South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

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A Great Artist has left us

l3wis 1Comments

Dave Scarbrough passed away September 30. I haven’t seen Dave in several years, but back in the Pomp Room days he was a fixture in almost every band in Sioux Falls. Either helping to write songs, providing vocals or even music production. Dave recorded and produced the music for my movie The Color of Sound. I have the entire session on CD and I told Dave once it was one of the best live recordings I have ever heard locally. Dave was inducted in the SD R & R Hall of Fame last year. Dave was an extremely talented singer, songwriter, guitarist and always the one to help out. He will be missed by us old fart artists and Phil’s Pub junkies. The one thing I remember about Dave was how fun it was to BS him and tell him outrageous stories, he would always believe you. Miss you man! Rest in Peace!

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

Finally, someone in the local media is digging around on TIFs

l3wis 4Comments

It took the property tax discussion to get this out in the open, TIFS ARE NOT GOOD, ESPECIALLY IF USED ONLY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT;

“That told me they were not providing the oversight on these TIFs, that they were just rubber stamping them,” Sibson said.

Well, Sibby, that is what communities across the state do. They are sold a shiny ball and they approve it.

“If they’re not done correctly, they end up being simply subsidies for certain private entities. That’s my overall concern,” Sibson said.

And that is ALL they are these days. Developer Welfare. Parking ramps and condos? How does this benefit the general public? I think if reverted back to Industrial and Affordable Housing which combined only make up 8% of TIFs across the country, you would see more value in them. I think that is what the State Legislature plans to do, or at least make an attempt at changing the law. Good Luck! Sioux Falls and Rapid City and all other larger communities in SD will fight you tooth and nail on this one.

1st Amendment Mitchell Sioux Falls Taxes

Is Mitchell trying to steal sales tax revenue from Sioux Falls?

l3wis 2Comments

I found this story intriguing, and I didn’t even know you could hire a consultant to do this kind of work;

Alabama-based Retail Strategies community partnerships associate Banks Perry will present to the council on a data-driven approach to attract retailers and developers to Mitchell. 

According to Hanson, the Retail Strategies process involves tracking when people from Mitchell and the surrounding areas go and buy something in Sioux Falls at a certain store, and based on that, Retail Strategies calls that store to recruit that store or a competitor store to come to Mitchell.

Good for Mitchell! Not so good for Sux 🙁 Maybe we should hire a consultant to find out what kind of retailers we want to steal from Mitchell – LMFAO!

Can we attract an all nude strip club? How about a gymnasium covered in corn? And who doesn’t miss Happy Chef?

I kind of feel bad for the Mayor of Mitchell on this one, it is actually a GREAT idea, and pretty cheap for consultant fees, so I don’t understand why he is getting so much grief.

Michelle Erpenbach Sioux Falls THRIVE Report

Maybe Thrive failed due to Executive Compensation?

l3wis 7Comments

So while Thrive did help a lot of people and worked on some great studies, after looking over tax docs, (Listed below the 2024 info is info for other tax years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017. Although not specifically identified as paid to Erpenbach, it looks like 2020 was the first year in which executive compensation was paid.) it makes you wonder if the Executive Director, Michelle Erpenbach, was more concerned about compensation over results.

Over 50% of revenue going towards salaries in 2024 with Erpenbach getting 16% of that revenue. How can an organization function when over 50% of revenue doesn’t go towards programming? Well, as we found out, it can’t.

Michelle learned from the best on how to draw a nice salary working for a non-profit without producing results.

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