them? I noticed the Sioux Falls Soccer Association is not commenting either, gee, I wonder why? I’m curious why they didn’t at least try to have host families so people could stay in Sioux Falls, I guess that would have made sense and proved we are hospitable people in Sioux Falls. Maybe we are not?

Schmidt said the situation didn’t surprise her and has occurred in previous soccer tournaments. She doesn’t begrudge other cities cashing in on the overflow, though it’s her mission to fill local rooms.

If you knew there wasn’t enough room – why promote it? We have this attitude we want to be this big badass city, but at the end of the day we are still a small town on the interstate. City leaders need to come to a realization that we are not going to become Minneapolis overnight. Slow, wise growth is a better approach.

“We know most of them still ate here and filled up their cars with gas here and did outside entertainment here,” she said. “We know we still captured most of the economic impact. But we know realistically, if you get a team up in the morning, they’re not going to wait to eat until they get to Sioux Falls.”

How do you know that Terri? Give us proof. Several restaurants said they had no increase in business. No wonder, people were eating in Sioux City.

John Kaatz, vice president of Conventions, Sports & Leisure in Minneapolis, said earlier in June that too few hotel rooms could hinder efforts to lure more business to Sioux Falls.

Schmidt said the soccer tournament is a different matter.

 

“No, this does not prove his point,” she said of Kaatz. “This is a sporting event that is outside at facilities other than an arena or convention center-type of building.”

Yes, Terri, because denial will solve problems everytime, won’t it?

The $10 million from the soccer tourney represents 4 percent of a year’s work. The city had $249 million in business from visitors in 2008, in restaurant, lodging, car rentals, retail and other income. Most of that form of income is from smaller events. A three-day convention of 500 people brings in about $285,000, Schmidt said.

That is why we must continue to promote smaller events. Not piss off 4,000 visitors so they go home and tell everyone how bad Sioux Falls sucks. Hopefully we learned something from this, but I doubt it.

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