We want Joe Six Pack on the Event Center Task Force . . . . Yeah Right.

Well, well, well, King Dave is at again; painting himself as a progressive so he can get his new playground built.

First lets clear something up. Dave Munson is Neoconservative, always has been. Look at his voting record in the South Dakota legislature. He is pro-development and big business, and anti-infrastructure improvements. Don’t believe me? How many of your average Joe neighbors can host a fund-raising dinner at Minerva’s and raise $25,000 in one night? Do your friends have that kind of money? My friends usually only bring a 12-Pack of Hamms and bottle of Phillips to my BBQ’s. Since when have you been able to have a private meeting with the mayor and walk away with a $400,000 interest free loan (our tax dollars) to a wealthy insurance man to build an office building on the river? And since when has the mayor offered to build a $3 million dollar street in your neighborhood so two of the wealthiest developers in Sioux Falls could build a luxury hotel? Progressives usually embrace progress economically and in the best interest of the taxpayers – ALL of the taxpayers.

Make no mistake, Munson is NOT a progressive.

A progressive politician in my mind has the best interest of the public when moving a city forward, not just the elite. And does it while being thrifty with our money and putting NEEDED infrastructure upgrades first.

And now he wants to form a new Event Center task force (progressive of course).

My take on this new development from the mayor’s office;

Boondoggle:
1. a project funded by the federal government out of political favoritism that is of no real value to the community or the nation. 
2. to deceive or attempt to deceive

Hoodwink:
1. to deceive or trick. 
2. Archaic. to blindfold. 
3. Obsolete. to cover or hide. 
4. dupe, cheat, swindle, gyp.

http://www.siouxfalls.org/Mayor/task_force.aspx

King Dave says this task force will be different, because it will consist of people of all walks of life in Sioux Falls. He says he will not hand pick them this time like he did the first go around the Event Center. So why do we have to fill out an application and send it to his office? Kind of sounds like you are picking them again? Shouldn’t the council get to pick the task force this time? Can’t we just show up to the first meeting and ask to sit on it. Not sure how this is different Dave? Maybe because it isn’t. And a word of warning to those filling out the application, good luck. I filled out an application (twice) to be on the Visual Arts Commission a few years back, and my first application (mysteriously) disappeared the first time. I have never once been interviewed by the mayor or VAC to be on the board, even though they had two empty seats for over a year and when I pointed it out, a buddy of the mayor quickly got appointed (she won’t respond to my emails either).

Dave must think we really are suckers. And maybe we are. If you really believe he will let the Scott Ehrisman’s of the world sit on this task force, you are crazy. This guy likes to have a firm grip on what happens in Sioux Falls and he answers to no one. How else do you think a plaque with his likeness on it showed up out of nowhere to the entrance of Falls Park and only two councilors had the gonads to vote to take it down?

I’m not against the Events Center, I just don’t think a real need for the place isn’t for about another 10 years. I also think the place should be 90% privately funded and subsidized each year with either a corporation entertainment tax or an advertising tax (That’s right, advertising isn’t taxed in SD, ask the Gargoyle Leader what they think of that idea). I just think that if this Event Center is going to be such a great economic boon for Sioux Falls, as they are trying to sell it to us, then those who are benefitting from that boon, corporations and their advertisers, should pay for it. Sounds like a fair and progressive idea to me.

This is what happens when a pro-big business neo-con dresses himself up as a progressive, we all get bent over the rail. Hey Dave, take off the sheep clothing.