October 2008

Citizens for Reponsible Sales Tax SF City Council Sioux Falls Taxes

A Sales Tax DECREASE will actually help local growth

l3wis October 31, 2008 0Comments

Do you think city hall knows how to spend your hard earned money better then you? When the mayor and half of the council raised your sales tax, that’s exactly what they told you. They believe in the â€˜trickle down economics’ model of taxation; increase taxes and give that additional revenue to special interests such as developers and contractors in hopes that money will â€˜trickle back’ down to those original taxpayers in the form of jobs and growth.

It’s a backwards way of spending YOUR money to improve this community. There is a better way to move us forward; let taxpayers spend that money individually instead of handing it over to city bureaucrats and special interests.

They disguised this regressive tax increase as being progressive because they claim it will help our city grow. Hogwash.

Â I’m all for new and maintained roads â€“ I’m just against how they want to pay for them. New roads can be paid for through developer fees, which I fully support and roads can be maintained through the sales tax we already pay. Councilor Costello put it best in an Argus Leader article â€œIt’s a shell game.â€ There is nothing stopping our mayor and the city council from spending those increased taxes on anything they want to. They sold it to us by saying we needed the new roads yet the CIP budget (which is also funded with sales tax) is packed full of unneeded projects that only benefit a few in our community not the greater good. We can cut the CIP easily and make up for this sales tax decrease. It will mandate the mayor and city council to spend within their means for at least one year (2010) and you also have to remember we may have up to four new councilors and a new mayor in 2010, lets break them in right by showing them they need to have some fiscal restraint.

Want REAL growth in our community? Stop overtaxing our citizens on necessities like food and utilities and let them spend that money on goods and services that helps ALL local businesses grow not just a select few lucky enough to get a handout from the city.

Local business drives our economy in the form of good jobs which promotes growth. Would Sioux Falls grow stronger if ALL local business were getting a piece of the pie and not just the special interests?

Scott L. Ehrisman

Co-Chair, Citizens for a Responsible Sales Tax

Theresa Stehly and I will be on the local radio talk show hosted by Jon Micheals, FORUM on all the Backyard Broadcasting stations Sunday Morning talking about the petition drive for the initiative to reduce sales taxes.

KELO AM and FM at 7 AM and all the other stations at 8 AM. I believe the interview lasted about 40 minutes.

Thune earns his keep….

Angry Guy October 31, 2008 0Comments

Your tax dollars are hard at work in Washington.
He should see about bringing back The Tick reruns while he’s at it

Illustration, Ben Edlund

abortion Measure 11

Impatient Anti-choicer wants to be heard

l3wis October 31, 2008 8Comments

I moderate my comments on here and on KELO, so they go to my email first before I release them, but apparently that wasn’t fast enough for this guy, so he emailed to me.

Care to post the comment I submitted earlier today in rebuttal to your im11 cartoon or will that throw your left-wing agenda too far off course?

Another same old, same old argument from the anti-choice side:

The only thing wrong with Initiated Measure 11 is that is devalues the life of a child conceived of rape or incest.Â By including exceptions in the initiated measure for rape and incest, it conveys the idea that a child has to be born of perfect health and perfect circumstance to be deemed worthy of life.

What most pro-choice supporters still don’t understand about most pro-life supporters is that we are not trying to make life difficult for the mother by denying her easy and open access to an abortion; rather, we are trying to preserve the right of the unborn child to have life.

If a mother does not want to keep a child born of rape or incest, there are plenty of organizations willing to help her (both financially and emotionally) to bring the child to full term and delivery so that the child can be adopted by someone who will appreciate the child regardless of the way in which it was conceived.

Rape and incest are horrible acts inflicted upon a mother.Â The offenders, if identified, should be the locked up for life and made to pay for their offense.Â The innocent unborn child however, should not be recipient of the punishment.Â The child is innocent of the crime.

The mother is innocent of the crime as well.Â She didn’t ask to be raped or victimized.Â However, when she chooses to have an abortion rather than to carry her child to a full-term delivery, she falls into the cycle of abuse.Â There is no healing from abuse.

