February 2009

We’re in the money!

Munson could not be more excited, Christmas is coming early this year;

Now that the economic stimulus bill is signed, city leaders in KELOLAND are wondering how much will come their way for local projects.  We spoke with Sioux Falls Mayor Dave Munson about where the city could use the financial boost the most. 

And to make it look like I really care I will only mention NEEDED infrastructure projects.

Munson says the levee improvement program tops his list.  The new flood plain affects about 1600 properties, which is why the levees need to be raised in Sioux Falls. 

To have the flood insurance that they’re going to have to pay for those properties to up to the level it is, that’s not acceptable,” Munson said. 

But charging extra retail taxes on groceries to old ladies on fixed incomes is perfectly acceptable.

Next on the list is Highway 100. The city needs about $100 million to finish the 17-mile project.  It connects Interstate 90 to I-29 at the Tea exit and is expected to encourage further development on the east side. 

Hey, Dave, might wanna mention that 90% of that project is a state and county project, not a city project, not sure if Jodi forgot to send you the memo.

“We’re so fortunate, in Sioux Falls, we’re growing in every quadrant of the city, we really need to have the stimulus package proposals out there to really help,” Munson said.

While we are $100 million behind on current infrastructure and maintenance! Woo-Hoo! Because instead of spending the 2nd penny on roads and such we blew it on ‘Fun’ projects.

HB 1188; Another legislative assault on citizen’s right to petition their government

Pretty soon this is how we will petition local government

 

HB 1188: FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to require that five percent of the qualified electors in one-half of the counties sign initiative and referendum petitions.
Presented by:    Representative Noel Hamiel (Aurora & Davison counties)
Proponents:    Yvonne Taylor, SD Municipal League (If citizens keep trying to protect their land and homes, how will cities ever grow?)
        Thomas Barnett Jr.,SD State Bar 
        Al Kurtenbach, SDSU Growth Partners 
(Whose growth?  Probably not those troublemaker citizens who want to stop oil processing plants and such.)
        Steve Willard, SD Broadcasters Association
        Bob Wilcox, SD Association of County Commissioners 
(Remember how county commissioners have foolishly called confined animal feeding operations, coal power plants, and    

                                oil refineries “economic development?”)
        Michael Held, SD Farm Bureau (‘Nuff said.)

  The bill passed the House:

        Yeas 39, Nays 27, Excused 4, Absent 0
     Yeas: Bolin; Boomgarden; Brunner; Carson; Cronin; Deadrick; Dreyer; Faehn; Gosch; Greenfield; Hamiel; Hoffman; Hunt; Jensen; Juhnke; Kirkeby; Kopp; Lederman; Lust; McLaughlin; Moser; Noem; Novstrup (David); Olson (Betty); Olson (Ryan); Peters; Pitts; Rausch; Romkema; Schlekeway; Sly; Solum; Steele; Turbiville; Van Gerpen; Vanneman; Verchio; Wink; Speaker Rave
     Nays:  Blake; Burg; Curd; Cutler; Elliott; Engels; Fargen; Feickert; Feinstein; Frerichs; Gibson; Hunhoff (Bernie); Kirschman; Lange; Lucas; Nygaard; Putnam; Rounds; Russell; Schrempp; Solberg; Sorenson; Street; Thompson; Tidemann; Vanderlinde; Wismer
     Excused: Dennert; Iron Cloud III; Killer; Krebs

Stimulate your moped thru opening a casino

Krebs wants moped riders to pay up.

This isn’t gonna sit well with Republicans, stimulus money for things we actually need  done in SD instead of tourism contracts and airplane fleets;

  • $183 million in highway funding that also could include rail infrastructure activities.  

     

  • $103.7 million to school districts and public colleges and universities for, among other things, job training in new and expanding fields, and meeting key education performance measures.  
  • And $39.2 million for clean water and drinking water infrastructure needs.
  • An openness bill – Yeah! Sponsored by Knudson – nevermind, this one is going nowhere;

    Sen. Dave Knudson, R-Sioux Falls, will get a chance to explain his presumption of openness measure when the Senate State Affairs Committee holds a public hearing on SB147 on Wednesday morning in the Capitol.

    Shantel now wants to charge people for being energy efficient and thrifty. What’s next Krebs? A bicycle wheel tax?

    Rep. Shantel Krebs, R-Sioux Falls, the primary sponsor of the bill, points to safety as a major concern prompting the legislation.

    How is giving the state $15 to register my moped going to make me safer? More like lining the pockets of insurance companies. Dumb.

    Some letter writers are not to happy about Heidepreim and Abdallah’s casino legislation;

    The minority leader in the South Dakota state Senate, Scott Heidepriem, introduced a bill that he says will deter Lyon County, Iowa, from building a resort/casino. In the meantime, Lyon County towns are losing Main Street businesses because they can’t compete with the malls in Sioux Falls. Now with a chance to add 400 jobs, some third-rate politician from South Dakota wants to try to stop it.

    Here’s some more

    And in our last segment of legislative stupidity and dirty rotten lobbying, the Chamber of Commerce comes out against unions – Holy mackeral! That’s surprising!

    It is true that unions played a pivotal role in addressing abuses of the industrial age more than 100 years ago. But their rigid approach to work and their tendencies to overload businesses with rules and procedures that hurt a business’ ability to compete against global competition are not supported by many young workers.

    Yes, David, because worker protections are soooooooooo overated, kind of like your organization. No surprise, this same group endorsed a retail tax increase in our city and the US Chamber of Commerce is the largest lobbyist in the country.