TIFs

1st Amendment Developers Development Elections Planning Commission Rapid City TIFs

Libertyland TIF gets Slaughtered

l3wis January 21, 2026 3Comments

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 🙁

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls Elections Sioux Falls TIFs

One Great City!

l3wis January 3, 2026 9Comments

I LOVE this song;

I just replace ‘Winnipeg’ with ‘Sioux Falls’ and it makes soooo much sense. The last line in the song nails it;

And up above us all, leaning into sky
A golden business boy will watch the North End die
And sing I love this town
Then let his arcing wrecking ball proclaim

I hate Winnipeg (Sioux Falls)

So a foot soldier who actually reads regional news sent me this article about TIFs. Talking points are always the same and I encourage you to read the entire piece;

Politically, TIF is seductive. It allows elected officials to claim they are “doing something” about development without raising taxes today. The costs are deferred, opaque and spread across future taxpayers. But the long-term consequences are real: higher property taxes, underfunded schools, distorted development patterns and growing dependence on subsidies for projects that should stand on their own.

Pretty common sense stuff. Right? And the folks who wrote this article are not a couple of jokesters;

Julie Risser is an Edina City Council member. She previously served on Edina’s Planning Commission and Energy and Environment Commission. David Schultz is Hamline University Distinguished Professor of Political Science. Previously he served as a city director of planning, zoning and code enforcement and also as a housing and economic planner.

I have read hundreds of articles over the past decade about the destructive nature of TIF’s and have never understood why local governments get sucked in, besides the fact they are getting their personal palms greased, but I have never heard the word ‘SEDUCTIVE’ used. It makes SOOO much sense now. Not only are our national politics ruled by money and power (The taxpayers of this country just paid for a military operation to take the oil resources of an independent nation, wrap your F’ing head around that!!!) but now our local politics are now too. I think the upcoming city election is an opportunity for citizens to stand up this money machine and elect folks who won’t tolerate it any more. Don’t be ‘seduced’ by snake oil salespeople.

MY HOPES FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION (Mayoral)

Somebody asked me last night what would be my ideal outcome of the next city election, and I gave a longer answer then I expected;

Greg Jamison as mayor, Christine Erickson as Public Information Officer, Joe Batcheller as his Planning Director and Jamie Smith as his Housing and Community Development director AND I would hire a trained monkey to be the city attorney. Notice I said ‘trained’.

1st Amendment Property Taxes South Dakotans Taxes TIFs

Libertyland TIF should go to a vote of the entire state!

l3wis November 29, 2025 4Comments

While the petitioners did the right thing by putting this to a vote of the people of the affected area, the TIF should really be voted on by the entire state. Why?

So this is how TIFs work in SD; The developer’s property is valued at a new higher rate once the project is completed, this rate is used to fund city, school and county government, except that new valued tax revenue goes back to the developer for improvements (in other words he gets a tax refund to build his personal project). So while these values are up, the money isn’t coming in so the county and school district must make that revenue up by taking it from the state which is funded by sales taxes paid for by the entire public body of the state. So while there may be a TIF in Pennington County, Minnehaha County residents are funding this TIF thru sales taxes to make up for the lack of school and county funding. TIFs are not only BAD for the effected communities but they hurt every resident in this state! Some would argue we pay these taxes anyway, and you are correct, but instead of bailing out school districts and counties we could use the revenue to improve state infrastructure. What a f’ing concept!!!!!!

1st Amendment Elections Rapid City TIFs

TIFs get first major electoral challenge in Rapid City

l3wis November 19, 2025 5Comments

I have been watching this with intrigue.

This is the first time a TIF has been put up to a vote EVER in the state. I think any TIF over $10 Million should get voter approval, it should also get county approval. I find the coalition of right/left leaning folks who gathered the 5K sigs in 20 days remarkable. If they can get that many sigs in RC in 20 days, that tells me the voters will kill this by a large margin. The astonishing thing is EVEN if the $125 million dollar TIF is eliminated by the voters, this f’ing amusement park will still receive over $60 million in other tax incentives, yet the state couldn’t figure out SNAP or TANF. TIFs have gotten ridiculous, but they have always been. Where were these lawmakers 10 or 20 years ago? The research was out there that they don’t work, yet you let taxpayers get rolled for decades while bailing out developer welfare queens. I guess I am happy there is FINALLY opposition to TIFs statewide, but what took yah so damn long!!!!!!?????

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls SF City Council Sioux Falls TIFs

One 2 . . . Three and Four and the disappearing TIF act

l3wis November 5, 2025 3Comments

Photo; Sioux Falls Business Journal

Last night during the discussion on selling the parking lot downtown, something interesting came up. Councilors were concerned that someone wanted to buy the parking lot just to convert into a private parking lot and wanted to make sure there was enough parking if housing was built there and compared it to the One 2 building next to Ace Hardware downtown (the city sold the lot for a song). In the discussion it was revealed that instead of retail on the main floor of the building it is actually now 2 levels of parking (basement, 1st floor) and in making this decision they decided to add 2 floors of apartments to the building. Now, no big deal, development plans change, but it never got re-approved by the council. Which tells me an un-elected city employee made the decision and was likely backed up by the mayor’s office.

TIFs MAY BE A THING OF THE PAST IF THE SD STATE LEGISLATURE HAS THEIR WAY

During the working session yesterday the council discussed the legislative proposals for the 2026 session and their desire to change TIF applications;

• 50% of property needs to be blighted

• TIF must also get County approval (I would also suggest school board approval since they are the most impacted – remember COSTCO refused a TIF because of school funding)

• No grants can be approved with TIF

• Any TIF over $10 million must be approved by voters in a special election

I think these are all a good start, but I would suggest one quick fix; eliminate all TIFs except for community infrastructure like water and sewer services or fire stations.

TIFs have almost NO ROI unless used to fix a community problem like blight and infrastructure needs.

At the end of the discussion Rich Merkouris asked the city attorney ‘How many TIFs in Sioux Falls were granted for just blighted areas?’ Of course, Fiddle gave his normal answer, ‘I will get back to you.’ I might dig around on it this week and see for myself. If I had to guess we have probably only put out 20% of TIFs for blighted areas.

Libertyland TIF gets Slaughtered

One Great City!

Libertyland TIF should go to a vote of the entire state!

TIFs get first major electoral challenge in Rapid City

One 2 . . . Three and Four and the disappearing TIF act

You Missed

Accept the Invitation

Transparency Changes with the Sioux Falls City Council

A name is important, especially in an Emergency

Jim Crow in Turner County