If you look at a 2-year-old on the street, could you readily identify that child as being born of rape or incest if that was the case?Â Would the child have a scarlet ‘R’ or ‘I’ emblazened on his or her forehead?Â Of course not.Â The child, in a nurturing environment, would be like any other 2-year-old.Â Would anyone warrant the killing of that child once he or she was identified as a rape or incest kid?Â Of course not.Â Because, at 2-years-old, we can see that the child is a living breathing child with potential.Â Back up two years to the birth of the same child.Â He or she is lying in mom’s arms just after coming into the ‘outside’ world for the first time.Â Eyes are open, purple skin is taking on color, there might even be a smile looking back at the strange yet familiar lady holding him or her.Â Does that child have a scarlet ‘R’ or ‘I’ emblazened on his or her forehead?Â Would anyone warrant the killing of that newborn child once he or she was identified as a rape or incest kid?Â Of course not.

Back up four months previous to the birth of the same child.Â He or she is lying in mom’s womb just waiting to arrive into this world.Â He or she has no knowledge of having been conceived or rape or incest.Â He or she has a beating heart just like a child conceived by a ‘normal’ married couple.Â He or she has a brain just like that of a child conceived by ‘normal’ means.Â The child is a whole living being complete with arms, legs, toes and fingers.Â The child can distinguish mom’s voice from another and is near or at the point of viability if it were to arrive into the world a bit earlier than planned.

What’s the main difference between the child at 5 months old on the inside of mom’s womb vs the child just born into the world and lying in mom’s arms or in the arms of a loving adoptive parent…?

…one is going to have a chance at life while the other is about to have his or her body parts pulled out one by one by an abortion doctor who’s going to be $700 richer in about 15 minutes…

Scott M.

Lawrence and Schiller Measure 10 Media

Why the rich get richer; campaign contributions

l3wis October 31, 2008 1Comments

I’ve known about this story for awhile, (I did the above toon in July) actually I was told about it this summer, and to tell you the truth, no surprise.

South Dakota’s tourism department awarded about $25 million in no-bid contracts to Sioux Falls advertising agency Lawrence and Schiller in recent years, while members of the firm were contributing to state politicians and a former state Office of Tourism director became employed there. But officials with the state and Lawrence and Schiller scoffed at the idea that the firm’s political contributions are related to the awarding of contracts.

They scoffed! At who? The taxpayer’s making their wallets fat?

“We’ve had great success with them,” he said, noting that visitor sales have been going up each year and are expected to top $1 billion.

Benda said the no-bid contracts ensure a consistent branding and marketing strategy to promote South Dakota to potential tourists. Allowing other agencies to bid each year could cause upheaval in that strategy, he said.Â

And how do you know you wouldn’t have the same amount of success with another agency that was cheaper if you don’t put it out for bid. L & S is one of the most expensive agencies in the state, but they don’t win all the advertising awards.

Officials with Lawrence and Schiller donated more than $16,500 to political candidates from 2002 to 2006, records show. Most of that money went to Gov. Mike Rounds, and Breard notes that many donations weren’t made until after Lawrence and Schiller started working for tourism in 2003.

Mike Rounds is involved with this somehow?! GET OUT! He is one of our cleanest and most honest governor’s in state history . . . ahem.

You may or may not know I’ve locked horns with one of Lawrence & Schiller’s founders, Paul Schiller in the past. He has been up to this kind of crapÂ for a very long time. While sitting on the board of the Washington Pavilion, L & S did work for the Pavilion (some donated, some not). Yes, a pretty obvious conflict of interest. In fact, Paul used to participate in art exhibits at the Pavilion while sitting on the board. Finally this year (with little fanfare) the Pavilion changed their policies when it comes to conflict of interest. Though I haven’t read the full language, it is pretty simple, you can’t participate in exhibits or provided services to the Pavilion while sitting on the board. Seems logical.

And as for Billie Jo, she has gotten everything in life by being politically connected. How do go from being out of college, to being Minnehaha Treasurer, to being head of SD Tourism to having the state’s leading ad agency create a position for you? Think about it.

Maybe the chickens are finally coming home to roost.

Vacation